(JULY 13) It has been confirmed that the Eight Women Heavyweight tournament in Auckland, New Zealand will be for the number one mandatory position for the IBF World title.

This tournament has been confirm to happen on October 6th, 2018 at Ellerslie Event Centre under the CTP Boxing brand, promoted by Craig Thomson. Thomson had a successful Middleweight eight man tournament earlier in the year. Now he wants to make history with not only being first eight women tournament, but putting a world title opportunity on the line.

After a couple of weeks of talks, IBF has gladly came onboard and will give the winner of the tournament the number one position to their world title. IBF will also declare Geovana Peres the second mandatory position. This means the winner of the tournament will face Geovana Peres in a Mega New Zealand fight for the IBF World heavyweight title, most likely sometime early 2019.

IBF has always had a special place in New Zealand boxing. In 2010, New Zealander Daniella Smith became the first ever IBF World women’s champion. Other New Zealanders have won IBF titles including Robbie Bryant winning IBF Australasia title and Kali Meehan, Shane Cameron, Sam Leuii and Sean Sullivan winning IBF Pan Pacific title. David Tua has held both the IBF - USBA & IBF Intercontinental titles. Joseph Parker has also reached number one in the IBF rankings back in 2016 before Parker won his WBO title.

No boxers have been announced yet, but a lot of talks are currently happening. Some boxers who are interested include Alrie Meleisea, Nailini Helu, Ashley Campbell, Caroline Daniels and many more. Announcements will sure to be made within next month.