Gloves on for taste of reality

Rotorua actor Temuera Morrison will be getting into the boxing ring next month which will be filmed as part of his new reality television show. Photo / File

Rotorua's Temuera Morrison will be donning the boxing gloves and getting into the ring as part of a self-reinvention.

The former Hollywood actor is taking part in a celebrity boxing bout next month and will go head-to-head with radio DJ Mike Puru at Trusts Arena in Auckland. The pair are on the undercard of the Hydr8 ZERO fight between Joseph Parker and Afa Tatupu.

Also fighting is Rotorua-born singer and radio host K'Lee McNabb who will take on a former Shortland Street actor with Rotorua roots, Miriama Smith.

Morrison said this week that getting in the ring will be a new challenge.

"I haven't boxed since my school days at Wesley College."

But Duco promoter Dean Lonergan said the actor was a "fit bugger" who trained five times a week.

The 52-year-old's bout will be filmed for an episode of his reality show, The Life and Times of Temuera Morrison.

"We've nearly finished making the show, we're at the end of it. We've got one more episode to shoot," he said.

"Cameras have been following me around the world looking at what it's like to be a New Zealand actor. I'm just talking with producers about how we film the boxing. It'll be good."

Morrison's television series is expected to go to air in October. It is being produced by Black Inc Media, the makers of the Australian-Maori reality series The GC. It is reported to have received nearly $425,000 in public funding from Rautaki Maori.

Morrison said reality TV was cheaper and easier to produce, and quick to get to air.

"I want to reinvent myself and reality television is the way to go for me," he said.

Morrison is best known for his role of Jake the Muss from the 1994 move Once were Warriors.

He has also starred in blockbusters such as the Star Wars series, Green Lantern and more recently NZ film Mt Zion.