Mountain Scene - Real Boxing a Knockout Success

Boxing has been on an upswing in New Zealand lately and over the weekend Queenstown  pulled off a major coup in successfully hosting the Nationals for the first time.  Boxing one of our oldest and most primal sports was on a high In the 90’s and early 2000’s  when we were lucky to have David Tua knocking people out on the world stage but things drifted from there. 

Enter corporate (charity/celebrity) boxing which thrust boxing back into the mainstream.  Brave or possibly foolish people you knew or recognised from the sports field or TV were given a few weeks training before rumbling around with each other offering what could be described a varied myriad of entertainment with belts ranging from riveting ring wars to embarrassments.

Charity’s and the odd event promoter have done well from such events.  Built on the on the back of slick entertainment,  corporate tables, glamorous attire and the odd side show such as SBW, money has flowed back into this area of  the sport. Locally we had the Thriller in the Chiller which gave boxing increased profile locally and kick started the career of Richie Hadlow one of our newly crowned National Champions.  It was a good night out and the auction’s sent a few bob the way of worthy local charity’s. 

Step up Stewart Mitchell the event organiser for the above mentioned New Zealand Boxing Nationals which were contested at the Events Centre from Wednesday to Saturday last week. For those who don’t know Stewart he’s a Pom, who immigrated to Queenstown a few years back and owns the local franchise of New Zealand Loan Market. Stewart is also a good keen boxing man and by all accounts a top coach.

Stewart a boxing purist  thought we were selling ourselves short limiting out boxing fascination to corporate boxing. He wanted to raise the profile of Amateur boxing the grass roots of the sport and has spent the last 3 years building towards the weekends event, he assures us is just the beginning. 

Amateur boxing is the heart of the sport in New Zealand, it’s the stepping stone for a career in professional boxing for but for most it’s a sporting career in its own right, one that can lead you to the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. The boxers/athletes train hard year round and are at the peak of their physical powers making for some skilled and explosive action. 

It was real boxing and it was riveting high impact entertainment with plenty of gallant performances and heart warming tales of success and adversity not to mention two new local National Champions Richie Hadlow and Callum Owen. Attended by David Tua and Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist David Nykia it was one of the best sporting events I've ever been to in Queenstown. 

Congratulations to Stewart for organising what can genuinely be called a charity boxing event based around talented athletes, generous local business’s and hard grafting volunteers.