Then, at the age of 19, while riding his Harley Davidson on the backroads of Orini, near Huntly, he had an accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a pike spill from a truck … which caused me to lose control of the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n
He suffered a fractured lower spine and a broken leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctors told me I would never walk again.\u201d<\/p>\n
For George, it was the wake-up call he needed to get his life back on track.<\/p>\n
He found his way back to boxing and set his eyes on turning pro and becoming a New Zealand champion.<\/p>\n
Going to the Olympics didn\u2019t interest him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pro guys I looked up to while I was boxing and seeing the bright lights they were under made me hungry for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmateur boxing never really gave me that excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n
George made his professional boxing debut against Saili Tofilau in Hamilton in 2012, winning by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n
Less than a year later, George reached his championship goal, winning the New Zealand National (NZNBF version) Welterweight title against Joshua Maheno.<\/p>\n
Ricky Campbell and Cairo George before their fight on the Alexander Ustinov v David Tua undercard. Photo \/ Christine Cornege<\/p>\n
Though one of his most memorable fights was against Ricky Campbell on the undercard of David Tua\u2019s retirement fight against Alexander Ustinov in Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Tua was my childhood hero … [but] the opportunity to be part of this massive … event … only came six days before the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not in training and nowhere fight weight or fight fitness, but I was never going to turn this opportunity down.\u201d<\/p>\n
While George admitted it wasn\u2019t healthy, he said he did get down to fight weight by hardly eating or drinking and spending a lot of time in the sauna.<\/p>\n
George won the fight by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n
Cairo George v Ricky Campbell on the undercard of David Tua’s retirement fight in Hamilton in 2013. Photo \/ Andrew Cornaga, Photosport<\/p>\n
Whenever he stepped into the ring, he also turned heads with his hairstyle: George often dyed it in Waikato colours to showcase his home and underlined his alias \u201cthe Waikato Warrior\u201d.<\/p>\n
The dyed hair became his trademark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always knew as a professional boxer it\u2019s about marketing and being different, so … [dyeing] the hair different colours for fights was a part of [that].\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2014, he won his second New Zealand title, this time in the super welterweight division.<\/p>\n
George\u2019s favourite fight was against Australian Daniel Ford in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI broke my hand in round 2 and finished him [in] round 8 by dropping him twice.<\/p>\n
From left: trainer and manager Cairo George, Floyd George, Francis Waitai, Emile Richardson, Greer Hall, Shaun George (trainer).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fight was a test of character … [It was] a reassurance that I had that dog in me.<\/p>\n
\u201c[My] hand was badly broken but [I had] the ability to push myself past that and still get that late stoppage win.\u201d<\/p>\n
That broken hand was just one of the many injuries George has received throughout his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe injuries … were something I had to just deal with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going into most fights with injuries or something going on … all fighters do.<\/p>\n
\u201cFighting ain\u2019t for the faint-hearted.\u201d<\/p>\n
George suffered his first loss against Stevie Ongen Ferdinandus in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Asia-based promotion company Ringstar asked George to sign with them.<\/p>\n
This led to a six-fight winning streak, including the Pacific (Pro Box NZ version) Super Lightweight title in May 2019.<\/p>\n
George ended his career in Australia, where he fought retiring Australian boxer Jamie Hilt for the WBU World Super Lightweight title.<\/p>\n
Hilt won by technical unanimous decision.<\/p>\n
At the time, George didn\u2019t know it was going to be his final fight.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 closed down the world, and fighting, especially internationally, became difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trained for nearly two years without knowing if I will get to travel to fight again and it became disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n
He naturally fell into coaching, something he was already doing while being an active fighter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy passion started to shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though leaving professional boxing behind wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bittersweet feeling [of] realising I was losing that competitive feeling to fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a struggle … going through this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was blessed to have David [Nyika] to help him prepare for major tournaments at this time, and this made the transition exciting and much easier to deal with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like this is exactly what I should be doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n
George finished his professional boxing career with a record of 18 wins and 2 losses, with 10 wins by knockout.<\/p>\n
He said he would only come out of retirement to fight American boxer and social media personality Jake Paul, though George\u2019s main focus was now on being a trainer and manager, he said.<\/p>\n
Cairo George celebrates with Sheilla Yama after her recent fight against Chinese boxer Haini Mulataiaili. Photo \/ CSN.Watch<\/p>\n
He has led many people to success, including Nyika, Cayden Hope, Aminio Manu, Sheilla Yama and Francis Waitai.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a big part of success as a coach is having a genuine care for my fighters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all people I consider friends … So when they have their lows, I have the lows too, and when they have their highs, I have the highs too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from boxing, running Hamilton\u2019s Hit Fitness HQ and coaching and managing his stable of fighters, another big part of George\u2019s life is his family: He is a proud husband and father of four.<\/p>\n
They keep him busy, though whenever he gets a spare minute, he is out and about on his Harley.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The accident] has never really held me back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve run half marathons and broken records for the fastest time in Tainui games history for running up the Hakarimata track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of things that doctors would be surprised by.\u201d<\/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":"Then, at the age of 19, while riding his Harley Davidson on the backroads of Orini, near Huntly,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,16485,16490,802,5578,8813,5177,3181,16495,5587,7987,3201,4717,35485,29887,2975,85,28221,11764,316214,320,319,16484,68707,3205],"class_list":["post-654053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxer","tag-boxers","tag-boxing","tag-cairo","tag-champion","tag-circle","tag-coach","tag-come","tag-from","tag-full","tag-george","tag-in","tag-manager","tag-retired","tag-ring","tag-sports","tag-stable","tag-successful","tag-tainui","tag-the","tag-to","tag-waikato","tag-warrior","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654053","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=654053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}