Otago fighters won a fine haul of medals at the South Island Golden Gloves tournament in Kaiapoi over the weekend.
Boxers from the province won nine gold medals at the tournament, one of the best hauls for Otago in the history of the event.
The charge was led by Cameron Yung, of the New Zealand Fight and Fitness Academy.
He won three fights to claim the light welterweight category. He then won the award for the most scientific boxer of the tournament.
Yung (25), a land surveying student at the University of Otago, who originally hails for Tauranga, has been fighting for 4 years and said he was especially proud of his first fight when he beat an opponent who had beaten him twice previously.
He lost just one round the whole weekend.
Yung is trained by Ryan Henry and Eldon Clifton, who were judged the most scientific trainers and the most successful trainers at the championships.
Sam Beck (17), also of NZ Fight and Fitness academy, won the youth middleweight event, stopping his opponent in the second round.
Matt Crawford (19), of NZ Fight and Fitness Academy, won the open featherweight division, while Awatea Henry (11), of NZ Fight and Fitness Academy, won the mini cadet grade.
Queenstown fighters Mike Smith and Sam Connelly both won titles. The duo fight out of the Fightscience ABC club.
Smith won the elite open middleweight with a unanimous points division in the final while Connelly won the elite heavyweight title, again with a unanimous decision.
Oamaru fighter Zac Korkou had a strong debut in his first taste at this level.
Competing in the light welterweight grade, he won by technical knockout in the first round of his first bout and won the final by a knockout.
Two female fighters won titles by walkover as they had no-one to fight.
Samantha Berry, of the Fight and Fitness Academy, won the featherweight grade.
Siraya Wilson, of Olympic Boxing Gym, picked up the middleweight title.
Henry said the medal haul was great for boxing in the province.
He said most of his fighters were benefiting from increased time in the gym and getting into a better condition. Female boxing was on the increase as many women discovered its benefits.
With increased coverage of combat sports on television, Henry said more people wanted to get into mixed martial arts and they had to start that by learning how to box and how to do juijitsu.
