New Zealand Professional Boxing Association (NZPBA) is one of the four governing bodies for the sport of

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

in New Zealand. NZPBA is a non-profit organisation.

History

The Body was founded as South Pacific Boxing Association, with the name changed to New Zealand Professional Boxing Association inc in 1984 at their AGM. The new name was greeted and accepted by the World Bodies and Commonwealth Boxing Council. In 2006, NZPBA had their first female national champion with Daniella Smith defeating Sue Glassey for the Super Welterweight title. Smith is New Zealand's second professional National Champion. In April 2016, NZPBA sanctioned New Zealand's first major world title fight (from one of the four major sanctioning bodies) for the WBC female middleweight title with Kali Reis defeating Maricela Cornejo by

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

. The fight night also featured two of New Zealand's first

WBC Silver The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

title fights with

Melissa St. Vil Melissa St. Vil (born September 8, 1983) is an American professional boxer. She has challenged twice for world titles; the WBC super featherweight title in 2018 and the WBC lightweight title in March 2019. Professional career On 31 July 2009, sh ...

defeating

Baby Nansen Birthony Katarina Nansen (born 11 January 1987), better known as Baby Nansen, is a New Zealand professional boxer and kickboxer. Nansen's biggest fight of her career was against Melissa St. Vil for the vacant WBC Silver female super featherweig ...

and

Ronica Jeffrey Ronica Jeffrey (born January 24, 1983, Brooklyn, New York) is the International Women's Boxing Federation World Super Featherweight champion. Her professional boxing record is 17-1-1. Jeffrey is managed by Brian Cohen. World Championship Bout ...

defeating Gentiane Lupi. On the same night, NZPBA had New Zealand's first female professional boxing referee, with Shelley Ashton officiating Nailini Helu vs. Kirsty Lupeamanu.

Controversy

Former NZPBA President Lance Revill, is well known to stating his opinion to New Zealand's local media, causing major scrutiny to the association. Most recently, his comments were more directed at Joseph Parker. Since the beginning of Parker's career, Revill has made regular comments about Parker including when he turned pro, Parker's promoters only being interested in money, Parker being too hyped up and his belief that Parker didn't win his world title fight in December 2016. In February 2017, it was announced that due to the backlash of his comments against Parker, Revill resigned as president of NZPBA. Vise President John Conway was named interim President. In 2018, NZPBA officiated a corporate boxing event in Christchurch in November where first time corporate boxer Kain Parsons, was knocked unconscious. Kain Parsons was taken to Christchurch Hospital's intensive care unit, however, Parsons died four days later after the event. Vise President of the organisation at time Kevin Pyne was the referee of the fight. Former NZPBA President Lance Revill stated that he believed the fight should have been stopped earlier. In 2019, Kevin Pyne was elected president of NZPBA, despite being the referee of the fight.

Current roles

Board members

President: Kevin Pyne Vise President: 1st John Conway, 2nd David Kettle National Secretary: Fiona Moore National Treasurer: Pat Leonard Webmaster: Raylyne Siaosi and Kendall Cooper Doctors: David Renata & Shaaren Jacobs

Regional Representatives

Northland & Auckland: Jo Gallagher and Mal Siaosi Bay of Plenty & Waikato: Bob Mitchell Manawatu & East/West Coast: Shelley Ashton Wellington Supervisor: Ian Scott South Island Supervisor: Paul Fitzimmons

Current national champions

Men

Female

Current provincial champions

NZPBA Central title

Heavyweight Men

Middleweight Men

Boxing and Wrestling Act 1981

References

External links

* {{Oceania in topic, Sport in Sports governing bodies in New Zealand Boxing in New Zealand Professional boxing organizations