Waitai said he had changed a few things in training for this fight, including getting Daniel Holiday, a strength and conditioning coach, involved.<\/p>\n
Waitai said he had been working towards getting a stoppage win, though getting it done in the first round felt amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that the training preparation that I have changed … that it\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n
BX-9 promoter Oz Jabur announced that the boxing series would come to Hamilton in December and Waitai is hoping to fight in the main event there.<\/p>\n
Francis Waitai said he had been working towards getting a stoppage win, though getting it done in the first round felt amazing. Photo \/ CSN.Watch<\/p>\n
Recently, there has been speculation that Oliver Firth, of Peach Boxing Gym, would want to fight the winner of the Waitai-Ray bout.<\/p>\n
When asked if Waitai was interested, he declined, saying he intends to fight someone who is ranked just above him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I can climb up ranks, not level myself. I\u2019m trying to push forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Saskia Elliott took on Australia\u2019s Leah Reuben Kawane for the vacant WBA Oceania super bantamweight title.<\/p>\n
Both boxers have different fighting styles, with Elliott being more technical, whereas Reuben has more power.<\/p>\n
The fight started well for Elliott, though Reuben was able to knock her down in the second round.<\/p>\n
Despite this, she got back up and held on.<\/p>\n
At the end of round 10, it was a split decision for Elliott, with the scorecards showing Elliott 95-94, Reuben 97-92 and Elliott 95-94.<\/p>\n
Saskia Elliott took on Australia’s Leah Reuben Kawane for the vacant WBA Oceania super bantamweight title.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the fight, Elliott said that until the moment the referee raised her hand to show she had won, she was unsure whether the fight had gone her way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel amazing, [the win] means so much to me, I have done so much hard work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been able to see friends and family, all leading up to this, being disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she was now looking forward to relaxing and eating butter chicken \u2013 a dish she had to go without during the training camp leading up to the fight.<\/p>\n
Elliott is trained by her father, Nigel Elliott, who said he was very proud of her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am proud of all my kids and what they achieve in their life, they all work hard,\u201d he said after the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I am over the moon for Saskia\u2019s performance today. The heart she showed, to get off the floor, off the canvas and come back to win a 10-round split decision over an Aussie opponent that came to fight and hit hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Elliott won the title, she now also received a three-fight deal with BX-9 and hopes to fight at the Hamilton event at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The next BX-9 event will take place on October 3 in Auckland.<\/p>\n
That event will be headlined by Mea Motu, who will take on Mariah Turner for the vacant IBF Intercontinental featherweight title.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s BX-9 event comprised 15 fights in total and was the biggest since it first started a year ago.<\/p>\n
Other BX-9 results<\/p>\n
Hyper fight heavyweight<\/p>\n
Niwa Barlow defeated Dhcamad Armstrong by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
WBA world title eliminator & WBA gold atomweight title<\/p>\n
Emma Nesbitt defeated Madoka Wada by split decision<\/p>\n
BX-9 welterweight tournament semi-finals<\/p>\n
John Ume defeated Dane Edge by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
Riley Allen defeated Paul Tonga by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
Cruiserweight<\/p>\n
Adrian Paoletti defeated Keanu Naden by split decision<\/p>\n
Heavyweight<\/p>\n
Amato Mataika defeated Jordan Collins by first-round stoppage<\/p>\n
Flyweight<\/p>\n
Mia Evans defeated Sarah Linton by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
Cruiserweight<\/p>\n
Ikuna Malupo defeated Filimaea Filimaea by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
Super middleweight<\/p>\n
Tawhiri Toheriri Hallett defeated Warren Warupi by fourth-round stoppage<\/p>\n
Light heavyweight semi-pro<\/p>\n
Purcell Placid defeated Charl Ackerman by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
Amateur boxing<\/p>\n
Noah Collier defeated Jaspaa Stowers by unanimous decision<\/p>\n
Marley Dasey defeated Harlan Tai by split decision<\/p>\n
Lucas Potter defeated Luca Mamic by unanimous decision<\/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":"Standing in the ring while being announced the winner of the fight, Waitai was visibly emotional. Speaking after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[1929,64,22065,63,32609,802,179911,59905,35546,38022,156428,39598,4717,354435,85,1928,8821,84996,16484,156429,8935],"class_list":["post-841186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-at","tag-au","tag-auckland","tag-australia","tag-both","tag-boxing","tag-bx9","tag-elliott","tag-fighters","tag-fights","tag-francis","tag-friday","tag-in","tag-saskia","tag-sports","tag-their","tag-title","tag-titles","tag-waikato","tag-waitai","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841186","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=841186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}