Boxing NZ March Newsletter.

Hi All,

I hope this Newsletter finds the BNZ community well and ready for a busy year.

As you may have noticed I try to time the issue of the Newsletters just after the BNZ Board meetings. Please read this Newsletter as an update on all BNZ matters and including information from the recent BNZ Board meeting. The BNZ Board meeting was held in Auckland 11^th March.

The actual Minutes are available from the Office of BNZ on request but this news letter will cover all subjects of interest, in more detail.

Competition:

As with our “competition priority” policy last year we are committed to investing in the future of our sport and encouraging boxing activity.

Last year the Duco partnership wound up its NZ company and donated $22k of surplus funds to Boxing NZ. This donation was on the premise that this money would be spent on the youth of the sport. BNZ has released this money for the Development Program run by DR John Mckay and will go towards Boxer Development camps and partially funding some competition events.

Further to this BNZ is hoping to commit approximately $80k towards encouraging competition and development. This compares with approximately $50k last year. Based on previous income and expenditure we may run a small deficit but the Executive members believe we need to invest in the youth of our sport in order to grow.

The HP 2019 Elite Boxing Program has been presented  by MR Mark Keddell and shows a very busy year for the HP team. This kicked off with the NZ Elite trials on the 16th and 17^th of February in Auckland to select boxers for various International top level and secondary level Tournaments.

Results:

Tasmyn Benny beat Kate Thompson, 51kg Women

Amy Andrew beat Tegan Burdett-Clark, 57kg Women

Tui Vea beat Michel Crosa, 60 kg Men

Dominic Rowe beat Wendell Stanley, 69 kg Men

Emile Richardson beat Jesse Mahony, 75 kg Men

Siaki Tu beat Miracle Ki, 91 KG + Men

Many of the Arufura Games team members have been selected based on performance at these trials as well as other high performing boxers who have not won a National title.

Super Eight:

The first NZ vs Australian Teams competition kicked off on the 15^th March in Auckland. Results below:

Super Eight @ Auckland 17 March 2019 (day three) – Results

Female

51kg

Viviana Ruiz-Corredore NSW    df Kaylan Riley WA     unam

Tasmyn Benny NZ                    df Katie Thompson NZ unam

58kg Skye Nicholson QLD         df Amy Andrew NZ     unam

61kg

Anja Stridsman NSW                  df Troy Garton NZ      split

75kg

Kaye Scott NSW           df  Chei Kenneally NZ split

Male

60kg

Amin Issa NSW            df Jordan Robertson SA unam

Orion Brown QLD        df Tui Vea NZ  split

76kg

Benjamin Hussain QLD df Emile Richardson NZ unam

Cody Beekin NSW       df Jordan Richards SA  split

91 Kg

David Nyika NZ           df Austin Aukuso QLD unam

Brandon Rees WA        df Michael Lekkas NSW rsc3

Super Eight @ Auckland 16 March 2019 (day two) – Results

Female

51kg 

Tasmyn Benny NZ                    df Kaylan Riley WA     unam

Viviana Ruiz-Corredore NSW - df Katie Thompson NZ unam

​58kg

Amy Andrew NZ          df Rebecca Hawker QLD          unam

Jasmin Huruwai NSW   df Tegan Burdett-Clarke NZ      split

61kg

Troy Garton NZ            df Mia Rundle SA         Abandon

75kg

Kaye Scott NSW           df Jen Whiteman QLD  unam

Male

60kg

Amin Issa NSW            df Orion Brown QLD    split

Tui Vea NZ                   df Jordan Robertson SA split

76kg

Benjamin Hussain QLD df Cody Beekin NSW   split

Emile Richardson NZ   df Jordan Richards SA  unam

82kg

Clay Waterman QLD    df Petar Losic SA          unam

91kg

Austin Aukuso QLD     df Michael Lekkas NSW unam

David Nyika NZ           df Brandon Rees WA    unam

Super Eight @ Auckland 15 March 2019 (day one) - Results

Female

51kg 

Tasmyn Benny NZ       df V Ruiz -Corredore NSW split

Katie Thompson NZ     df Kaylan Riley WA     unam

58kg

Amy Andrew NZ          df Jasmin Huruwai NSW unam

61kg

Rebecca Hawker QLD  df Mia Rundle SA         RSC3

Anja Stridsman NSW    df Troy Garton NZ       unam

75kg

Kaye Scott NSW           df Chei Kenneally NZ   split

Male

60kg

Amin Issa NSW            df Tui Vea NZ  unam

Orion Brown QLD        df Jordan Robertson SA unam

76kg

Benjamin Hussain QLD df Jordan Richards SA  split

Emile Richardson NZ   df Cody Beekin NSW   unam

82kg

Clay Waterman QLD    df Jerome Pampellone NZ KO2

91kg

Austin Aokuso QLD     df Brandon Rees WA    split

David Nyika NZ           df Michael Lekkas NSW Abandon

Priority events for BNZ Elite boxers to attend are:

Three “Super Eight” Tournaments with NZ v/s Australian teams, the first occurring in Auckland 15^th                  to the 17^th March and 5^th to the 7^th April in Sydney and finally the 9^th to the 11^th August in Adelaide.

