KEY POINTS:
In the blue corner is Mike "the Lionheart" Lloyd and, in the red corner, Aaron "Coolhand" Caville.
But this is no ordinary boxing bout. Light-heavy executives Mr Lloyd, a project manager for computer giant IBM, and Mr Caville, a Vodafone business consultant, will tonight cast aside their business attire, don trunks and boxing gloves and step into the ring for Corporate Fight Night: Round One.
The brainchild of Ringside Gym operator Mark Michaels, Fight Night is the latest New Zealand incarnation of a phenomenon dubbed the "new golf" by London's Financial Times.
About 560 people will fill the Saatchi & Saatchi building's atrium in Parnell, Auckland, for a black-tie, $1500-a-table event featuring eight three-round bouts starring IT consultants, insurance salesmen and financial advisers. Women also feature on the card.
Corporate boxing is a natural extension of the various gym workouts based on the "noble art", with just a hint of Fight Club - the 1999 movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton - thrown in.
At Ringside, which operates out of the Les Mills complex in downtown Auckland, Mr Michaels offers an intensive 12-week programme to ready business folk for the ring.
It comes with a corporate-sized price tag of $3000 but includes boxing gear, a personalised fitness plan, consultation with nutritionists and sports scientists and a swag of sports supplements.
Mr Michaels said the programme was designed for people who wanted to take their fitness training to a higher level. Registered boxers were excluded.
"We wanted to do two parts ... the conditioning, the ground work and then actually getting them in the ring for the actual fight. That's the ultimate."
For Mr Caville, who has prepared with Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Danny Codling at 121 Fitness in Mt Eden, Fight Night is the realisation of a childhood dream.
"I've always wanted to get into the ring since I was a kid and watched [Muhammad] Ali with my dad," says the 33-year-old. "I just want to do it once - I don't want a career."
A former 115kg rugby prop, Mr Caville, who is down to a lean 95kg, admits to some nervousness ahead of his bout.
"When you first step into the ring, you've got a lot of fear going on but a bit of fear is a good thing - it keeps you dodging the punches."
Mr Lloyd, a 38-year-old father of four, who has prepared with former New Zealand welterweight champion Monty Bhana at Alan Brewster's gym in Papatoetoe, said boxing had helped him shed 34kg.
"I started out doing RPM and Body Combat but when I did box training I just loved it and decided to go hard out.
"It sounds simple but it's the challenge - the challenge of getting into the ring one-to-one with nowhere to hide."
All of tonight's fighters have had medical examinations before their bouts, which have been sanctioned by the NZ Professional Boxing Association. No winners will be declared.
A proportion of the funds raised will go to South Auckland literacy charity Ethnic Word.
Fighting fit
* Fight Night is the latest incarnation of a phenomenon dubbed the "new golf".
* It will consist of eight three-round bouts involving IT consultants, insurance salesmen and financial advisers.
* About 560 people will attend the black-tie, $1500-a-table event.
