From New Zealand Boxrec Editor – Benjamin Watt:
Sarah Long finally wins her New Zealand Title
Sarah Long has finally won her New Zealand (NZPBA version) Heavyweight title after a long year of waiting. Long won the NZPBA title by Unanimous Decision against Ashley Campbell.
Sarah Long first fought for the title against the champion at the time Alrie Meleisea on November 11th, 2017 at ABA Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. The bout itself was a close fight, enough to get a split decision. However Alrie Meleisea won that bout with some people believing it was a controversial decision.
See that fight here –
After that fight faced a decision to either retire from boxing and focus on kickboxing, which she is a veteran at or to try again later. Six months later Sarah Long team at S.A.L.T (South Auckland Lee Gar Thaiboxing) put in an official challenge for the title for the second time. Due to the last bout ended in a Split decision, the New Zealand Professional Boxing Association agreed and declared Sarah Long the Mandatory challenger.
The bout was set to take place on June 23rd this year, however a week before the fight, Champion Alrie Meleisea mother passed away. Due to this Meleisea pulled out of the fight. NZPBA said to Terry Tuteru (Sarah Long Manager and Trainer) if they could find a replacement opponent Sarah Long could fight for the Interim title. Unfortunately due to the lack of professional boxers in the heavyweight division in New Zealand (and the world) they were not about to find another opponent and the entire fight was postponed till a later date.
Months went passed since the announcement of the postponed fight and everything was up in the air to see if this fight will even happen. Terry Tuteru decided to write a letter to NZPBA in August and request an update on the situation. After 6 weeks since that request, Alrie Meleisea decided she will vacate her title and take a break from boxing and return in 2019.
Terry Tuteru was committed to finding an opponent for Sarah for his show on October 13th at Onehunga, Auckland. After weeks of looking, Ashley Campbell took the bout. The two fought over 8 rounds for the vacant NZPBA female Heavyweight title.
Throughout the bout, Sarah won the round by landing the cleaner and more heavier punches and over working her tough opponent. Despite only having one pro bout in the passed, Ashley Campbell showed that she was no push over. After 8 long rounds, announcer Lt Dan Hennessey announced that Sarah Long won the bout by Unanimous decision (80 – 72, 79 – 73, 78 – 76). What was icing on the cake for Sarah was her two boys came into the ring after she won and performed an emotional Haka.
Sarah Long took to social media the next day saying “Winning my fight and getting the belt was awsome but my two big boys doing this for me was the highlight of the night brought me to tears xxx #proudofmyboysalways”
Sarah Long now improves her record to 3 – 3 – 0. After the second attempt and almost a year of waiting, Sarah Long is the new New Zealand (NZPBA version) Heavyweight Champion and makes has made her family and her country proud.
On the undercard Tessa Tualevao took on WKBF World Featherweight champion Gentiane Lupi in a K1 rules Kickboxing bout. This was Gentiane Lupi fight bout for a long time and this was the biggest test in Tualevao career. After Three rounds of kickboxing Tessa Tualevao won the bout by unanimous decision. The main kickboxing bout of the evening saw Jordan Mororoa defeating Mose Afoa by unanimous decision. Sarah Long, Tessa Tualevao and Jordan Mororoa all come from S.A.L.T gym making this three major wins.
At the same show we say David Light (8 – 0 – 0) knockout Fijian boxer James Singh (3 – 0 – 0) right before the bell in the first round.
In other Female New Zealand boxing News, Craig Thomson’s 8 women heavyweight tournament has been postponed to 2019 due to multiple boxers pulling out. The tournament might be cancelled all together but only time will tell.
Press Release - New Zealand
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