The big boys of the ring, made their debut at the 1981 National championships in Upper Hutt, where the Super Heavyweight division was contested for the first time. Tom Apollo from Southland defeated Canterbury's Tali Talanoa with Apollo going on to back to back wins over Talanoa at the 1982 Nationals.

The Commonwealth Games returned to New Zealand for the third time in 1990, with 1982 Commonwealth Championships Heavyweight champion Michael Kenny, representing the host nation in the Super Heavyweight competition. Kenny warmed up for the big event in winning the 1989,  91+ title, at the National Championships where he defeated Peau Leamauga.  

With retirement beckoning, the Wellington pugilist had two comfortable points victories over Kevin McCormack (Wales) and Vernon Linklater (Canada) to reach the Gold Medal contest. Facing man-mountain, Liadi Alhassen from Ghana, the Kiwi representative was far too good in taking out a unanimous points decision to win the 1990 Commonwealth Games Super Heavyweight title.

1991 Super Heavyweight titleholder Paea Wolfgramm, will be long remembered as the first Tongan Olympic medal winner, after he contested the 1996 Olympic Final. While the New Zealand resident was a big man at 140 kilo, but without an international track-record, he was a total unknown amongst the American, Cuban and European boxers expected to share in the division's medals.

First up the Tongan Olympic representative snuck past a Belarusian opponent by way of a 10-9 points decision. Few gave Wolfgramm any chance of victory against Cuban Alexis Rubalcaba in the quarterfinal contest. However with Kiwi coach Chris Kenny in his corner, Paea took the fight to the Cuban pummelling him on the ropes, to send him to two standing eight counts - and a 17-12 points victory.

Wolfgramm was guaranteed an Olympic medal when he squared of with 1994 Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Duncan Dokiwari from Nigeria. The fight was a tight affair at 6-6 entering the third and final round. The bout remained tied up with seconds remaining in the contest, when Paea landed a decisive punch to the face of his opponent, which was enough to earn the judges nod.

Against all odds, the Tongan boxer had made the Super Heavyweight Gold Medal contest where he met Vladimir Klitschko, who would go on to dominate the professional World Heavyweight title for a decade. Down just 3-2 after the first two rounds, raw courage wasn't enough, earning him the silver medal after the judges awarded the Ukrainian a 7-3 points win.

A trio of Kiwi boxers with New Zealand  Coach (Dr) John McKay in their corner, had a considerable number of international victories in the mid 1990's. Auckland Super Heavyweight Faii Falamoe, who won a four-peat of National crowns in 1993 through to 1996, won gold medals at the prestigious Muhammad Ali Cup and the Presidents Cup in Indonesia. The 1997 Presidents Cup will be long remembered in Boxing New Zealand history with Falamoe, Garth da Silva and Regan Foley all making the Gold Medal contests. The Kiwi team finished the tournament in second place behind Uzbekistan and ahead of amateur boxing power-houses such as USA, Russia and Korea.

Paula Mataele won successive Super Heavyweight titles in 2000 and 2001. Trained by Rod Langdon, Carlos Boyce added the heaviest weight division title to his 2003 Heavyweight crown,  when he defeated Greg Weenink at the 2005 Nationals. Weenink went on to victory in 2006 and 2008 with victories over William Quarrie and Malina Toki.

The 2009 BNZ National Championships in Rotorua saw Uaine (Junior) Fa defeat Joseph Parker, who 11 years later, are eying each other in the top echelon of the professional Heavyweight ranks.

Patrick Mailata banked a three-peat of National crowns in 2912, 2013 and 2014 with the icing on the cake being a Bronze Medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Manukau region boxer defeated Scottish and Northern Ireland opponents, before dropping an extremely narrow 2-3 decision in semi-final action.

Canterbury's Sam Watt was another to win three successive Super Heavyweight crowns, having the gold medal hung around his neck in Rotorua in 2016 and 2017, before taking out the trifecta in 2018 at the Christchurch National Championships.

Article added: Sunday 28 June 2020