Northland boxer Lani Daniels is preparing to fight it out to become the first female to win the Pro Box NZ national heavyweight title.
Daniels (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) is set to go head to head in the ring against Sequita Hemingway (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Tūhoe) for the title on June 25 in Putaruru.
The two already squared off on April 30, when Daniels claimed victory by unanimous decision in her first professional boxing fight in the last two and a half years.
For Hemingway - a former professional rugby player, the defeat was the first professional loss of her career.
Before the clash, Daniels was ranked ninth in the World Boxing Association (WBA) but the win saw her rank change to first on the independent computerised ranking website Boxrec. She overtook her opponent's third-place ranking which stayed put.