Lani Daniels and Mea Motu continue to shine when the bright lights come on.
Earlier this year, the pair joined a select few to claim a world boxing title when they won the IBF heavyweight and IBO super bantamweight championships respectively.
After the Wahine Toa II fight night in Whangārei on Saturday, they are both still world champions, Daniels now being the IBF’s world champion in two weight classes.
Daniels claimed a majority decision win over Australian Desley Robinson on the Wahine Toa II card in Whangārei, clinching the IBF world light heavyweight championship.
After 10 fierce rounds, she got the nod on two of the judges’ cards, with the other scoring the bout a 95-95 draw.
It was an indication of how closely contested the bout was. Daniels came out strong early, constantly walking forward and putting pressure on Robinson.
While Robinson had plenty of good moments in the fight, Daniels was landing the cleaner, more meaningful shots throughout and edged ahead on the scorecards.
When the rounds started, the two went straight back to on the attack, and that was the case for all 10 rounds.
In the end, it was Daniels who had her hand raised and a new title belt to add to her collection.
Earlier in the night, she was called out by Roseanna Cox – a newcomer to the Peach Boxing stable who claimed a unanimous decision win over Trish Vaka to improve her professional record to 2-0. However, Daniels would not be drawn on questions around what was next for her; earlier in the week she had indicated she might look to move down to super middleweight and pursue a belt in that weight class as well.
Mea Motu defends world title
In the main event, Motu defended her IBO super bantamweight world title with a lopsided decision against Indian Chandni Mehra.
Body shots were key to Motu’s win, clearly hurting Chandni consistently throughout the fight. Chandni’s movement gave Motu some issues as the Kiwi tried to walk her opponent down.
While Mehra did have some success with her jab and trying to work combinations off the back of it, Motu dominated the bout from start to finish. Mehra also had a point deducted for holding late in the fight, but that was a minor detail as Motu overpowered her, with the judges scoring the fight 100-89, 99-90 and 98-91.
Like Daniels and Motu, rising light heavyweight contender Jerome Pampellone didn’t shy away from the biggest fight of his career – proving he’s a fighter the world should be taking notice of with a first-round knockout win over Rogelio Medina.
Medina entered with the reputation of being a man who was tough to put away, and one who would constantly come forward to pressure his opponent.
Pampellone didn’t give him the chance.
The London-born light heavyweight threw with heat behind his shots early, landing some good punches to the body before changing his target.
He caught Medina with a right hand, sending him to the canvas. While Medina beat the count, it wasn’t long before Pampellone had him stunned again, and this time he finished the job to earn a standing TKO.
In the other professional bout of the night, super flyweight Zain Adams claimed a devastating second-round knockout win against his previously unbeaten opponent.
Full results
Mea Motu beat Chandni Mehra by unanimous decision to retain the IBO super bantamweight world title
Lani Daniels beat Desley Robinson by majority decision to claim the vacant IBF light heavyweight title
Jerome Pampellone beat Rogelio Medina by TKO (1)
Zain Adams beat Patthaphi Camton by KO (2)
Roseanna Cox beat Trish Vaka by unanimous decision
Matt Matich beat Kurt Benney by TKO (2)