Boxing: Waikato fighter Jadene Treadaway loses against Tricia MacKenzie

Tricia MacKenzie (left) has won the New Zealand national lightweight title against Jadene Treadaway.

Tricia MacKenzie, of Opunake, has won the New Zealand national (Pro Box NZ version) lightweight title against Putāruru fighter Jadene Treadaway.

MacKenzie, 37, won by unanimous decision - a significant achievement, considering it was her first title fight and sixth professional fight in her career.

She was outside her home ranges, with the fight in Putāruru, However, MacKenzie is familiar with fighting outside of Taranaki, as four out of her six fights were in her opponents’ territories.

The fight went the full scheduled eight rounds, which could only be described as a war between good foes.

While it was the third professional fight for Treadaway, 20, she has never gone past five rounds, whereas MacKenzie has experience going six rounds.

This showed: Treadaway started off fighting like it was a four-round fight and MacKenzie’s experience seemed to fit her well with the eight-round setting, as she outlasted Treadaway and was more active in the ring.

MacKenzie walked away with the Pro Box NZ New Zealand National Lightweight title, which is the first time for the Pro Box NZ commissioning body to have a female boxer in that weight division.

The last time New Zealand had a Lightweight champion was when Mea Motu won her first New Zealand national title (which was the NZPBA version) in 2021 against MacKenzie’s trainer Tania Reid.

The last male boxer to win the title was Nort Beauchamp when he was awarded the title by NZPBA in 2019 due to a lack of opponents in New Zealand in that weight division.

MacKenzie is now ranked 2nd in New Zealand and 71st in the world on Boxrec, an international boxing recordkeeping website.

MacKenzie is ranked behind fellow Taranaki boxer Waitohu Rapira-Ngarewa, who is ranked 1st in New Zealand and 50th in the world.

Saturday’s New Zealand national (Pro Box NZ version) lightweight title fight was promoted by Treadaway’s trainer, Nigel Elliott of Ace Fighters and Iron Fist Promotions.

Benjamin Watt is a retired boxing judge and New Zealand boxing writer with a decade of experience. Watt has also been BoxRec’s NZ record keeper since 2014.