Teen has the golden touch
Taranaki boxer Jesse Mahony has his sights on the Commonwealth Games.
‘‘The way I look at it is it’s who wants it the most,’’ said the 18-year-old, who at the weekend took first place in his category at the North Island Golden Gloves Championship in Taupo.
Mahony, of Inglewood, took up the sport 10 months ago and competed in the Men’s Open Novice Elite Class middleweight division.
‘‘I was set up for two fights,’’ he said. ‘‘My first opponent didn’t turn up.’’
His second fight, against Tyler Karaynidis, of Palmerston North, ‘‘went to plan’’.
‘‘I stayed tidy. I was super happy. I boxed him, I didn’t fight him as such.’’
Mahony, who works laying fibreoptic cables for Broadspectrum, previously played rugby in Australia for Inglewood High School, rugby league for Taranaki, and was a member of the New Zealand Pony Club team that finished fifth in the world Tetrathlon Championships, but he feels boxing is his future.
He was not the only budding Taranaki fighter at the Golden Gloves.
Mika Walsh-Manuirirangi and Javaahn Taumoepeau, who train at Box Office Boxing in New Plymouth, ended up fighting each other in the 81kg Youth Male Novice category, with Mika, 17, winning. And Rini Porter, 16, competed in the youth novice middleweight class but lost by a split decision.
Porter and Mahony are among 35 teenagers and adults who train at the Boxer#1 club in Waitara, under coaches Amo Clifton, Mark Apanui, Keiron Toa and Steve Hartley, president of the Taranaki Boxing Association.
Hartley, who has been involved in the sport for 40 years, said both young men had a future, and said Mahony was capable of reaching the Commonweath Games.
‘‘He could do it. There’s no reason why he couldn’t.’’
Porter, he said, did exceptionally well in his bouts. ‘‘He was very unlucky to not be alongside Jesse.’’
Hartley said young boxers at the gym got training, a bit of discipline and a place to focus their energy.
‘‘If we produce champions that’s fine, but we try to produce champion people,’’ he said.