Kickboxing: Bay fighters eye national titles

Ropata Lewis (right) with Lucas McAdam and trainer Andrew Banham will fight for a national title tonight. Photo/File

Two Hawke's Bay kickboxers will chase national Siam Cup titles at the Arena Wars 8 event in Napier tonight.

Jackals Gym's Ropata Lewis will take on fellow New Zealand representative Dylan Bateson of Auckland for the 50kg flyweight title. Case Needham will meet Aucklander Yassin Yass for the 70kg light middleweight title.

Needham will be seeking revenge for a loss to Yass in March. Tonight's third title fight at the Jackals Gym in Onekawa will see Waikato's Waimatao Hira battle Aucklander Capri Lonie for the female junior light welterweight title.

Lewis and Needham are two of nine Jackals Gym fighters who will feature on the 14-bout card. The others are Jareth Fairlie, Deano Mueli, Ethan Bickers, Daniel Paul, Tiwai Tomoana, Dave Faulkner and Tom Davis.

The nine will receive plenty of assistance from Jackals most high profile fighter Pumipi Ngaronoa who retained his New Zealand Muay Thai Federation professional light welterweight title last month with a win against Aucklander Chris Wells in Taupo.

This was the third time the pair had fought for the title. Wells won the first encounter and Ngaronoa the next two. After helping his fellow Jackals fighters tonight Ngaronoa will return to China for a series of fights.

Another highlight for the Jackals contingent in Taupo was Lucas McAdam's second round knockout victory against Gisborne's Te Ariki Pomana. This was McAdam's first victory against Pomana in three encounters.

"Tricky [Pomana's nickname] is regarded as the premier junior fighter in the country so the win was sweet," Jackals trainer Andrew Banham said.

Former Hawke's Bay softball representative Joe O'Leary and Davis were other Jackals fighters to record wins in Taupo.