Moresby North-East boxing tournament sees 30 bouts

A MORESBY North-East boxing tournament was launched on Sunday with 30 local bouts taking place at the Air Transport Squadron (ATS) settlement in the nation’s capital.
Papua New Guinea lightweight champion and tournament host Junior Kauko Raka told The National yesterday that last weekend was the first of five rounds of boxing.
“The whole purpose of the tournament is to bring together boxers in the city and have some active fights this month,” he said.
“We will be having a few more fights throughout this month which will be held every Sunday until December.
“We got a good turnout on Sunday and were able to host 30 fights across the weight divisions.
“We had initially scheduled 38 fights, but due to timing, we were only able to hold 30 bouts.
“We had 19 boxing clubs from across the city take part with eight coming from Moresby North-East.
“A good number of fighters from Moresby North-West and Moresby South have joined and this is a good start to help boxers at the grassroots level.
“The tournament is under the under the banner of ‘Team Raka Boxing’, a local company that support fighters in the city.”
Raka said the initiative was aimed at growing interest for the sport and providing an avenue for amateur boxers to have warm-up bouts.
The tournament will continue throughout the month with fights scheduled for Nov 7, 14, 21 and 28 at Tembari Community School (Block Two).