Featherston?s world boxing champ eyes final showdown

BY ANDREW BONALLACK, MASSEY UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM STUDENT
Muay Thai boxing world champion, Sue Latta, is hanging up her gloves ? but has some unfinished business to deal with first.
The Featherston-based champ wants to go out with a clash of the titans of the sport.
Latta, currently ranked the No. 1 World Muay Thai Council (WMC) under-67kg fighter, said the under-67kg world title is vacant and should be settled.
And the perfect person to settle it with is Swede Pernilla Jonsson, who won the gold medal in the under-67kg category of the Thailand IFMA (International Federation of Muay Thai Amateurs) World Championships in June.
Although the Swede holds the gold medal in that particular competition, she does not hold the No. 1 ranking, and neither women can claim world title status.
Jonsson is planning to be in New Zealand between September and February, and Mrs Latta, who has been in discussion with the Swede, said it would be great to see what happens.
"It would be great to pull it off, but 90 per cent of these things are the organising."
She says a world fight at this level required a promoter and had to be a sanctioned WMC world title bout.
Latta also fought in the same IFMA competition as Jonsson, but Latta narrowly lost on points to a Swiss opponent and came third.
"That was really frustrating ? I wanted the gold ? but my Swiss opponent [who got silver] was pretty evasive and I couldn't catch her, so I lost on points.
"I should have been more patient, but I just dive in there and get stuck in because I'm that kind of person."
Latta, who is also the president of the New Zealand WMC, managed a New Zealand team of 18 fighters during the competition in Bangkok.
Whatever the outcome of the title bout, she said there would be big shoes to fill when she retired at the end of this year.
"There's been some people that have been very anxious to fill them, but they won't step up to play with me!"
She also holds the NZ welterweight boxing title, and in May fought in the heavier superwelterwight division for a boxing title against New Zealand title holder Danielle Smith.
She lost narrowly on points in "an awesome, awesome fight".
Next month Latta will be getting stuck into the World Association Kickboxing Organisation's world championships in Te Awamutu ? the first time she has tried regular kickboxing.
She said kickboxing is much more restrictive about body strike points than Muay Thai.
"It's like having a gun with only two bullets in it."
To add to the fun, her main opponent, a bronze-medal kickboxer from England, will be 8kg heavier than her.
Latta started fighting in 1992, and said her impending retirement was because, at age 35, she had other things she needed to focus on.
"I am president of the New Zealand WMC, but that role does get a bit ignored, because of my competitions, so it needs to be given its due.
"Muay Thai has grown hugely in New Zealand.
"Besides, I've got a family, a business, the WMC ? my priorities have changed."
On top of her already busy schedule, Latta is also a breastfeeding advocate.
This week is World Breastfeeding Week and Latta is taking the opportunity to underline some of the many issues facing breastfeeding mothers in modern society.
Latta said one of the main aims of breastfeeding advocates is to encourage acceptance of breastfeeding in public places.
She said modern society forces women to be in public places more often and therefore the same society should allow these women to breastfeed in the same places.
According to Latta, support for mothers is nothing like it was in the past and these days women are left on their own far more often.
Together with friend Claire Walker, Latta plans to set up support networks for new mothers "so they don't get slam dunked by reality when it hits them".
The two friends have also developed a line of clothing especially for breastfeeding mothers that, together with plans for support groups, they intend to share with mothers through parent centres and various community groups.
"Our aim is to try and make life easier." ? additional reporting Melissa Wardell.