BOXING - Title fight a defence of family pride

Whangarei boxer Josh Bowman knows there will be people comparing him to his father Tim when he steps into the ring to defend the Peter Gilbert Trophy at Kensington Stadium tonight.
Bowman won the trophy from Rodney's Ben Slight last year and, because of its place in his family's history, he isn't prepared to let the welterweight trophy go easily.
"My old man won the same trophy 20 years ago and held on to it for a while, so he won't be too impressed if I let it go," Josh said.
Bowman doesn't know much about his Counties-Manukau opponent, Ben Kilgour, but he's not leaving anything to chance.
"I've only seen him fight once, but hopefully he won't give me much too much trouble, you've got to be positive going into a bout," he said.
Josh has spent four weeks building up to his defence of the trophy, saying that taking anyone too lightly - even someone without a reputation - is a recipe for disaster in boxing.
Josh is a roofer by trade but has a reputation as a very handy amateur boxer, particularly after winning the Golden Gloves title at the 25th anniversary tournament in Taupo last year.
After a busy season last year, with 12 bouts, Josh went up against national welterweight champion, Kahukura Bentson, earlier this year. Although he pushed the experienced Aucklander hard during the fight, he lost on a points decision.
Josh's fight will be the most anticipated in a full night of boxing at the stadium tomorrow, featuring some of Northland's emerging talent. Eight local boxers will take the ring in a total of 15 bouts featuring fighters from as far south as Rotorua.
"The big thing about Saturday night is to see the Whangarei and Oakura boxers fight in front of their family and friends, because they don't often have a home crowd too often with most of their bouts held down in Auckland.
"The other thing is also to raise money for our new club at Oakura, which has only been going for five months and we still need to get plenty of gear," Josh said.
Tim Bowman and fellow organiser Alan Smith took a heavy blow themselves this week when their other feature fight fell through. Matthew Corbett's withdrawal was a big loss to the card.
"It does happen, but in Corbett's case it was just bad luck. He broke his ankle and there's nothing much you can do about that," he said.