Boxing: Undercard a drawcard for hungry fight fans

Photo / APN

While almost all of the attention was focussed on the main event last night, the undercard was far from underwhelming.

A near capacity crowd was treated to some great action, as is often the case with budding hopefuls out to prove themselves.

Early on Olympic hopeful Joseph Parker got the vocal fans roaring with a commanding performance over Nathan McKay. Parker was convincing throughout, and took a unanimous points decision over three rounds.

The 1.95m Parker seemed to ease up in the second round - as McKay landed some blows but Parker would say later it was all part of his plan.

"I could've kept busy but I wanted to test if I could take some punches so I just rolled with it," explained the 19-year-old, who has been touted as the next David Tua.

In the first professional fight of the night, Wellington's Scott Gardner was far too strong for Auckland's Aung Sanda, winning by TKO in four comfortable rounds.

Gardner was meant to go to the 2006 Commonwealth Games as an 18-year-old, but a mishap with a glass window which damaged his hand saw him miss out on Melbourne. The 24-year-old now has a 3-0 professional record, and aims to challenge for the Oceania lightweight title in the next 12 months.

Steve 'Chur' Heremaia, who set the crowd alight at the Tua - Cameron clash two years ago provided more fireworks with a brutal win over Brad Pole in the light middleweight class. Pole bravely got to his feet after being flattened early in the second round, only to be finished off a few seconds later.

The eagerly anticipated super middleweight clash between Isaac Peach (5-1) and Gunnar Jackson (7-1) lived up to expectation, going the full six round distance. Both fighters showed great discipline in a tight contest. Peach deservedly prevailed on points.

The next bout was the fight of the night. Heavyweight Afa Tatapu (6-1), who has been Shane Cameron's chief sparring partner over the last six weeks took on 120kg Joey Wilson (7-2). It was a good old fashioned slugfest, with both men taking incredible punishment; Wilson eventually prevailed, knocking out Tatapu with 20 seconds to go in the fourth and final round.

The final undercard match saw Daniel McKinnon win a unanimous points decision over former Pakistani Olympian Kashif Mumtaz.