Sheilla Yama defeated Nailini Helu on Thursday. Photo / CSN.Watch
Sheilla Yama of Hamilton has become the first to TKO experienced boxer Nailini Helu.
Yama v Helu was the main event at BX-9 last Thursday at Auckland’s Eventfinda Stadium.
Helu has been in professional boxing for 10 years and in that time has never lost a fight by stoppage.
She has won the South Pacific Super Middleweight title twice, was ranked in the IBF top six and has a record of four wins, six losses and one draw.
Helu, who made her pro debut in 2016, has previously fought against world champions Geovana Peres, Desley Robinson and Lani Daniels. Even though Helu lost against them, none of her opponents won by TKO.
The first two rounds of Thursday night’s fight were a process of feeling each other out.
A lot of the time, when either of them threw a punch, they missed - between them, only a total of six punches landed in rounds one and two.
By round three, the fight heated up, but Yama was in control.
In the fourth round, Yama landed a massive bomb, followed by 15 heavy overhand right punches until Helu was fully rocked, and the referee stopped the fight.
Yama said she was pleased with how the fight went.
“I think the fight went surprisingly well against Lini [Nailini Helu], who is a well-known boxer. Nobody saw that stoppage coming.”
It had been a long-awaited fight for Helu and Yama, who had been struggling to find opponents recently.
Helu last fought in 2024 and had to drop a weight class to fight Yama.
Yama, who made her pro debut in 2024 and has an undefeated pro record of six wins, last fought in November against Rishon Harris.
Yama said she felt great post-fight and was already looking ahead.
“[I’m] now back at work for the next showdown.”
Yama’s next fight and opponent have yet to be confirmed.
On the BX-9 undercard, fellow Waikato boxer Emile Richardson showed absolute class and skill in his win against Christchurch’s Jack Dickson.
Dickson was tough: no matter what Richardson threw at him, Dickson did not go down.
Richardson eventually landed a left liver shot, an area Dickson increasingly started to protect in round three.
Richardson smelled blood and knocked down Dickson, who stuck in there until the end of the round.
After round three, Dickson and his coach, Nort Beauchamp, agreed not to continue the fight, meaning Richardson won the fight by corner retirement.
It was Richardson’s first win by stoppage.
Cairo George, the coach of Yama and Richardson, said he was proud of their achievements.
“[I’m] obviously very happy with my two boxers both getting stoppage wins. Sheilla showed her level once again.
“These performances are a double-edged sword for us with a great performance and win, then the difficult task of trying to get girls to get into the ring with her.”
Also on the Bx-9 card was Nikolas Charalampous, who impressed against a top 100-ranked boxer, Australian champion Lochlan Duncombe.
It was a close fight and dirty between both boxers.
There were a few rounds that could have gone either way - before the MC announced the winner, no one in the room knew who was going to win.
In the end, the judges unanimously saw Charalampous as the winner.
At the end of the night, BX-9 promoter Oz Jabur unofficially announced Charalampous would take on WBA Oceania Cruiserweight champion John Parker, Joseph Parker’s brother, next.
At a press conference ahead of the event, Charalampous challenged Andrei Mikhailovich to a fight.
Jabur said if Charalampous went down to 79kg again, he would make the fight against Mikhailovich happen.
Sheilla Yama defeated Nailini Helu by fourth-round TKO
Andrei Mikhailovich defeated Jordan Towns by first-round KO
Nikolas Charalampous defeated Lochlan Duncombe by unanimous decision
Jordan Collins defeated Mathew Matich by unanimous decision
Emile Richardson defeated Jack Dickson by corner retirement between rounds three and four
Josh Tonga defeated Oliver Parker by first round TKO
Feargus Gordon defeated Raam Didumo by unanimous decision
Lolo Heimuli jnr defeated Alfie Horton by unanimous decision
Benjamin Watt is a retired boxing judge and New Zealand boxing writer with a decade of experience. Watt has also been BoxRec’s New Zealand record-keeper since 2014.