Boxing: Warmup bouts good value for audience

By PETER JESSUP

Fight fans were treated to four unusually theatrical contests on the Mundine-Sullivan undercard at the ASB Stadium.

First up was Commonwealth Games representative turned pro Paula Mataele, cut like a boxer should be, against an overweight and out-of-condition Richard Tutaki. The inevitable end came 2m 51s into round two of six when Tutaki simply ran out of gas and stopped punching, stopped defending, and then fell over exhausted to give Aucklander Mataele his third win as a pro.

A brave Vernon Downs took the fight to Algerian transplant Mohamed Azzouri but couldn't catch him, despite his opponent's frequently dropped arms. Azzouri has super-speed and danced like Prince Naseem Hamed, lowering his defences and sticking his long neck out as an invite to Downs to whack him.

Downs tried, repeatedly, but kept collecting air. The four-time Algerian champion, who represented that country at the Sydney Olympics and now lives in Northland, had too much skill, height and reach, and won a unanimous points decision to go 6-0 as a pro.

Tauranga's Hemi Niha came crouched and arms wide against Henderson's Willie O'Neill and it took O'Neill a round to get used to the unorthodox perpetual motion approach. Halfway through round two he finally landed a loaded punch and he finished it at 1m 50s with the only knockout of the night - Tutaki's being more a surrender - to go 7-6 and leave Niha at 0-5.

Youth and a great boxing style were not enough to give Moroni Schwalger a win over Colin Hunia, a distinguished amateur who said he was driven to keep fighting by people who kept telling him that at 38 he was too old for it.

Schwalger won the opening two rounds but then was stunned by Hunia's persistence and a couple of big hits, his nose bloodied and his attack blunted. He came back in the sixth and last, but Hunia had amassed a 57-57, 59-57, 59-57 win.

Crowd support went the older man's way as he held in and kept taking the fight to the younger, but most of the audience had him by the wrong name. Hunia had an advertisement for a "lawnologist" Rex Torrie and phone number written on his back in large letters, prompting increasingly loud calls of "go Rex" as the fight wore down.