Boxing: When grey matter matters

CHB Boxing Club pair Tyler Kopua, 15, and Callum Shanks, 14, are excited about Rotorua. Photo / Warren Buckland

Fighters can have all the physical attributes and ringcraft but sometimes it is what transpires between the ears that makes the difference on whether they will go on to become savvy or just journeymen.

Sam Nicol is among four Hawke's Bay boxers about to put that test to theory when they compete at the nationals in Rotorua from Tuesday to Saturday.

"Sam's fit and faster so he counters well and he's boxing clever so he's getting hit less," says his trainer, Craig McDougall, who runs the The Fruit Shop-sponsored Hastings Giants Boxing Academy.

McDougall says the 15-year-old from Napier Boys' High School, who arrived here two years ago from Palmerston North where he used to train at the gym of his grandfather, Malcolm Nicol, wasn't ring savvy before arriving at his Hastings stable.

Nicol, who will fight in the junior (46kg) division in two three-minute rounds in Rotorua after last appearing as a cadet in the 2014 nationals, intends to fight at the Golden Gloves in Queensland from August 25-29.

The only Bay senior is Amrit Singh, of the Napier Boxing Club, making his nationals debut and then turning professional whatever the outcome.

The Rajasthan-born 26-year-old liquor outlet manager of Napier, who arrived here with family when he was 10, has an amateur record of 19 wins from 37 fights.

"It's pretty exciting and I've been working really hard to go there to do my best," says Singh who has dropped from middleweight to welterweight (69kg) for 3 x 3-minute bouts.

Amrit Singh will turn professional after the nationals.

He'll be up against calibre opponents, including Glasgow Commonwealth Games quarterfinalist Leroy Henley, of Wellington, but living in Auckland, as well as Josiah Meehan, of Palmerston North, an ex-national champion, in a field of nine.

"We're hoping to win at the tournament but if we finish in the top three it'll be a good achievement for us."

Singh has been running about 50km a week, changing his dietary habits and boosting his cardio workout to shed 5kg.

He's coming off a split-decision loss in the middleweight division to national champion Ryan Scaife at the recent Manawatu Championship.

"I wasn't feeling too great. I was like a bulked-up, muscle-bound middleweight. It slowed me down a lot and I wasn't moving like I used to like a welterweight back in the day so I thought I had a better chance going back to the welterweight from the middleweight," says Singh, who has three welterweight titles from early in his career.

He thanked his trainer, Ryan Whittaker, as well as the Giants academy fighters for his preparation.

Whittaker's father-in-law, Rob Langdon, of Napier club, will train Singh into the professional arena.

The other two pugilists are Central Hawke's Bay Boxing Club members, Callum Shanks, 14, and Tyler Kopua, 15.

Shanks, a year 9 pupil from CHB College, will fight in three one-and-a-half-minute rounds in the cadet Open division but won't know who his opponent is until the weigh in on Tuesday.

"It's not good because I won't know his strategy," says the teenager with nine wins from 19 fights.

"It's very exciting and a brand new experience for me so it'll be going to be good."

He is under no illusions about how hard it'll be to eke out wins but he puts his faith in the time he has put in under trainer Sam Fuller.

Shanks reckons his hand speed and left jab are his weapons.

His initiation into boxing was a case of not if but when, watching his brother, Lockie, 19, from the time he was a child.

Shanks suspects the boxing genes stem from his maternal grandfather, the late John Nicol.

"He died when I was 6 so I don't remember much except that he was a professional [and] ... he had had a lot of fights and had done well."

Shanks believes the sport is an ideal pressure valve for the release of anger while maintaining one's strength and composure.

School mate Kopua, a southpaw, is going to his second nationals, after losing in the final last year to Darrius Tregaworth, of Feilding.

The year 11 pupil, who suspects he has 13 wins from 22 appearances, will fight in the junior (54kg) division in three two-minute rounds.

"I'm going to try my hardest and have some fun," he says, banking on his jabs, hooks and speed to counter punch.

Kopua was 10 at Waipukurau Primary School when a friend, Jonty Andersen, asked him to train at the gym for rugby fitness.

The halfback's doing fine but he has skipped a few games for fights.

"I don't mind because it's good fun to take a few trips around the country."