• Arafura Games, 28^th April to the 5^th May Darwin Australia. (Non-National champions)Development
• Felix Stam Memorial  Elite Men and Women    Warsaw 28^th April to 5^th May
• Boxam Elite  Men and Women    Castellon  Spain   14^th May to 19^th May
• Kings Cup, Bangkok Thailand 7^th to the 15^th July. (Elite)
• Taipei City Cup, x mid-August in Taipei Taiwan. (Youth and Elite)Development
• Men’s World Championships, 7^th to the 22^nd September Russia. (Elite)
• New Zealand Championships, 2^nd to the 6^th October Hastings.
• Women’s World Championships, November Russia. (Elite)
•  

The program should give our Elite boxers a mininum of 8 to 10 International bouts plus local bouts for the 2019 season.

Head Coach:

After receiving four applicants for the Position of BNZ Elite Head Coach, Mr Billy Meehan has been chosen to fill the position. The Head coach will fulfil various duties determined by the High Performance Team including establishing programs for the Elite Athletes in the BNZ family.

Corporate Boxing:

In terms of exposure to the public we have experienced a rather difficult time with Corporate boxing. The unfortunate injuries and deaths that have occurred in events run under a very loose organisational format. The Media have had a field day and the Medical Association true to form have called for a ban on Boxing.                                

Boxing NZ took a very defensive stance, dis-associating itself from the Corporate scene and promoting the values and safety aspects of our sport. I believe we came out of the whole thing rather unblemished and quite possibly even raising the public awareness of what we are truly about.

All the same we are now in a situation that we neither wished nor wanted and to a great degree we have been forced into a corner regarding where we go.

As all will know for the interim period BNZ has suspended the Issuing of licenses for Corporate type events until clarity can be achieved regarding the conduct of such events from a legal and moral point of view.

 After reasonable debate with Board members and others it appears that we need to consider the option of getting on board with it, just on what basis will be determined by a number of factors.

We believe we have three options regarding this problem, one is to own it and operate it under terms and conditions for our members only. Option two is to own the thing on a Nation-wide basis and become the sole Governing entity or disassociate from it completely.

We do not believe at this stage a partnership with other Boxing Governing Bodies will work, this would be fraught with procedural problems and the risks of fault by others are too high.

If we do go with the Option of managing the thing overall then there will be a whole new load of responsibilities required from Boxing NZ, therefore we will have to ensure we have the resources to handle it. If we just operate under our own banner for our members then I believe we will have it pretty well covered under the proposed Rules and Procedures with a smaller input required than on a Nation-wide basis.

We are in communications with the Internal Affairs regarding Corporate Boxing and I believe, going by feed-back from them, are making very good progress with them and have highlighted ourselves as a possible leader in the future of this version of boxing if we so desire. The Minister Tracy Martin has asked if we can communicate further with their Officials. They have received our Draft recommendations for the Rules and Procedures for the conduct of such events and once more gauging by feedback they will take our recommendations very seriously.

One of the steps considered is that we go away from the term Corporate Boxing and call the events Charity or Fundraising events

You can find the Draft Rules and Procedures for the conduct of Charity/Fundraising events on the BNZ website under News. BNZ wishes to invite our members to comment and suggest change or improvements to the document. We will then draw a consensus and amend as required.

Please communicate your comments to the Executive of BNZ c/o the Office of BNZ.

Oceania Reinstatement Progress:

At the Moscow Conference we took the AIBA to task over the retraction of our Oceania Olympic qualification pathway. It was a difficult forum to address our concern and we were more or less fobbed off it was later suggested to us by the Chair of the meeting Mr Ted Tanner from Australia that there were other ways to get athletes to the Olympics i.e. through the Tripartite allocations, I believe positions may be gained from the Athletes Quota or the reallocation of unused Qualification places. This however does not address the point in that Oceania may have been  been shafted by AIBA.

All the other Oceania countries supported pushing for our Pathway to be reinstated. Boxing Australia have now come on board and Mr Tanner is assisting with the battle.

Mr Erick Divinagracia President of the Boxing Federates states of Micronesia and regarded lawyer drafted a legal-speak version of the BNZ original argument promoting the mandates of the Olympic Charter. All Oceania Boxing Nations are using this as a template to send to their NOC’s and expecting them to pass the letters on to the IOC.

The big bugbear is what the IOC is doing regarding Boxing in the Olympics and I don’t believe a lot will happen very quickly. The IOC is supposed to address this matter in June but who knows what will happen.

I have been waiting for Mr Tanner to convey to us a “very important” announcement due in a day or two from early last week. Unfortunately nothing has been heard from him, so we await with baited breath.

Sport NZ Community Funding:

October 2019 will be the lead up to the next Sport NZ Community funding round, last year we received only $20k from Sport NZ. This placed us at fifth from the bottom of the thirty-four Sport NZ community funded sports.

Still, it seems in terms of funding and recognition for community services Boxing is way down the list. It is the mission of the Executive this year to increase funding from Sport NZ by a considerable amount, hopefully enough to run the office, cover all Board meeting costs and get something for the services we provide to the communities of NZ.

