(SEPT 27) We just less than
a week away before Geovana Peres defends her world title against
Claire Hafner, but the main event isn't the only thing we are
talking about.
On the main undercard, Lani Daniels (4 - 2 - 1) will be taking
on Tessa Tualevao (1 - 6 - 1) for the third time in their
careers. They will be fighting for the vacant New Zealand
Professional Boxing Commission Female Middleweight Title for the
second time. The fight will be happening at Sky City Convention
Centre on October 4th in Auckland, New Zealand. The event will
be televised on Sky Sports New Zealand TV.
The first bout between the two
happened back in September 2018 for the vacant Pro Box New
Zealand Female Super Middleweight Title. This was Daniels fifth
fight (at the time 3 -1) and this was Tualevao seventh fight all
of her previous fight being loses and 1 no contest. Tualevao was
only 18 at the time of this fight. Throughout the fight Lani out
punched Tessa, apart from a couple of rounds. Daniels got the
win clearly in the first fight. See the fight here -
Link
In the second bout, Lani Daniels just came off a loss from her
world title fight against Geovana Peres and Tessa Tualevao just
came off her first boxing win against number 8 in the world
Trish Vaka and a Kickboxing win over former Muay Thai World
Champion Gentiane Lupi. Tessa had also turned 19 at the time of
this fight. Daniels tried to outpunch Tualevao again, however,
she had learnt a lot since their last fight and had gained a lot
of power, which gave Lani allot of trouble. The fight was so
close which caused an upset of a draw, some say is
controversial. This is controversial as both parties believed
they won the fight. Lani Daniels trainer John Conway said “Was
happy with the performance and not with the result. Pbcnz (the
commissioning body of the event) really showed there lack of
knowledge or fairness to the sport”. Tessa obviously thought
differently of the results. After the fight, she said in an
interview “I think I did enough to win, I got to be honest, I
think shes the champion but I think I did that much extra. It is
what it is...”
Tessa Tualevao is taking a major risk as she is currently booked
in a kickboxing bout tonight against Faith McMah with just a
week out before her boxing fight against Lani.
This fight between the two can either make or break their
careers. Even though Tessa is still 19 years old, another loss
will make it that extra hard to climb the ladder to success. A
lose for Lani Daniels would mean there would be one more rematch
to break the three-way split in decisions.
When speaking to Daniels trainer, John Conway, regarding Daniels
training the rematch he said “We more use to Tessa and her areas
that leave her open. We have been training in these areas”.
However, there are some concerns with the officiating that will
be used in the fight night. John Continued “Think it's more
important to get judges that are in the sport for the right
reasons. Lani and team give up a lot to prepare for a fight and
boxing have health risks and has been slower this year. All we
ask is a fair result as we train and fight with honesty”.
Lani Daniels vs Tessa Tualevao III will be happening on the
Geovana Peres WBO World Light Heavyweight title defence against
Canadian Claire Hafner. Other fights on the card will feature
Herman Ene Purcell vs Viliamu Motusaga who are both Samoan born
and have both lived in New Zealand, Trish Vaka vs Desley
Robinson, and the returning Gentiane Lupi vs Karen Te
Ruki-Pasene.