The 1980’s and 1990’s saw the emergence of three amateur heavyweight boxers who made it onto the big stage of professional boxing and several equally skilled pugilist's who performed at the highest level in the New Zealand singlet.

Jimmy Peau was trained by Gerry Preston, in his gym in Mangere Bridge, with the South Auckland boxer defeating Esene Faimalo from Canterbury at the 1984 National Championships in Rotorua. Three national heavyweight and one super heavyweight crowns were just part of a record that included 88 wins from 97 contests. He won gold at Tahiti in a six nation’s tournament and a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 1986.

After failing to secure a berth at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Auckland warrior travelled to Australia and turned professional under the tutelage of Jack Rennie. In a long professional career Peau, who fought in the cash ranks as Jimmy Thunder won two minor versions (WBF and IBO) of the World Heavyweight crown and was ranked as high as number five by the WBC. Amongst his notable victories were wins over former World Professional Heavyweight champions in Tony Tubbs, Trevor Berbick and Tim Witherspoon.

Much has been written of the deeds of David Tua in his long professional journey, suffice to say, that many boxing writers rank David as one of the biggest punchers never win a world heavyweight title

David, was one of New Zealand’s best credentialed amateur boxers, before turning to the cash ranks in 1992 at the tender age of 19 years of age. David was another to start his amateur career with Gerry Preston, who was in his corner, when he won his first national heavyweight crown aged just fifteen defeating Karl Meehan at the Auckland Nationals in 1989.

David Tua won New Zealand’s first medal at a World Championship with a bronze in the heavyweight division. After taking care of a Swedish boxer, David drew the legendary Cuban, Felix Savon. Giving away eight inches in height and reach, Tua took the fight to the Cuban, before an overhand right put the Kiwi fighter on the deck, with the referee then stopping the contest. David also won a Bronze Medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona before embarking on his illustrious professional career.

The only New Zealand boxer to defeat Kipa Tasefa, in his short amateur career, was David Tua. Just prior to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Tasefa lost a 3/2 decision to Tua that was hotly disputed by the viewing public. Several significant international victories including a Kings Cup bronze, saw Kipa ranked by the AIBA at number three in the World. The number three ranking had also been attained by David Tua, some twelve months previously.

Kipa had an unheralded (in New Zealand) but sterling professional career, between 1993 and 2001, where he fought around the globe in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Tahiti and Russia. Born in Niue, Kipa engaged in 32 professional contests, winning 27 with two draws and three losses in his record book. Two of his losses were to former World Heavyweight title holders, in the giant Russian Nicolay Valuev and another Russian world titleholders in Oleg Maskaev

1997 was a golden year for New Zealand boxing. During the mid 1990s, National Coach John McKay formulated a long-term international plan, which led up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Boxing New Zealand submitted annual funding applications, based upon athlete development to the New Zealand Sports Foundation. After the initial grant, future grants were results based. At the same time, a new batch of potential international aspirants emerged including another well performed heavyweight.

Heavyweight Garth da Silva, numbered gold medals at the Mayors Cup (Philippines) and the Presidents Cup (Indonesia) along with bronze at the Liverpool Cup and Ali Cup, amongst his international achievements. The best performance of the decade was the 1997 Presidents Cup with the three Kiwi boxers contesting the gold medal position. The New Zealand team finished the tournament in second place behind Uzbekistan and ahead of teams such as USA, Russia and Korea. This was the best result by a New Zealand boxing team since the 1983 Commonwealth Championships in Belfast (see below).

Michael Kenny is best known for winning the Super Heavyweight Gold Medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games at home in Auckland. In 1983, Kenny made his mark in the Heavyweight ranks, when he defeated Floyd Foley at the Timaru Nationals to win the national amateur crown.

The Wellington boxer was a member of one of the most successful teams to leave our shores, as one of the five boxers, selected for the first Commonwealth Championships held in Belfast, Northern Ireland during 1983. Coached by Kevin Barry, senior, the team returned with two gold and silver medals apiece. Michael Kenny and Kevin Barry junior, won gold in the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight ranks respectively.

Angus Shelford had a number of memorable bouts with Garth da Silva during the 1990’s. Shelford won the National Heavyweight title in 1997 and was twice runner-up to da Silva in 1996 and 1998. Angus joined the Boxing New Zealand roll of honour, as a New Zealand Olympic representative, when he was the country’s sole boxer at the 2000 Olympics’ held in Sydney, Australia.

Barry Leabourn

Article added: Monday 07 January 2019