By Peter Jessup
A toe-to-toe fight that could have taken place in a telephone box and the emergence of a local version of Britain's flashy Prince marked 1999's first big night of pro-boxing in Auckland at the weekend.
Sean Sullivan went punch-for-punch with Allan Gibson in a physically damaging brawl before
the referee stopped the fight at the start of the seventh round.
Gibson suffered a cut above the left eye early on in what looked like a clash of heads. Sullivan worked at it and eventually the bout was called off in his favour.
All three judges had him in front at the time, with scores of 59-56, 60-55 and 58-56.
Maselino Masoe kept his flashy unbeaten record, now 11-0, when he decked Ghanaian-born Australian Emmanuel Otti in the third round, his tenth KO.
The former Australian middleweight champion had never been knocked out before and afterwards credited Masoe with some of the hardest hits he had taken in a long career.
Samoan Rico Chong Nee was the crowd-pleaser, turning on a pro debut that would have pleased the Prince.
He taunted his opponent, Peter Mokomoko, by dropping his fists to his waist, standing up to him and moving his upper body to slip punches, and calling him forward to fight at the beginning of rounds.
When Mokomoko went down in the third he stood over him, gloves waving, urging him to get up.
The 21-year-old Chong Nee, who represented Samoa at the Commonwealth Games, bamboozled Mokomoko with his unusual ability to lead with either hand, and it was a southpaw left that flattened him.
