Boxing: Welterweight Scaife makes history at nationals

Harrison Scaife was the big winner as the national finals concluded in Lower Hutt on Saturday.

Scaif (18), from Welllington Hutt Valley, achieved something that had only been done once before in 109 years of national finals.

As well as winning the welterweight title, he also walked away with the John Jameson belt - the youngest boxer to achieve this feat - and the Bill O'Connor cup.

The John Jameson belt is awarded to the most scientific senior male boxer and the Bill O'Connor cup to the youngest senior male titleholder.

The last person to achieve this was the great Billy Graham.

Tournament organiser Jack Plowman said he was thrilled for Scaife, whose father and grandfather were both national titleholders.

David Tua and Shane Cameron were among the 1,000 spectators who watched the 38 finals.

Plowman said both fighters turned up unannounced.

Other notable winners were Canterbury's Reece Papuni. He won the light heavyweight title when he beat Taranaki's Sam Rapira on points 21-17.

Plowman said Papuni thoroughly deserved the win, but Rapira had put up a fine effort after he suffered a cracked rib in his semifinal on Friday.

Papuni had earlier in the tournament defeated Waikato's Tyson Whalley in what Plowman described as the best knock ut he had seen in 40 years of national tournaments.

Trailing with 10sec left in the fight Papuni knocked Whalley out cold.

Christell Small, from Feilding, who had earlier in the tournament defeated Otago's Cherine Henry, won the female bantamweight division with a 15-11 points win over Auckland's Sunita Lallu.

Otago Boxing Association president Colin Falloon said although five Otago fighters were knocked out of the tournament early on, it was a fantastic competition and he was confident they would be better fighters in the future.

Four thousand people attended during the four-day long tournament.

 

 

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