Hard-hitting PNG talent on the card for charity event honouring Kokoda
FIVE of Papua New Guinea’s top boxing talent will face off with NSW championship fighters at the Second to None charity bout, honouring Kokoda and Australia’s returned veterans.
Southern Courier
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FIVE of Papua New Guinea’s top boxing talent will fight on the card for the Second to None charity bout at Inglis Randwick on Friday night.
Rio 2016 Olympian Thadius Katua and international debutante and 60kg female boxer Laizani Soma arrived in Australia last Friday.
They along with Glasgow Games quarter-finalist and Oceania champion Charles Keama, former PNG youth champion Beupu Noki and rising star John Ume will face off with NSW state championship fighters at the event.
The group got straight into action, watching the Rabbitohs take on Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium, before hitting Punch Blackbelt Pro Gym Randwick for a training session on Saturday morning.
Adventure Kokoda trek leader and the event’s organiser Peter Morrison said he and promoter and Punch owner Cindy Fenech were excited to offer the boxers the opportunity.
“It’s experience that they wouldn’t normally gain in PNG,” Morrison said.
“We’re supplying them with quality training, coaching, supervision and sparring partners, as they also prepare for next year’s Commonwealth Games.
“We’re hoping that will help ensure their success moving forward.”
It is the first time the PNG boxers had visited Australia.
“I always want to give my best in any tournament I participate in whether it is the Olympics, any competition at all, I will give it my best shot,” Katua said in tok pisin, one of the national languages of PNG.
The event has been named in honour of the 2/2nd Battalion AIF, who served on the Kokoda Trail in 1942, with veteran Ces Creswick invited as a special guest.
In the main event, former British paratrooper Jack McDowell will compete against boxing gym owner and popular local Shaun Hockley for the Barney Moore Cup.
Moore, who died recently, was a member of the 2/2nd Battalion and a former boxer, renowned for giving up his time to help mentor kids, and walked the Kokoda Trail with Morrison and the South Sydney NRL squad for last year’s Anzac round.
All funds raised to go to Network Kokoda for projects helping the communities along the track, and Soldier On, the support network for returned Australian veterans.
Tickets are still available by contacting Peter Morrison on 0408 145 029 or Cindy Boniface on 0433 469 807.
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