On Saturday, the pair kicked off Fight Science’s inaugural sold-out ‘Tussle in Tahuna’ Muay Thai and boxing fight night, held outside Industrial Fitness.
While Reilly’s experience in Muay Thai’s limited to Fight Science head coach Rob Horrocks’ eight-week Contender Bootcamp, Talbot had virtually no experience at all.
She works in front-of-house at the gym, hadn’t been doing the bootcamp and wasn’t doing any Muay Thai training.
About 10 days before the event, somebody pulled out, Horrocks says.
"I said, ‘come on, man, you’ve got to help your mate out and get in the ring’.
"And she did it."
Horrocks says she did have a bunch of PT sessions before Saturday night’s event, and bills their bout — dubbed a "classic North v South England battle" — as one of his fights of the night.
"With what limited experience they’ve got, they had really good defence, they were setting up the shots and landing good shots — it was really good to open the show with."
His other fight of the night was local Corban Woodward who had his first fight against Dunedin’s James Monson.
"[Woodward] was really composed, had a really good level of skill, he was really focused.
"It was a bit back and forth at the start, but he just held his nerve and kept setting up the shots and landing the right things.
"As the fight went on, he started dominating him, it was really good."
Horrocks is stoked with the event in its entirety, and says all the fighters outdid themselves, particularly given some had only had eight weeks’ experience in Muay Thai.
"I had some of the coaches and officials that had travelled ... really complimenting the level of fighters.
"They were doing stuff above their experience level."
He’s potentially looking at starting another Contender Bootcamp in early January and hosting another Tussle in Tahuna on March 1.
