(JAN 26) WBO World Light
Heavyweight champion Geovana Peres trainer Terry Reid Batchelor
has officially announced the retirement of Geovanas Career,
Officially ending her career as a World Champion.
The Shocking announcement was made on Facebook early hours of
Tuesday morning stating that Brazilian born New Zealand boxer
Geovana Peres has decided to hand up the gloves.
“Geovana Peres has now retired from boxing. I have had the
pleasure of coaching Geovana Pere’s who is Fearless, mentally
and physically strong, with the absolute Will to succeed. She
has never been Lazy, always comes in peak physical condition for
every fight.
Geovana started boxing at 38 and when she turned pro she wanted
to fight anyone and everyone. After winning and defending the
WBO world title, she was set to fight Savannah Marshall in
England. With 3 very demanding boxing camps each fight was
cancelled due to Covid19.
Geovana turns 44 in 2 weeks time, over the last couple of months
we had been talking about retirement. Her main goal of fighting
a big name overseas against either Savannah or Claressa Sheilds
was all she wanted to do as her last fight. But with Covid that
dream does not seem possible and age being a big factor, time is
not on her side.
I want to thank Bruce Glozier who made the world title happen.
You have been very supportive of Geovana's career and thank you
to Steve Deane for the great work you have done to.
Thank you to Alex Sua who has helped train Geovana all through
out, and to David Tua who has always given a lot of support to
Geovana.
Thank you to Chris Martin for the times you have helped out with
Geovana. Thank you to Benjamin Thomas Watt for the time and
effort with promoting Geovana.
And to my good mate Alexey Papyshev who has been a big influence
in training Geovana's physical conditioning and mental
preparation. Thank you to Jerome Pascua for the awesome rounds
of sparring with Geovana in her preparation for fights.
Thank you to Lani Daniels for always being a formidable opponent
and to John Conway for being a great coach to Lani for such good
fights.
Geovana wants to have a kickboxing fight as that will be her
last thing she wants to do. So my good friend Tony Angelov and
the Cityleegar family are now looking after her for that.
We have many great women boxers in NZ, that put their heart and
soul into this game. And with Daniella Smith being the first
Women's world champion then Geovana the second. I'm sure it's
not to long before with have a third.
Thank you to: Pryme Health, Lightforce, Prep meals, Punch boxing
for your sponsorship. God bless -Follow your
dreams☘☘☘☘”
Geovana Peres started her boxing career in November 2015 when
she fought Teuila Laika in a charity corporate boxing fight at
an event that was raising money for Canteen. Canteen if you
don’t know is a charity organisation in New Zealand that support
people who are teenagers to early twenties going through Cancer.
Geovana won her fight with a breeze and fell in love with the
sport.
The following year Geovana had
her first amateur boxing fight where she fought in Taupo, New
Zealand competing at the North Island Golden Gloves. She
finished her Amateur and a corporate career with a total record
of 3-0.
In 2017, Geovana made her
professional boxing debut against a tough Sarah Long, who now
today is ranked 4th in the world today on boxrec. Geovana had a
tough challenge with Sarah Long and unfortunately, Geovana
suffered her one and only loss of her career. This is where
Geovana Peres met Benjamin Thomas Watt (me) the first openly gay
boxing judge in the world. The two hit it off well and they
became friends.
A month after she lost Geovana
jumped straight into the deep end to take on Nailini Helu who at
the time was ranked 10th in the world (before Nailini career
started her losing streak). This was the first major stepping
stone in her career as it was for the vacant New Zealand
National (NZNBF version) Light Heavyweight title. Geovana did
amazingly in this fight, outmatching her opponent and winning
the title. This made history, with Geovana becoming the first
person in the LGBTIQ+ community to win a professional New
Zealand national title.
Geovana went on to have a keep busy fight against Tessa Tualevao,
which would end up being the first of two of their fights. This
was also the one and only time Benjamin Thomas Watt judged her
fight. Geovana won the fight as Tessa was still only 18 and
inexperienced. After the fight, Benjamin decided to sign on to
Geovanas team and becoming her marketing manager.
Geovana already having a busy
2017 jumps back into the ring to fight for another title but
this time she takes on Trish Vaka and for the vacant New Zealand
National (PBCNZ version) Light Heavyweight title. This was also
the first of two fights against Trish Vaka. Geovana again just
simply dominating the fight won the title and again making
history by becoming the first women to win the New Zealand
National title from two different commissioning bodies.
Geovana
ended her 2017 with a tough challenge against Tessa Tualevao.
This time this fight was a lot closer than the first. Tessa
throwing a lot more punches and landing more cleaner and heavier
hits. But Geovana experience and her harder punches kept her on
the winning edge. After this fight, Tessa Tualevao became a
regular sparring partner with Geovana, especially later in
Geovana career. Tessa Tualevao now is ranked 4th in the world in
the middleweight division on Boxrec. After this fight was where
the world saw Geovana when she received her first World ranking
with major sanctioning bodies, including WBA. A quick note, this
was the last professional boxing fight for Referee Isaac Peach
officiating career before he focused all of his time onto
training his boxers.
You can watch that fight here:
youtube.com
Her next fight was another massive step of her career when she
took on the toughest Women’s boxer in New Zealand, Lani Daniels.
This was Geovana’s first New Zealand title defence for her PBCNZ
title. This was the closest fight of her career and definitely
one of the toughest. This also was the first of the two fights
they had which would end up being the biggest New Zealand women
rivalry in New Zealand Boxing history. The fight ended with a
close Split Decision win to Geovana Peres. After this fight,
Geovana Peres announced that she had officially become a New
Zealand citizen and holds the New Zealand & Rainbow flags
proudly on her shoulders.
After an easy warm-up win against
Trish Vaka in December 2018, Geovana got the number 1 ranking in
WBA becoming the mandatory challenger for the vacant World
title. Due to this Bruce Glozier, Geovana regular promoter
decides to make a major risk by putting on the rematch between
Geovana Peres and Lani Daniels for the vacant and Inaugural WBO
Light Heavyweight title. This had never been done before between
two New Zealanders and it was only forth time a major world
title was held on New Zealand soil. It was televised on Sky TV
and it competed to a sold-out audience at Sky City Convention
Centre. Geovana Peres won the world title in one of the most
exciting Women’s fights in New Zealand history. Geovana also
made history by becoming the first LGBTIQ+ person to represent
New Zealand that won a major World boxing title. Lani Daniels
went on to become ranked number one boxer on Boxrec in the
heavyweight division today.
In her last fight on her career, she defended her World title
against Canadian boxer and world ranked number 1 boxer, Claire
Hafner. To advertise for the event, Geovana did a major
publicity stunt by training outside on the Auckland Sky Tower at
186 metres in the air. You can find that here:
youtube.com
Geovana put on a stunning
performance against Claire Hafner, cutting both of Claire
Hafner’s eyes throughout the fight and eventually ended the
fight by referee stoppage, making her world title defence the
first Knockout of her career. Geovana team were happy with the
result but disappointed with the opponent as she didn’t produce
the quality that she promised.
Now we are at the end of Geovana career she has accomplished so
much. She is a role model for both women’s boxing and the LGBTIQ+
community. She set her goals and conquered them. And now she can
say she ended her career as World champion.
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