Mukuka is a three-time New Zealand national amateur champion and has one professional boxing fight under his belt.<\/p>\n
He was due to fight in another professional boxing fight in Taup\u014d in October, but pulled out of the event to focus on the national championships.<\/p>\n
Another Waikato fighter who will eye Commonwealth Games selection is Greer Hall, who won bronze at the 2024 World Under-19 Championships.<\/p>\n
Hall last competed at the national amateur champs in 2023 in the youth division when she won gold. This time, she will compete as an elite boxer.<\/p>\n
Tinta Smith is also one to watch at the amateur champs after taking home wins at the competition in 2021 and 2023.<\/p>\n
As Smith is an amateur champion and a New Zealand Professional boxing champion, she makes a strong contender for the Commonwealth Games. However, it is a hot seat with many contenders in the weight division.<\/p>\n
Greer Hall, of Hamilton\u2019s Hit Fitness HQ, was among the gold medal winners at the recent Queensland International Golden Gloves Tournament.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Trotter is also competing in hope to be selected for the Commonwealth Games, however, her selection depends on whether there will be a women\u2019s 80kg division at the Commonwealth Games, which historically has not been.<\/p>\n
The Waikato Amateur Boxing Association also have some strong contenders for the amateur champs, especially with Troy Colby, Maatia Kiri and Lucas Crawshaw winning gold in their division at the recent Golden Gloves in Australia.<\/p>\n
Waikato boxers in national amateur champs<\/p>\n
\u25cf Waikato Amateur Boxing Association<\/p>\n
Tyson Peterson (Elite) 75kg <\/p>\n
Harley Van Walraven (Elite) 70kg <\/p>\n
Syed Aahtar Rizui (Elite) 70kg <\/p>\n
Lukah Sakamoto-Aish (Elite) 65kg <\/p>\n
Troy Colby (Junior) 63kg <\/p>\n
Matai Kiri (Cadet) 70kg <\/p>\n
Macy Smith (Elite) 60kg <\/p>\n
Ericka Stark (Elite) 65kg <\/p>\n
\u25cf Kirikiriroa Boxing Association<\/p>\n
Greer Hall (Elite) 54kg<\/p>\n
Amanda Laird (Elite) 57kg<\/p>\n
Stephanie Trotter (Elite) 80kg<\/p>\n
Tinta Smith (Elite) 75kg<\/p>\n
Ella Bartram (Elite) 70kg<\/p>\n
Saskia Elliott (Elite) 60kg<\/p>\n
Harrison Hodges (Elite) 80kg<\/p>\n
Ti Rakau Tepania (Elite) 75kg<\/p>\n
Gower Robertson (Elite) 65kg<\/p>\n
Alex Mukuka (Elite) 55kg<\/p>\n
Mania Smith (Youth) 65kg<\/p>\n
Lleyton Jones (Junior) 75kg<\/p>\n
Maia Laird (Junior) 48kg<\/p>\n
Cruso Nepia-Ford (Junior) 63kg<\/p>\n
Asma Nabizadh (Cadet) 60kg<\/p>\n
Tangaroa Holman-Lee (Cadet) 66kg<\/p>\n
Boston Kerapa (Junior) 80kg+<\/p>\n
Bismillah Ali Madad (Youth) 50kg<\/p>\n
Benjamin Watt is a retired boxing judge and New Zealand boxing writer with a decade of experience. Watt has also been BoxRec\u2019s New Zealand record-keeper since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mukuka is a three-time New Zealand national amateur champion and has one professional boxing fight under his belt.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[4032,32613,25103,64,63,802,21099,2976,35546,4717,97574,97573,621,1697,38072,97572,97575,85,1928,319,16484,82482],"class_list":["post-143828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-amateur","tag-announced","tag-association","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-championships","tag-fighter","tag-fighters","tag-in","tag-kir","tag-kirikiriroa","tag-national","tag-nz","tag-off","tag-porirua","tag-selection","tag-sports","tag-their","tag-to","tag-waikato","tag-wba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}