Commonwealth Games: Sparring with boys gives female fighter a chance to make history

Magan Maka finds it hard to get a fight in New Zealand. Photo / Greg Bowker

A lifetime of boxing with the boys will see Magan Maka well-placed to target a slice of history this month in Glasgow.

Women's boxing has been added to the Commonwealth Games programme for the first time, allowing two New Zealand athletes the opportunity to take home a maiden medal in the event.

Along with Olympian Alexis Pritchard in the 60kg lightweight class, Maka will fly the Kiwi flag in the 75kg middleweight class, an event for which she has prepared in the only way possible.

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Image 1 of 15: Stephanie Foster wins the gold back in 1986. Photo / Getty Images

Maka, based north of Auckland in Wellsford, struggles to find female sparring partners of similar ability and weight at her local gym, meaning she often faces stepping into the ring against men.

"I have to spar the boys at my gym," she said. "It was cool - some would go easy and then others would go a lot harder.

"But it was good last week with the camp in Auckland and getting to train with all the other girls and get some sparring in."

The difficulties Maka faces in finding appropriate sparring partners also extend to actual bouts, leaving her short of competitive experience ahead of this month's Games.

The 20-year-old has been training twice a day in the lead-up to Glasgow but it's at international competitions where she has found the most value, winning gold at this year's Melbourne Expo and silver at Auckland's four nations event.

"In New Zealand it's really hard to get a fight," she said. "But when I go to international tournaments it's really mean because there's heaps of girls my weight and my size, and then I get a fair go."

That is an issue Maka has dealt with since taking up the sport in her youth, originally with the goal of losing weight.

Her first coach saw in Maka the potential to making boxing a career, although she suffered a setback two years ago when she missed out on selection for the London Olympics.

Maka has previously faced two of the fighters she could come up against at the Games but the rest are something of an unknown quantity.

She will lean on the likes of Pritchard for guidance, with the 30-year-old's Olympic experiences standing the small Kiwi women's team in good stead. Maka said the team also contained a number of role models, describing the men of the team as the strongest to go to the Games.

Auckland's Patrick Mailata headlines that group in the super heavyweight division but every fighter, Maka included, will undoubtedly be aiming for the same thing. "I'm training for a gold medal," she said.