Boxing: Waikato’s David Nyika v Floyd Masson to fight in Auckland as home region misses out

Higgins said the fight was the biggest boxing event in New Zealand since Joseph Parker’s world title fight against Andy Ruiz jnr in Auckland in 2016.

Waikato venues, including Claudelands Event Centre in Hamilton, as well as Mystery Creek and Sir Don Rowlands Centre in the Waipā District, have previously hosted several big boxing fights.

Higgins acknowledged that he, too, has put on big, successful events in Hamilton in the past, including David Tua’s retirement fight, though he said it was now a very different economic climate.

“The Hamilton City Council doesn’t seem well-resourced at the moment to attract major events.”

Hamilton City Council destinations group general manager Sean Murray confirmed there had been a conversation between the council and Duco Events about bringing the Nyika-Masson fight to Hamilton.

“We would have loved the event to come here to Hamilton and there is definitely no doubt that Claudelands would have been a great venue, as it has been for a lot of other boxing matches in the past,” Murray told the Waikato Herald.

“We ... do have a good track record of staging a really good event, but we could not come up with the level of support [the promoter] was looking for.”

Murray wouldn’t say exactly how much financial support Duco sought.

“[It was] substantially more than what we have available.”

Murray disagreed with Higgins that Hamilton City Council couldn’t attract major events.

Hamilton has hosted events including Fifa Women’s World Cup matches, the New Zealand Darts Masters, the Special Olympics Summer Games, All Blacks and Black Caps tests and the Homegrown Festival.

Upcoming events supported by the city include Equifest and the World Tennis Tour.

“The events that we have supported ... bring in big numbers of people ... and they would also be here for a much longer time, as opposed to a single-night event,” Murray said.

“[The] events world is highly competitive across venues and cities across New Zealand. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t win.

“Although we missed out on the boxing, we do still have quite a bit of action happening ... We are punching above our weight.”

Auckland Council would not say how much it supported the Nyika-Masson fight financially “out of respect for our commercial partnerships”.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited head of major events, Cheyne Stevens, said the city was proud to back the event.

“We have forecasted [sic] that it will generate over 3400 visitor nights, but more than that, this event will attract significant international broadcast audiences,” she said in a statement.

“This is the biggest fight on New Zealand soil since [2016], so we hope that local supporters will see this [as] a great chance to ... come up to Auckland for some world-class entertainment.”

Nyika and Masson said they are disappointed about not being able to fight in Hamilton.

“It would have made sense for both of our fan base and I’d have loved to see all my Hamilton Boys’ High mates there as well ... [It] would have been cool ... [but] pretty rowdy,” Nyika said.

Masson said: “It would have been awesome to have it in the Waikato, because we [are] both Waikato boys. [But] at the end of the day, I’m sure all the people from Waikato are going to travel to Auckland and get behind both me and Dave.”

Both fighters said they were childhood friends and had nothing but respect for each other.

“We used to talk shop in the hallway when my older sister used to have house parties,” Nyika said.

Talking about the upcoming fight, Nyika said Masson was the most deserving person to fight for a world title eliminator.

“I would much rather fight someone that I respect and appreciate and Floyd is everything that I need right now to motivate me, to push me to that extra mile, because I know he is doing that same work.”

Both of them said they have what it takes to beat the other across the 12 three-minute rounds.

Nyika brings his lengthy amateur boxing experience and is adaptable in his fighting style, switching from southpaw to orthodox.

Masson brings more experience fighting professionally, having participated in two 12-round fights previously and clocking up 102 rounds across all his professional fights, compared to Nyika’s total of 46 rounds.

Nyika and Masson will headline the event, though some of the undercard fights have also already been confirmed.

Hamilton boxer Sheilla Yama will fight against a yet-to-be-announced international opponent.

Her fight is set for 10 two-minute rounds.

To her surprise, Higgins confirmed that Yama will either fight for an IBF world title eliminator or the interim IBF world super lightweight world title.

An interim world title gives world title status to a boxer, while the full world title champion is inactive.

The current unified IBF, WBA and WBO world super lightweight champion Katie Taylor, of Ireland, plans to fight one more time before retiring.

If Yama wins an interim world title, she will immediately get full world title recognition once Taylor retires.

If Yama ends up fighting for a world title eliminator, she becomes the number one mandatory contender for the title once it becomes available.

The other fighter on the undercard will be former league star Manu Vatuvei, who will compete as a heavyweight across four three-minute rounds and recently made his return to the ring.

His opponent is yet to be announced.