Fight night targets $20k towards kids

Fighters in the 2011 Christmas with a Punch Corporate Fight Night. The event returns this year. Photo / File

The popular corporate fight night is returning to Rotorua after a two-year break.

Twelve pairs of local would-be boxers, male and female, are currently being put through their paces four times a week at the Rotovegas Boxing Gym ahead of the fight night on December 6 at the Rotorua Girls' High School arena.

Proceeds from the night will go towards gym owner Aaron Warren's free boxing lessons for primary school children.

"Money will go towards helping upgrade facilities, ablution blocks, toilets for the after-school programmes.

"But it will only just help, it won't pay everything. We sink all our money into it," he said.

The last Rotovegas Corporate Fight Night, which was held in 2011, made $25,000 for the club.

Mr Warren spent this on a bus for student transport.

He hopes to raise close to $20,000 this time. Rotovegas Boxing Gym, owned by Mr Warren and his wife Tanya, operates out of a converted garage at their Owhata home.

They have plans for a larger and more central gym which will give some of the city's youth an opportunity to further their careers.

Mr Warren, who won three New Zealand amateur titles in a row in the late 1980s, has been working with kids for about 10 years. "It's not just about boxing; it's about not giving up and self belief. A lot of kids lack self belief, " he said.

"Discipline, determination and dedication are the three Ds, and if you do all three, you will be champion," he said.

Last year 20 of his students competed at the Golden Gloves, a youth boxing competition in Australia, taking home five golds and eight silvers.

Some of the students fundraised to afford the trip, but Mr Warren met the deficit.

To book a table at the fight night call Tanya Warren on (07) 345 3085.

• Rotorua Daily Post reporter and first-time boxer Bridie Witton will be lacing up her gloves to take part. During the next six weeks she'll update us on her training.