(MAR 1) First-ever New Zealand LGBT professional boxer Diane Beazley has officially announced her retirement from the sport.

Maori boxer Diane Beazley is one of New Zealand’s pioneers in women’s boxing. She discovered boxing at the young age of 14 years old. She was introduced by her father Eddie Beazley who had a couple of professional boxing fights himself. So boxing was always in her blood.

Diane worked hard as an amateur boxer, winning multiple amateur titles including winning the Central North Island Championships and New Zealand North Island Golden Gloves both four years in a row. Her goal was always to be number 1 and eventually, she did when she became the 2009 New Zealand amateur national light heavyweight champion. Unfortunately, her amateur career had to come to an end in 2011 where she broke all her metacarpal bones in the right hand and tore the cartilage in the right shoulder.

She believed that we would never be able to box again, however, she didn’t put her skill to waste. She would eventually open up her own boxing gym out of her home, training up amateur boxers and up and comers. She also received an opportunity to go to China to assist in training New Zealand female boxers alongside Cam Todd in the development training camp in 2016. She continued helped boxing in many other ways including becoming the president of Kirikiriroa Boxing Association.

In March 2019, Brazilian born New Zealand citizen and fellow LGBT boxer Geovana Peres won the WBO World Light Heavyweight title at the age of 42. Diane Beazley was the same age got inspired by Geovanas achievements and decided to return to boxing, but this time as a professional. She had not been in the ring for 8 years, so making those first steps was an achievement by itself. But this made history when she became the first-ever LGBT New Zealand born professional boxer. Going into her professional debut she had a lot of support including her trainer who was also her wife Tasha Wallace.

Unfortunately, her professional debut ended with a majority decision loss to Ashley Campbell in May 2019. She would get one more chance against Ashley Campbell in June 2019, however, again her fight ended by unanimous decision loss. Her career was put on hold temporarily as she regrouped. Unfortunately with 2020 hit the world hard with Covid 19, not many events took place.

Today Diane Beazley has announced that she will not be returning to the ring. She sees boxers around her including WBO World champion Geovana Peres and first New Zealand female Australasian Champion Tania Reid retiring this year, she felt it was also her time to hang up the gloves and spend more time with her family.

Diane Beazley will still make major contributions to the sport of boxing including being president of Kirikiriroa Boxing Association, training boxers at her gym Beazley Boxing Gym and she will also be on the board of the new non-profit organisation Rainbow Boxing New Zealand, where we will see New Zealand’s first LGBT focused amateur boxing tournament.

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