Every boxing champ has an amazing trainer in their corner, but only Mea Motu has Zen Peach! Kea Kids News Reporter Eliana takes us ringside to watch Zen in action as Mea wins again.
Video / Kea Kids News
For many people, a nine-month layoff from doing the thing you love that doubles as your main source of income would be seen as a setback.
Not for IBF light heavyweight champion Lani Daniels.
Since December 2023, the 36-year-old from Pipiwai in the Te Horo valley has not been able to defend her title due to injury and a lock on her contract but is now on the eve of her return to the ring.
Now a free agent in a literal sense, Daniels tells the Herald the time away from boxing has allowed her to free her mind also.
“We do need to stop and smell the flowers I guess and life has a way of forcing us to do that. Now that I’m only days out from my next fight I’m grateful for that time out that I’ve had and I think that things couldn’t have worked out better for me in terms of my career, where I’m at and how much better I am as a person and a boxer for the struggles, the tough times.
“I think in the past, mentally, I wasn’t as strong as where I am in my life now, being a bit more mature. Earlier on in my career I used fighting as a way of keeping me healthy and fit and in shape and if there wasn’t fights I wasn’t prepared to stay in it.”
Boxing is often referred to as a glamour sport but the reality of day-to-day life as an athlete, particularly a woman in that space, couldn’t be further from the truth.
Daniels says her innate desire to not want to ask for help has meant reaching out to potential sponsors, one of the ways she’s used her layoff to her advantage, has been a testing process.
That coupled with a lack of income after forgoing a career as a nurse for nearly 18 months has put additional strain on the champion fighter.
Lani Daniels' last fight was a defence of her IBF Light Heavyweight title against Australian Desley Robinson. Photo / Photosport
“I’m not working and it is my income so I think financially it was a bit tougher, but it did also allow me time to seek sponsorship and get some sponsorship on board which did lighten the load.
“As women athletes it is a little bit harder to get that sponsorship on board. You literally have to get out and about and hunt it down.
“For me, I struggle asking for things. So I’m thinking, I’ll let my hands do the asking. Perform well and they’ll come to me, I won’t have to chase them down,” Daniels says.
During a time in which walking away from the sport was a tabled option, Daniels chose to use it as an opportunity to ask the question of just how deep that desire ran within her.
“I needed to go through that at that period to give me that ‘Do I really want this?’ It was the universes way of testing me, I suppose. Am I going to stay the course? Do I really want it so much that I’m going to stick at it.”
On the other side of the coin is how such a significant time away from training and fighting impacts the body and again Daniels looks at it through a positive lense.
“Physically I was nursing a few injuries so it did allow me time to rest those and come back stronger for it.
“I think it’s a good learning too, that we can all learn from. We can’t just go, go, go – we’re not robots that you can just top up and we’re good to go.”
Daniels faces the hardest puncher of her career to date in Nigeria’s Bolatito Oluwole, who boasts an undefeated 9-0 record. They fight on Saturday in Hamilton and a victory for the Kiwi could open an opportunity to fight overseas for more titles and with that, more prize money.
“You are only as good as your last fight. In boxing its quite a cutthroat world, it pays to be a winner. One of the things I’ve learned from my experiences over the last year is that it pays to be a winner.”
International Charity Fight Night card, 7 September, Globox Arena, Kirikiriroa Hamilton
Will Toogood is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much he decided to make a living out of it.
