Joseph Parker donates gear and memorabilia to Boxing New Zealand National Championships in Rotorua

New Zealand heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker has donated gear and memorabilia to organisers of the Boxing New Zealand National Championships in Rotorua. Photo/File

New Zealand heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker has donated gear and memorabilia to organisers of the Boxing New Zealand National Championships to be held in Rotorua next month.

It will be auctioned or raffled off during the championships to help with the cost of staging the event.

The championships will at the Rotorua Energy Events Centre from September 12 to 15.

Parker, who is the WBO world heavyweight champion and is preparing for his title showdown with Hughie Fury in Manchester, is one of several Kiwi boxers who put in the hard yards in the amateur divisions before having successful careers as professional boxers.

The Boxing New Zealand heavyweight division, which is held by 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist David Nyika, has produced several fighters who have fought on the big stage of pro boxing in the past three decades.

David Tua won the first of his three successive heavyweight titles as a 16-year-old in 1989 at the national championships at the Karaka Bloodstock Sales complex in South Auckland.

Olympic and world championship bronze medals preceded a glittering professional career where he defeated five former, or later, world heavyweight champions.

Jimmy Peau won three New Zealand amateur heavyweight crowns in 1984, 85 and 86.

Trained by Gerry Preston in Mangere, Jimmy "Thunder" Peau won New Zealand's third Commonwealth Games gold medal in Edinburgh in 1986, following in the footsteps of Frank Creagh (1950) and Bill Kini (1966).

In a long professional career, Peau, who fought in the same 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.

A late start to amateur boxing saw Shane Cameron win just a solitary national heavyweight title with his sole success coming at the Taupo nationals in 2001. Cameron then turned professional, with his first pro fight resulting in a third round KO in November 2002.

While he will always be remembered for his fight with David Tua in Hamilton in 2009, Cameron won the Commonwealth cruiserweight crown in 2011.