Vatuvei, 40, has two knockout victories in his two previous fights, while Ranger last fought in a Fight for Life event against former NRL player Greg Bird in Auckland in 2012. Ranger lost.<\/p>\n
After a professional rugby career which spanned six Tests for the All Blacks and a couple of stints at the Blues and in France, where he became a cult figure for his utter fearlessness when charging into contact \u2013 with or without the ball \u2013 Ranger is still playing for his beloved Wellsford club which this year celebrated its 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Ranger, a former wing or centre, is used to putting himself in potentially compromising positions \u2013 he has recently played in the front row for Wellsford and commonly comes off the bench to play as a loose forward, but the obvious question now is\u2026 why fight a man who knows his way around the ring and whose nickname as a league player was \u201cThe Beast\u201d?<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to see if I\u2019ve still got it,\u201d Ranger told 1News. \u201cI\u2019ve been out of the game for a while now and the old pay cheque helps too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ranger, working in civil construction, added: \u201cOpportunities like this don\u2019t come around very often.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Rene](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/rene-ranger-carries-the-ball-for-the-blues-against-the-shark-H4N7EFYW5ZC7RGHHAUF7ML6JJE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Rene Ranger carries the ball for the Blues against the Sharks in a Super Rugby match in 2016. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n
What does he make of Vatuvei as a fighter?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an animal. He can throw some good punches, good combos. He likes to pressure you, and why wouldn\u2019t he \u2013 he\u2019s such a big man. I\u2019ll just try to play it smart and move. If he gets a clean shot I\u2019ll be going down.\u201d<\/p>\n
One wonders, too, whether Ranger is trying to prove to his four children \u2013 two girls and two boys \u2013 about facing up to potentially daunting challenges.<\/p>\n
His boys, aged nearly 10 and seven, are keen rugby players \u2013 \u201cthey\u2019re on YouTube trying to look at my highlights from back in the day\u201d \u2013 while his daughters are more into netball and basketball.<\/p>\n
They could do worse than to follow their dad in terms of commitment. Ranger was never the biggest player but he was always one of the hardest hitters. That desire to give his all, along with the flowing hair and beard, contributed to a cult-like status at many of his clubs, including the Blues.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t look much older than he did as a professional player \u2013 his last stint was as a pre-season injury replacement for the Crusaders in 2021 (he didn\u2019t play a competitive game for that year\u2019s title winners).<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprisingly, I still get the odd fan still coming up for photos,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be playing club rugby and the opposition will recognise me and come up for a photo afterwards. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re excited they\u2019re playing against me. I try to duck my head down or put the hood up sometimes. But when you\u2019re in that rugby environment, I\u2019m always there to have a good chat, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
It may be reassuring to others entering middle age to hear that it takes far longer for Ranger to recover from games than it used to.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/new-zealand-cruiserweight-boxer-david-nyika-DKBHE27HRRCZDCP4S3DT2YYIWM.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
New Zealand cruiserweight boxer David Nyika, pictured at today’s announcement. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sore, man,\u201d he replied when asked how his body felt on a Monday after a club game. \u201cI\u2019ve only just been coming off the bench as well because I\u2019m trying to get our young fellas playing. I always end up playing, though\u2026 my knees are sore, my shoulders are sore\u2026 it\u2019s not like how it used to be in the old days when you had good recovery sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow my recovery is at home taking the dogs for a walk or maybe going for a hunt or taking the kids out.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kiwi Nyika, who fought for the IBF title in 2024 and was brutally stopped by then champion Jai Opetaia<\/a> (the title has since been vacated), said he took a huge amount of motivation from his fiancee Lexy\u2019s recovery <\/a>from head and neck cancer.<\/p>\n The 25-year-old revealed recently that she was cancer free after \u201csix excruciating months of chemotherapy and radiation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s given me a lot of perspective,\u201d Nyika said. \u201cI threw my life into that chapter\u2026 life is good. I\u2019ve seen so much resilience and tenacity in the way Lexy has faced this challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m planning on putting it on Floyd from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a former All Black, Rene Ranger has faced many big challenges in the sporting arena but nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,2023,111,139,69,213,3006],"class_list":["post-492870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-boxing","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}