This will require a sound argument to be presented to them to prove ourselves worthy of such an increase in funding.

If we compare Boxing to Bowls NZ, they sent a team of seventeen athletes to the Commonwealth Games and won one Gold and one Silver and receive $249k in annual funding from Sport NZ.

Boxing NZ sent a team of eight and won one Gold and five Bronze and receives $20k.

Bowls also receives $250k pa. in HP Funding compared with $15k Boxing NZ received last year.

Overall funding from Sport NZ and HP Sport NZ in 2018 compares as:

Bowls NZ. $499k pa. Boxing  NZ. $35k pa.

We should be able to argue for increased funding based on performance alone, however when we consider our positive input in communities, surely we should be able to argue that keeping adolescent youth off the streets and occupied in a gainful physical activity well outweighs keeping some much older, wealthier and compliant citizens off the streets, out of jail and away from the influence of whatever gangs they may wish to join.

Under the requirements of the Sport NZ Community Funding Investment Plan there are various measures we will be required to edify to them and prove the progress we have made.

Some of the areas we have to highlight are:

1. Administrative capability
2. A well-informed participant focused system at all levels
3. Communications and inclusiveness of participants and members
4. Coaching capability
5. Competition format
6. Athlete development progress
7. Values and benefits to the communities of NZ

Part of our argument will be another Census to show feedback from our members and participants regarding their opinion of the management of Boxing and the direction we are taking. Values and Benefits to the communities of NZ will be a big selling point for us.

In attempting to address the subjects above I may be bothering Portfolio managers a bit so I will apologise now for any intrusions or inconvenience’s I may cause.

The Sport NZ four main focus areas overall are:

• Young people – ensuring all Kiwi kids gain a love of physical activity and sport at an early age, from which they are more likely to enjoy lifelong participation in sport and gain all the benefits that come with it.
• Local delivery of sport, especially in low-participation communities – ensuring clubs, councils, schools, families and all those involved in the local delivery of sport working more closely together.
• Competitive sport – ensuring the traditional structures of sport are strong to sustain and grow participation.
• Continuing to drive high performance outcomes and achieve more winning on the world stage, through High Performance Sport NZ.

We can deliver on most of the Focus Points without a lot of trouble especially in the areas concerning Young people, Delivery of Sport and Competitive Sport. It will just be up to us to provide comprehensive evidence.

One further argument that should bode well for us in terms of delivering a sport and encouraging the public to participate will be to promote our involvement in nurturing our very successful Professional Boxers who have achieved so high on the world stage. Without Boxing NZ they would not exist and it is also about time we were recognised for this.

Part of the requirements of the funding criteria is a survey on the member satisfaction regarding the management of BNZ. Soon as many members as possible will be sent a survey to respond to. Please do so for the sake of the sport.

 The last survey was very successful in identifying the different demographics in boxing and will be valuable for the funding criteria. However some people did comment asking “why do we have to identify individuals and their ethnicity”. The reason lies with Sport NZ and their plan to engage all ethnic, age and gender components of NZ society into sport. They therefore wish to identify those who have minimum participation and will direct a greater amount of funding into these target areas. The broader demography we can demonstrate the better.

NZ Racing Authority and the TAB.

I have been in communication with Mr Bill De La Mere from the Racing Board regarding the dividends we receive from the Racing Authority and he asked if he could come our Board meeting to enlighten us on our future relationship with the Racing Authority and the consequences of recent changes.

Mr De La Mere informed us of these changes and possible future developments to the TAB Betting system. Recently the TAB has been audited by an Australian consulting company resulting in various recommendations. There are now many more options for sports betting than previous and already there has been a considerable increase in Sports betting.

This is good for us as our pay-outs from the TAB are based on turnover. Our payments are based on the profits the TAB generates from betting on boxing and betting on all sports. Since the overhaul there has been a significant increase in turnover, so thing should look good for our sport.

Of Interest:

Man who loves boxing

Recently world renown clinical psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson visited NZ,  Dr Peterson is one of the foremost commentators on the planet regarding conservative life advice. Dr Peterson also was the Author of the bestselling book “The Twelve Rules for Life”

There is a very interesting YouTube video featuring Dr Jordan Peterson speaking on masculinity and youth in a boxing gym in the UK. This video would be one of the best and most informative discussions on the benefits of boxing for youth avaliable.

If you wish to view please visit the YouTube site below or just enter ‘Jordan Peterson Boxing Gym’ in search on YouTube. https://youtu.be/MRjp1-DgMuA

The AIBA

On the latest AIBA News page is a rather hypocritical rant (headed Boxing in Olympisim) proclaiming to all and sundry (but no doubt directed at the IOC) that boxing is an integral component of the Olympic movement. The bulletin highlights the ideals expressed in the Olympic Charter as an argument for the inclusion for boxing in the 2020 Olympic Games.

Maybe the AIBA should also consider that the Olympic Charter also discourages the discrimination we have suffered from the AIBA as a result of the Oceania region boxers forced into qualifying for the Olympics via the Asian Confederation instead of our own Oceania pathway.

Cheers to all, Steve H. BNZ.

Article added: Friday 22 March 2019