(OCT 8) Benjamin Thomas Watt will be reaching a big milestone in every boxing judges career, reaching 100 professional fights as a professional boxing judge.

Benji started his career in late 2014 as New Zealand’s editor for Boxrec.com. From there he got the contacts he needed to get into the industry and become a boxing judge. Craig Thomson who kept in regular contact with Benji, introduced him to the secretary of NZPBA Pat Leonard, from there the rest is history.

He made his Professional boxing debut as a judge in mid-2015 where he was chosen to judge a Craig Thomson boxing event on the North Shore. His first fight was between Shay Brock and Sivan Hermez, however, his scores were not needed as the fight ended in the first round. He also judged the Main event of the night between Panuve Helu and Mose Auimatagi Jnr, which to this day Benji names it the hardest fight he has ever judged.

During his judging career, he has judged 18 title fights including an Interim WBO Oriental title fight with Junior Fa. He has judged famous boxers who went on to do amazing things including World Champion Geovana Peres, Junior Fa, top 10 ranked boxer WBO Oriental champion David Light, IBF 15th ranked boxer Bowyn Morgan, World title contender Robert Berridge, World number 2 ranked boxer Alrie Melesiea, World title contender Lani Daniels, top 15 amateur ranked boxer Jerome Pampellone and many more.

Soon after his debut, he was diagnosed with Lymphoma Cancer which he battled for 5 years before being in remission consistently. But instead of succumbing to cancer, he did more for the boxing community. He wrote articles for multiple websites including World Boxing News, Stuff NZ, Women’s Boxing Archive Network and of course New Zealand Fighter. The Articles he wrote helped promote allot of boxers and their images to make them look good in the public eye.

Benji made New Zealand boxers more google searchable. How you might ask? Not only from the articles he wrote but also his side project of creating Wikipedia pages. Out of the 120 Wikipedia pages he has created so far, 90 of them were boxing related. He has written famous pages and pages for boxers and events that are well deserved to be appreciated including Geovana Peres, Lani Daniels, Junior Fa, David Letele, Robert Berridge, Gunnar Jackson, David Aloua, Reece Papuni, Sam Rapira, Mose Auimatagi Jnr, David Tua vs Shane Cameron event, Joseph Parker vs. Junior Fa event and many more.

On youtube, he did regular commentating jobs for Gladrap channel and had 2 seasons of his own youtube show What’s What with Benji Watt. This is where is youtube personality came out showing more of a comedic and cringyness. It was when he started talking about controversial topics where he received the nickname “Mr Controversy” due to his moment where he had no filter and let his words rip. He also hosted his own version of the New Zealand Boxing Awards, award boxers on the amazing achievement of that year.


He promoted two events, once in 2016 with the main event being between Nailini Helu and Ange Davis for the NZ title and 2019 co-promoting with Terry Reid-Batchelor and Vasco Kovacevic with the main event between Conrad Lam and Semisi Kalu.

And finally, he was on the team of World Light Heavyweight Champion Geovana Peres. He is not only her PR manager which help raise her name to fame in the media. They are also great friends and attended regular events together including the LGBTI awards and multiple boxing events. He has been a massive advocate and assets for women's boxing. Not just for Geovana but for all women.

Today during the lockdowns Benji has been focusing on getting all of New Zealand’s amateur results up to date on Boxrec as they now record have world rankings for Amateur boxing. He has left NZPBA has he felt them shifting in moral beliefs and has moved to Pro Box NZ under Steve Scott, David Craig and John Conway. Pro Box NZ has welcomed Benji with open arms as they recognise all the work he has done for New Zealand boxing and is accepting of his sexuality, which Benji has had problems with people in the boxing community regarding that.

This weekend Benji will be judging Craig Thomsons boxing event, which is only fitting to have Craig promote the event that not only had Benji’s debut as a judge but also reach his 100th fight. The 100th fight will be the main event between Nikolas Charalampous and Avefu'a Iakopo Jnr on the 10th of October this Saturday at the Sportscave in Stanmore Bay.