Boxing news: NRL star Tevita Pangai Junior scores big debut win in the ring
NRL powerhouse Tevita Pangai Jr made an immediate impression in his first official fight, thumping his heavier opponent in their heavyweight clash.
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New Bulldogs recruit Tevita Pangai Jr will be a match-winning signing if he can match his efforts in the boxing ring on the NRL pitch next year.
Pangai Jr obliterated fellow debutant Gerico Cecil in the second round of their heavyweight bout in Brisbane on Saturday night.
The 25-year-old forced referee Chris Condon to wave away the contest after smashing the bigger, heavier Cecil with a barrage of blows anchored by his powerful left hand.
The bout was stopped 64 seconds into the second round as Cecil was clearly overmatched and not fighting back.
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A slow feeling out process in the first half of the first round was ended by a sharp jab to the body by Pangai Jr. He followed that with a left hook, and landed a solid uppercut at the end of the round as Cecil showed fatigue.
Pangai Jr went in for the kill early in the second round, rocking Cecil with a left hook and right hand.,
He pounded Cecil with a double-left to the body and head, and another big left struck Cecil as he struggled to gain his bearings, with Condon stepping in to save him from further punishment.
Prior to the bout, Pangai Jr and his wife had revealed their personal heartache, with daughter Georgia stillborn in August.
Pangai Jr was on a card featuring world title prospect Jai Opetaia, who returned to the ring following hand surgery in strong fashion.
Opetaia defeated Daniel Russell via third-round stoppage, using his repaired left hand to do the damage.
Tevita Pangai Junior wins his first professional fight, by stopping his much bigger opponent in the 2nd round. TPJ handled himself very well. Now to the @NRL_Bulldogs
— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) December 4, 2021
The undefeated 26-year-old will now face IBF cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis (28-1, 20KO) next March, likely in Australia.
Opetaia (21-0, 17KO) dropped late replacement Russell in the second round with a snap straight left.
In the third, he dropped Russell a further two times with strong left punches before the referee stopped the bout.
Isaac Hardman (12-0, 10KO) stopped in the fourth round to retain his IBF Australasian and Australian middleweight championship belts.
Hardman dropped Stowe with a right to the top of the head in the second round, then a right rip to the body in the third.
A furious barrage on a vulnerable Stowe in the fourth saw his corner throw in the towel and save Hardman a lot of money after he’d vowed to shout the entire crowd at the Fortitude Music Hall a beer if he couldn’t get the knockout win by the end of round five.
Former heavyweight champion Lucas Browne is back in the winner’s circle following his loss to Paul Gallen, stopping Faiga Opelu in the seventh round.
Opelu dominated the early rounds and landed the cleaner shots before Browne exploded with a blitz of power shots in the seventh to leave Opelu stunned before a short left floored him.
Browne (30-3, 26KO) claimed the vacant WBA Oceania heavyweight title.
Dana Coolwell produced a knockout of the year candidate in the 10th and final round against Miles Zalewski to win the vacant Australian super-featherweight belt.
Dominating from start to finish, Coolwell landed a flush short left hook in the 10th that floored Zalewski and left him clawing to regain his feet as his corner threw in the towel.
It was an impressive bounce back from Coolwell (7-1, 5KO) after he lost a split decision to Jacob Wyllie in his previous bout in October.
Andrew Hunt retained his Australian welterweight title and extended his undefeated streak with a second successive win over Ben Kite.
Hunt (9-0-1, 4KO) won a majority 10-round decision, 96-94, 96-94, 95-95 in a scrappy affair.
Commonwealth Games medallist Taylah Robertson swept the judges’ cards across eight rounds against Kylie Fulmer to retain the Australian bantamweight title.
Robertson (4-1, 1KO) won the eight-round scrap 80-72 on the three judges’ cards with a dominant display of slick boxing.
Pangai catches the ‘boxing bug’
- Fatima Kdouh
Canterbury supremo Phil Gould had one message for prized recruit Tevita Pangai Jr ahead of his professional boxing debut: “Don’t make the club look bad”.
The forward, who missed Penrith’s NRL grand final win through injury, swapped the footy for gloves on Saturday night in Brisbane when he fought fellow heavyweight Gerico Cecil.
Gould backed Pangai Jr’s boxing aspirations, but not before offering some blunt and then some sage advice about stepping into the ring for the first time.
“He just said ‘make sure you don’t make the club look bad’,” Pangai Jr said with a laugh. “And to go out and do my thing.
“But Gus was good about it, he even gave me some advice. He just said ‘keep the jab out’ and ‘keep the left hand busy’. He said that was what his trainer back in the day would say to him when he did some boxing.”
Twelve hours after stepping into the ring, Pangai Jr will jump on a flight to Sydney to start his Canterbury pre-season, nine days before originally planned.
“I fight on Saturday night, leave for Sydney on Sunday and start on Monday,” Pangai Jr said. “I actually wasn’t due back until the 15th of December but I think it was just good to get back and see the boys.
“The borders have been shut so I haven’t been able to go down to see them, so I felt like it would be good to get in early. I’ve heard they’ve been training really hard.”
But before his impending Belmore arrival, Pangai Jr is ready to take care of ‘business’ against Cecil in Brisbane.
“I’ve asked around about him, I’ve seen a photo. He is a big boy,” he said. “I think he’s around 120 kilograms. He actually used to play in the Queensland Cup for the Ipswich Jets.
“Credit to him for taking the fight on late notice. But when we get in there, it’s just business.”
The former Brisbane and Penrith forward has been training six days a week with Chris McCullen at Logan Boxing ahead of his debut four-round fight.
Pangai Jr has been able to draw experience from NRL training and game-day preparations from a physical aspect.
But the mental preparation required to get into the ring against a 120kg opponent has proved a new challenge to confront for Pangai Jr, who is tipping the scale at 114kg.
“The biggest difference … I think it’s the thought of someone just trying to take your head off for three or four rounds,” Pangai Jr said.
“The training is similar in terms of pre-season but there aren’t as much weights. The running and conditioning side is similar between the two sports.
“I think the boxing has been a good preparation for the NRL pre-season as well.”
While Pangai Jr will switch his focus back to rugby league on Monday, the new Bulldog admitted he had caught the boxing ‘bug’ and was open to taking more fights in the future.
“I haven’t grown up boxing, but I have been a big fan since I was a kid,” he said. “Obviously I have enjoyed guys like Anthony Mundine and Floyd Mayweather as a kid. I just did boxing for my fitness, I never did any sparring until recently and I just caught the bug for it.”
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