(MAR 11) A new Women’s Champion
was crowned last night at ABA Stadium, with Alrie Meleisea
winning the New Zealand National (NZPBA Version) and UBF Asia
Pacific Female Heavyweight Titles.
Alrie Meleisea took on Tongan Born Nailini Helu for the second
time in their career, the first bout being on the Robert
Berridge vs Adrian Taihia undercard in October. Meleisea took
the bout in October on 48 hours notice and won the bout by split
decision
Last night bout ended in a controversial split decision, with
crowd in attendance reacting 50/50 to the decision. One of crowd
in attendance live stream the fight on facebook, with members
across social media delivering a similar reaction.
Before the fight was announced, the two supervisors of the bout
took 5 minutes to go over the cards, making sure everything was
100% correct. After double checking the scores they deliver the
results to referee Lance Revill, which Revill did not believe.
Revill climbed through the ropes to look at the scorecards
himself, which to his surprise, the Scorecards were added up
correctly. Judge one scored the fight 59 - 58 to Meleisea, Judge
two 55 - 59 Helu and Judge three 58 - 56 to Meleisea.
After the result, Helu’s camp announced that they will launch an
appeal on the decision, however it is highly unlikely the
decision will be change. With this decision an order could be
made for a rematch to happen within the next 6 months.
Originally the winner of this bout was ordered to face Ange
Davis in June, due to the result of the Helu vs Davis fight that
happened in September last year which ended in a draw.
Unfortunately Davis had fractured her ankle during training
recently and will mostly be out of the ring for the rest of the
year. Due to this, it will help Helu to potentially receive a
rematch but we will have to see what happens over the next week.
The fight night started of with extreme amount of rain with the
ABA stadium locker room flooded out, causing delays to open the
show, however once it was all cleaned up and fixed the show went
on.
On the undercard of the fight we saw female heavyweight Sarah
Long defeat North Island Golden Gloves winner Geovana Peres.
After this win, Long boxrec ranking jumped her up to 10th in the
world and 2nd in New Zealand. From this win Long is now a
potentially contender for the New Zealand title. The fight
itself showed that Peres definitely knows how to punch, however
she was doing the right thing at the wrong time. This being
Long’s 4th professional boxing fight, her experience took over.
Kerry Davis debuted wear one of the best shorts ever seen, very
shiny. Davis Debuted against Mubin Mohammed. Davis won every
round in the fight, but it was a good test for him as he debuted
against a very durable opponent.
The co-main event for the evening was a heavyweight bout for two
pro debutants, Evander Tia vs Jordan Mororoa. Tia who is
generally a crusierweight, fought against a kickboxer who was 10
kgs heavier. The fight itself was mostly uneventful till the
last round, making it very hard time for the judges. In the end
the fight ended in a majority decision win to Mororoa with the
judges scorecards looking 40 - 39, 38 - 38, 39 - 38.
The main event of the night could be considered as fight of the
year, however what happens next in Meleisea and Helu Career is
currently unknown however the current question is Should there
be a rematch?