Women extend reach of boxing rounds

The fight for the NZ Women’s Welterweight Professional title is to be held in Ōrewa this weekend, and it’s an event that has a new element to excite boxing fans.

For the first time in NZ, the women will box over six, 3-minute rounds for the title; usually all female bouts are contested over 2-minute rounds. A minute is a long time in boxing, and this will give their match parity with men.

Organiser of the fight, Craig Thomson of CTP Boxing, says there has long been discussion around why women were boxing over 2-minute rounds, not 3-minutes as the men do in professional fights.

“CTP Boxing decided to offer our female fighters the chance to box over the longer rounds and potentially show that there should be no reason why, moving forward, they cannot continue to do so,” Thomson says.

He says both Welterweight contestants in the Ōrewa fight, Tania Barnett of Palmerston North and Macca Jean of West Auckland, were keen to take up the challenge.

The fighters will need to adjust their training to accommodate the longer rounds.

“Unless you have boxed, you won’t understand just how big a difference the extra minute makes,” he says. “It’s often towards the end of a round, when fatigue starts setting in, that the better conditioned fighter can take advantage. So conditioning will be paramount. Given it’s the first time these female fighters have fought over the longer rounds it will be a case of who can adjust the best and who has done the appropriate work in the gym to be ready.”

He says it will be a chance for the audience to be part of a historic moment in boxing and that the venue, Ōrewa Arts and Events Centre, has great views of the action from all seats.

The event, called Fight Night II, is on Saturday, October 7. Tickets from Eventfinda.