Without the “bro,” she was lost and tried football for camaraderie. It was too tame. Lunchtime scraps gave more adrenaline but were unproductive.
“I was a bit naughty. I was protecting my friends,” Hall laughs.
“I needed another outlet. I wanted to make good of myself. When I turned up to the East Side Boxing gym aged 15 or so, I was hooked right away.
“You can either handle being punched in the face or you can’t. Mike Tyson said that. Who doesn’t love Mike Tyson?
“Cuts, bruises, broken bones, steep hills, obstacles – there’s a lot going on in BMX. In soccer, I had to wait for something to happen.”
Waiting around isn’t in the DNA of this restless country girl, who will compete in the 54kg bantamweight class in Glasgow.
“It doesn’t feel real. Is somebody tricking me? I’ll only believe it when I get there,” Hall says.
Greer Hall (right) fights Australian Sarah Linton at the BX-9 event in Auckland last December. Photo / CSN-Watch Instagram
Her grandfather Graham Falconer was a rugged Wairarapa Bush hooker who played for the Junior All Blacks in 1970 and was twice an All Blacks triallist.
He owned a pet food company and later became an owner-trainer of racehorses. Gelding Logan James is a cracking story.
A dud track racer, Falconer was going to give him away but the person supposed to pick him up never showed.
They turned Logan James into a steeplechaser and he won thousands. Graham and his wife Denise are “huge” supporters of Greer.
Mum Bridgit and father Aaron met while travelling “here, there and everywhere”.
They settled on a farm in Cambridge and went all-in on their children’s sport.
It was something of a letdown when Hall quit BMX, but Mike Peterson, cousin of former WBA world middleweight title holder Maselino Masoe and All Black Chris Masoe, proved a positive mentor in Hall’s boxing infancy.
Soon, things ratcheted up with Hall joining the crosstown gym Hit Fitness HQ, run by the “Waikato Warrior” Cairo George.
George is an archetypal boxing character, tough, practical and smooth-talking.
He was going down a bad path, fighting more at local parties than in the gym. When he was 19, riding his Harley-Davidson on the backroads of Orini near Huntly, he had an accident and suffered a fractured lower spine and a broken leg.
Doctors told him he’d never walk again. Instead, he trained harder and became a professional fighter, winning the New Zealand title twice.
He finished his career with an 18-win, two-loss record and 10 knockouts as mostly a super lightweight.
His most memorable fight was a win against Ricky Campbell on the undercard of David Tua’s retirement fight against Alexander Ustinov in Hamilton in 2013.
In 2017, he started Hit Fitness HQ in his garage, then bought a nearby warehouse to handle the growing number of clients.
Today, up to 80 fighters train at the gym. Olympic gold medallist David Nyika, whom George has cornered for all 13 of Nyika’s professional fights, is a semi-regular at the gym, as is former All Black turned boxer Liam Messam.
When George first saw Hall, he was struck by her work ethic and tenacity.
“Who’s this blonde, white girl? A little pocket-rocket with a no-s**t attitude,” George laughs.
“We often joke she needs a DNA test cause she throws shots like an Islander.
“Greer is disciplined. She’s at the gym religiously, six days a week and even on the seventh day when I’m not there, Greer is there.”
Her first fight was a split-decision win over Takara Adams in May 2022.
A national youth title was secured against Javana Ratana in July 2023, a result Ratana reversed in October that year.
Valuable international experience was gained at the 2024 world U19 championships in Colorado, where she fought up a weight class to the 57kg division.
She was beaten by “The Star Girl,” Great Britain’s Tiah Mai Ayton, who went 21-0 as an amateur and is already 6-0 as a pro.
If Hall performed strongly at the July 2025 Queensland Open International Golden Gloves, it would open the door to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
She won a split decision against Emily Collins and then won unanimously over Skye Wienert to take the title.
Bianca Leonard and Amy Laird, a 2025 60kg Australian Golden Gloves winner, were dispatched at the 2025 New Zealand Nationals in Porirua, leaving Hall clearly ranked No.1 in the country.
She consolidated that position by winning the Queen of the Ring elite women’s final in Perth against southpaw Rebecca Cawley.
More international experience was gained in Brazil at the 2026 World Cup. Hall was outpaced by a classy 31-year-old Canadian, Scarlett Delgado, who has won 53 of her 78 fights.
Hall sharpened her tools further by winning her first professional bout in December with a first-round knockout of Australian Sarah Linton at the BX-9 event in Auckland.
Amateur boxers at the Commonwealth Games are allowed up to 10 professional fights.
“I got her with an overhand right,” Hall says. “That’s my favourite punch.
“Winning a national title was big, but winning in Australia has really given me a lot of confidence. I’d never been further than Australia when I fought in America. It was eye-opening. Brazil was an amazing country.”
Hall’s most recent amateur victory was a unanimous points decision over Saskia Elliott at the June Queen of the Ring NZ championship in Manurewa. Elliott has had 105 rounds compared to Hall’s 53.
Boxing for women debuted at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games where Nyika, 69-14 as an amateur, won the first of his two gold medals in the light heavyweight class.
At the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, Alexis Pritchard (featherweight, 57kg) and Troy Garton (lightweight, 60kg) became New Zealand’s first female boxing medallists when they both won bronze.
Can Hall, with a 15-4 record as an amateur, feature in the medals in Glasgow? The odds are long, but with a little luck and that inherent “madness,” don’t write off the Cambridge pocket rocket.
“What do I expect? They only do the draw a couple of hours before the fights, so there is some luck involved, but I’ve beaten the top fighters in New Zealand and Australia and had international experience in Brazil, so I feel like when I get there the work is done,” she says.
“It’s up to me to produce the goods.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.