{"id":739544,"date":"2026-06-16T02:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739544\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T02:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T02:24:10","slug":"new-zealand-amateur-boxing-championships-back-in-whanganui-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739544\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Amateur Boxing Championships back in Whanganui for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the first time in 68 years they had been in Whanganui. <\/p>\n

This year, the event runs from September 29 to October 4 at Jubilee Stadium.<\/p>\n

Tofa, who runs the River City Boxing Club, said a corporate boxing night would be held at Springvale Stadium on August 28, with funds raised going toward the nationals.<\/p>\n

Members of the public are paired with opponents of similar size and ability, fighting over three two-minute rounds. <\/p>\n

The club\u2019s 2023 corporate night raised $50,000<\/a> for the Whanganui Cancer Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still need boxers for that. If you want to have a go, come down to the gym and see me,\u201d Tofa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhanganui\u2019s community and businesses can help us by buying a table for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll get drinks, a buffet meal, entertainment, plus your logo on the flags for nationals.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said Boxing New Zealand was covering the cost of officials at the nationals but \u201ceverything is double\u201d compared to 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need two rings this time, and two doctors. Each doctor is $6000 by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA River City Boxing Club corporate event in 2021. Photo \/ Mike Tweed<\/p>\n

Boxing New Zealand president Josh Wharehinga said the event had been scheduled for Hawke\u2019s Bay but unforeseen circumstances meant a new host had to be found.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out for expressions of interest and a few people applied, but Eddie and Sandra [Tofa] have held Golden Gloves and nationals before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re experienced and seasoned. We\u2019re really grateful to them for putting their hand up to run nationals at short notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Whanganui association includes clubs from Whanganui, Marton and Bulls.<\/p>\n

Whanganui heavyweight Sale Oldehaver said he had taken a year off but was \u201cback for another crack\u201d at the nationals this year.<\/p>\n

Oldehaver scored a highlight-reel knockout<\/a> on his way to bronze in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was meant to be my last one, but I just got bored,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also got a fight coming up on the BX-9 [professional boxing series] card next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to open up my own gym [Sal\u2019s Boxing] so it\u2019s good to keep doing stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tofa said hosting the championships would be a challenge but would benefit Whanganui. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be funding out there somewhere, you just need to work your a*** off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be busy, but it\u2019s a good busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wharehinga said boxing in New Zealand ran \u201con the smell of sausage sizzles, car washes and an oily rag\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the nationals were where future Olympians and Commonwealth Games athletes came from, he said.<\/p>\n

New Zealand will send seven boxers to the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games on July 23 to August 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationals is a really important event, and you have to be trusted in order to be able to run it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sport is really growing, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if, potentially, it ends up being much more [than 400 boxers]. \u201d<\/p>\n

The River City Boxing Club, 100 Devon Rd, can be reached via whanganuiboxing@gmail.com.<\/p>\n

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the first time in 68 years they had been in Whanganui. This year, the event runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[43409,1287,5512,703,49,48,11291,9834,110585,693,2000,5268,21549,82,19680,7479,66645,9911],"class_list":["post-739544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-43409","tag-amateur","tag-back","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-championships","tag-double","tag-everything","tag-for","tag-in","tag-new","tag-returning","tag-sports","tag-this","tag-time","tag-whanganui","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739544","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=739544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}