Multiple boxing world champion Lani Daniels hopes her new Nelson connections will take her to even greater heights.<\/p>\n
The IBF and WBO Super Middleweight Champion enjoyed a five-day stint in Nelson this month, hosted by Victory Boxing founder Paul Hampton.<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul actually rang me before I won the unified titles in New York in April. Coming off losing my heavyweight and light heavyweight world titles, he still saw the champion in me for what I had done. He made the effort to bring me down to Nelson as a guest speaker at a Victory Boxing fundraiser,\u201d says the Northlander of Ng\u0101ti Hine descent. It proved a timely call as the boxer known as \u2018the Silent<\/p>\n
Assassin\u2019 beat American Shadasia Green by technical knockout in the 9th of the 10 scheduled rounds at the iconic Madison Square Garden to record the 12th win in her 18th bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe setting was unreal. I honestly felt like a big kid in a candy shop,\u201d enthuses Lani.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a sweet feeling for her opponent though, who was carried out on a stretcher and later revealed she had suffered a brain bleed. \u201cWe both knew what we were signing up for, but I had to do a bit of mind work around that,\u201d confirms the 38-year-old.<\/p>\n
On to Nelson, where Lani and Paul immediately hit it off and he is now a key part in her inner circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cA friend and a guru,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s my manager when I am down here. He is the guy doing everything and putting the support around me,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Through Paul\u2019s local connections, the reigning world champion has started working with Tasman High Performance strength and conditioning coach Glenn Stewart, and mental health and breathing specialist Jamie O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I am an elite athlete, I have never had elite training in the sense of testing or monitoring. I have been set in my ways for the past eight years and it has always just kind of been a relentless work ethic.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing to Nelson is a reset and with the training I have now, the difficulty will be holding back because I am so used to just smashing myself. This is a structured and scientific plan which is allowing my body to recover so I am not burning out,\u201d explains Lani, who hadn\u2019t done a VO2 max oxygen measuring test before.<\/p>\n
She helped out with women\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s boxing classes at Victory and made a real impact on the locals.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone loves Lani because of who she is, and she gets on with everybody. She is so humble, I had to convince her to show off her boxing belts,\u201d says Paul.<\/p>\n
But she had no qualms about bringing a Northland Taniwha jersey with her since her rampant local team had already dispatched the Tasman Mako in the NPC quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not so much a wind up. I am here to rally support for the Taniwha in the final because we are wh\u0101nau now. The team has been amazing, and it is so cool we are achieving these results for our kids up there,\u201d declares the church-going Mormon who is related to Northland rugby royalty \u2013 the Going family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be the only girl in a young boys\u2019 rugby team, a loose forward, and I was named the most promising player,\u201d says Lani, who hails from the rural settlement of Pipiwai, about 40 minutes from Whangarei.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlink and you miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1.69m and 76kg athlete is impressed with the Victory Boxing set up and hopes to replicate it close to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got those initial blocks in place here, so it is just a matter of keeping in touch,\u201d says Paul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am picking Paul\u2019s brain on how he started up Victory. Boxing is the vehicle to get people in. I am keen on developing a holistic approach with my own gym, with a cultural experience as well. Like the retreats in Bali,\u201d Lani says.<\/p>\n
As part of that move, Lani decided not to renew her registration after 12 years as a mental health nurse as she thought she could make more impact through her boxing platform.<\/p>\n
While Paul is her go-to-guy in Nelson, it is all about family in Northland.<\/p>\n
Her older sister Caroline, also a nurse, has been her manager since her amateur boxing days when she won national titles before her first professional fight in 2017, while her cousin Sonny Henare is her new coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cSonny doesn\u2019t know boxing from a bar of soap, but I noticed when he was in my corner in New York, he knows me. When the spirit starts to float in those championship rounds, he pulls me back to earth,\u201d insists Lani, who followed Daniella Smith and Mea Motu as world boxing champions out of Northland.<\/p>\n
So, at 38, how much longer does she see her career extending.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are only as old as you feel. I thought I might have only had another year prior to coming to Nelson. I am in discussions with promoters and it is about standing my ground and knowing my worth. \u00a0It is about taking control of my career with people that have my best interests at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speed is her real strength in the ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoxers struggle to hit me. I am sneaky, reactive, and a think-10-steps-ahead type of fighter. I set my opponents up and draw them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lani plans to return to her second home away from home later this year and has fired a warning to future rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cA happy Lani is a dangerous Lani,\u201d concludes the fighter with a growing fan base in Nelson and a new Tasman Mako mouthguard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple boxing world champion Lani Daniels hopes her new Nelson connections will take her to even greater heights.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-946095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946095","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=946095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}