David Tua\u2019s retirement fight<\/a>, though he said it was now a very different economic climate.<\/p>\n\u201cThe Hamilton City Council doesn\u2019t seem well-resourced at the moment to attract major events.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Hamilton and Auckland say<\/p>\n
Hamilton City Council destinations group general manager Sean Murray confirmed there had been a conversation between the council and Duco Events about bringing the Nyika-Masson fight to Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have loved the event to come here to Hamilton and there is definitely no doubt that Claudelands would have been a great venue, as it has been for a lot of other boxing matches in the past,\u201d Murray told the Waikato Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe … do have a good track record of staging a really good event, but we could not come up with the level of support [the promoter] was looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray wouldn\u2019t say exactly how much financial support Duco sought.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It was] substantially more than what we have available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray disagreed with Higgins that Hamilton City Council couldn\u2019t attract major events.<\/p>\n
Hamilton has hosted events including Fifa Women\u2019s World Cup matches, the New Zealand Darts Masters, the Special Olympics Summer Games, All Blacks and Black Caps tests and the Homegrown Festival.<\/p>\n
Upcoming events supported by the city include Equifest and the World Tennis Tour.<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
A fight between New Zealand boxer David Tua (left) against Russian boxing giant Alexander Ustinov (2.02m) took place in Hamilton in 2013. Photo \/ Richard Robinson<\/p>\n
\u201cThe events that we have supported … bring in big numbers of people … and they would also be here for a much longer time, as opposed to a single-night event,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The] events world is highly competitive across venues and cities across New Zealand. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don\u2019t win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough we missed out on the boxing, we do still have quite a bit of action happening … We are punching above our weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auckland Council would not say how much it supported the Nyika-Masson fight financially \u201cout of respect for our commercial partnerships\u201d.<\/p>\n
T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited head of major events, Cheyne Stevens, said the city was proud to back the event.<\/p>\n
![\"Hamilton]()
Hamilton City Council general manager for venues, tourism and major events group Sean Murray. Photo \/ Hamilton City Council <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have forecasted [sic] that it will generate over 3400 visitor nights, but more than that, this event will attract significant international broadcast audiences,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the biggest fight on New Zealand soil since [2016], so we hope that local supporters will see this [as] a great chance to … come up to Auckland for some world-class entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the fighters say<\/p>\n
Nyika and Masson said they are disappointed about not being able to fight in Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have made sense for both of our fan base and I\u2019d have loved to see all my Hamilton Boys\u2019 High mates there as well … [It] would have been cool … [but] pretty rowdy,\u201d Nyika said.<\/p>\n
Masson said: \u201cIt would have been awesome to have it in the Waikato, because we [are] both Waikato boys. [But] at the end of the day, I\u2019m sure all the people from Waikato are going to travel to Auckland and get behind both me and Dave.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"David]()
David Nyika and Floyd Masson said they were childhood friends and had nothing but respect for each other. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Both fighters said they were childhood friends and had nothing but respect for each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to talk shop in the hallway when my older sister used to have house parties,\u201d Nyika said.<\/p>\n
Talking about the upcoming fight, Nyika said Masson was the most deserving person to fight for a world title eliminator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would much rather fight someone that I respect and appreciate and Floyd is everything that I need right now to motivate me, to push me to that extra mile, because I know he is doing that same work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both of them said they have what it takes to beat the other across the 12 three-minute rounds.<\/p>\n
![\"Waikato]()
Waikato products Floyd Masson (left) and David Nyika will face off in Auckland. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Nyika brings his lengthy amateur boxing experience and is adaptable in his fighting style, switching from southpaw to orthodox.<\/p>\n
Masson brings more experience fighting professionally, having participated in two 12-round fights previously and clocking up 102 rounds across all his professional fights, compared to Nyika\u2019s total of 46 rounds.<\/p>\n
On the undercard<\/p>\n
Nyika and Masson will headline the event, though some of the undercard fights have also already been confirmed.<\/p>\n
Hamilton boxer Sheilla Yama will fight against a yet-to-be-announced international opponent.<\/p>\n
Her fight is set for 10 two-minute rounds.<\/p>\n
To her surprise, Higgins confirmed that Yama will either fight for an IBF world title eliminator or the interim IBF world super lightweight world title.<\/p>\n
![\"Hamilton]()
Hamilton boxer Sheilla Yama has had a whopper year.<\/p>\n
An interim world title gives world title status to a boxer, while the full world title champion is inactive.<\/p>\n
The current unified IBF, WBA and WBO world super lightweight champion Katie Taylor, of Ireland, plans to fight one more time before retiring.<\/p>\n
If Yama wins an interim world title, she will immediately get full world title recognition once Taylor retires.<\/p>\n
If Yama ends up fighting for a world title eliminator, she becomes the number one mandatory contender for the title once it becomes available.<\/p>\n
The other fighter on the undercard will be former league star Manu Vatuvei, who will compete as a heavyweight across four three-minute rounds and recently made his return to the ring.<\/p>\n
His opponent is yet to be announced.<\/p>\n
David Nyika versus Floyd Masson will take place on August 8 at Eventfinda Stadium. Tickets are available online via ducoevents.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Higgins said the fight was the biggest boxing event in New Zealand since Joseph Parker\u2019s world title fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[9008,2905,27965,703,49,48,13645,1138,24158,3234,2151,227772,2000,255157,24159,4552,19108,255156,247453,24161,4637,12852,82,255158,45087,696,137930,24162,255155],"class_list":["post-700859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-battle","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david","tag-fight","tag-floyd","tag-funding","tag-home","tag-hosting","tag-in","tag-lack","tag-masson","tag-match","tag-missed","tag-misses","tag-mooloo","tag-nyika","tag-out","tag-region","tag-sports","tag-substantial","tag-support","tag-to","tag-versus","tag-waikato","tag-waikatos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}