Tournament city's 'best in years'

GLOVES ON: Rotorua's Bradley Jenkins (pictured) is among the Kiwi fighters taking on an Australian team in Rotorua this weekend. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Rotorua will host one of its best boxing tournaments in "many, many years" this weekend, according to organiser Rex Jenkins.

A travelling Western Australian boxing team of 18 fighters will compete against a team of top Kiwi fighters at Selwyn Primary School tomorrow.

The Kiwi team has been picked from the North Island Golden Gloves event in Taupo in June, with the best fighters from that event being invited into the team.

Jenkins said there would be some great boxing on display tomorrow.

He said the event came about when he heard about a coach from Western Australia wanting to bring a team to New Zealand.

"Originally the Aussies wanted to come to the Golden Gloves [in Taupo], but Boxing New Zealand did not allow it because they wanted it to be a ranking tournament," he said.

"So I approached the Western Australian guy and said, 'well how about coming later in the year and I will match the Golden Gloves champions with your guys?'. He jumped at it straight away and said we will be there."

Jenkins said there had been a few hiccups getting the event organised but, in the end, it had been scheduled for this weekend. He said most of the Aussie team were fighting in Taupo today and would travel to Rotorua for the big event tomorrow.

All 18 fighters from Western Australia have been matched up against Kiwi opponents for the event, with two Rotorua fighters taking part including Tyson Sykes and Bradley Jenkins.

"There should be some dang good fights. In my honest opinion this should be one of the best tournaments we have seen in Rotorua in many, many years," Jenkins said.

The youngest fighter is about 14 but most fights will be in the elite class, meaning they will feature adults. The lightest weight class is 60kg and goes up to 81kg.

On top of the 18 transtasman bouts there are four fights on the card just between Kiwis.

The contests will be a mix of male and female fights.