Trent
What’s going on fight fans? James ‘Batman’Langton and I have just finished our first Barbwire® podcast episode. We had a lot to talk about. We talked about our BFC events we had this year. We talked about the boxing world in general and we had a massive announcement for 2025. So check it out.

Kia ora fight fans. Welcome to the BFC 2024 recap. My name is Trent Kiri and I’m here with the CEO of Barbwire® Fight Club. James, Batman Langton.

We’re here to reflect on the year that we’ve had. We hope you’ve all had a great Christmas and a happy new year.

Batman, what a year it has been, hasn’t it?

James
Yeah, Merry Christmas Trent and all the listeners out there. It has been one hell of a year. How exciting has it been? The BFC series has been three fights this year. Next year we’re going to continue to do extra fights. It’s been one hell of a year.

Trent
We’ve had three events this year. We had 102 in Opunake and then 103 and 104 in Stratford. Every time the reception was getting better. The fan engagement was awesome. Our new concept of the fans vote for the prize money winners of the fight was really, really taking off, wasn’t it?

James
Yes. Now each time we do the fan vote, we get more people watching. We’re getting consistently about 15 to 20 percent more viewers each time.

Trent
I think we’ve done awesome but you know it wouldn’t be anything without everyone who’s engaged with us this year be it they’ve registered to watch the event they’ve put their votes in on what they thought or even just giving feedback on the events, it’s been awesome this year.

I’ve been thoroughly impressed with what we’ve been able to achieve in such short time so  big pat on the back to you my man well done.

James:
Well it’s just not me. Behind me we’ve got this incredible team. And everyone’s doing the mahi, everyone’s doing the hard yards, doing the long hours to making BFC series work. Yeah, let’s bring on next year, really excited about it.

Trent
And speaking of next year, we’re very, very excited to announce that in 2025 we’ll be introducing the BFC-PRO Series. We’re going to be going all over the country. We’re going to be having Barbwire® Fight Club
fights that you you couldn’t put up together even if you could dream about it. It’s going to be awesome, there’s going to be huge stakes and the money, the riches of war is going to be amazing for the fighters that get in there and win.

James
This is going to change New Zealand fight game. We are now going to have a professional series just in New Zealand. This has nothing to do with outside of New Zealand. This is a New Zealand professional competition. It’s got nothing to do with world boxing, it’s just New Zealand. And we’re going to have our own flavour, professional competition. We’re going to have the online vote, were the fans pick who gets the prize money. We’re going to have the judges decision. We’re going to have the weigh-ins all on the same night. So it’s going to have a New Zealand flavour to it. I’m very, very excited about this. And we’ve got some great fighters that have already signed up for the professional fight series.

So, let’s get this on.

Trent
Let’s get this on. Speaking of fighters, for our recap, it would be nice for us to come up with some categories, if you will. And I’ll let you do the honours of announcing your pick. So your pick for BFC, favourite fight, your favourite fight or fights of the year?

James
My favourite fight was probably in the 104 event where we had Lennox Benjamin and Jerry Saua. And I just loved that fight. It was just really gutsy performance how Lennox come back in that last round and he just about put a stoppage on it. Twice Lennox got the 10 count put on him in round one, round two. And he climbed back into that fight. And I just thought it described what it’s about and that big heart, that determination to win. And we just saw that.
And then again, Jeremy he stayed in that fight in that last round, he stayed in it and he wanted to win. And that’s just a critical eye for fighting. My favourite fighter.

Trent
Definitely. And I think, big shout out to Lennox Benjamin representing Safari and Jerry Saua representing Snapback. You guys put on an amazing fight in our last event. But we would be remiss if we went by without the debut of Uenuku Natives, Niwa Barlow taking on, all the way from Whangarei, right out of Flavel boxing, Michael Lee Tuaiti. What a sensational fight that was too, wasn’t it James?

James
Yeah, it was a good fight. Niwa has got all the charisma and the enthusiasm and the energy that people will love to watch, and people will just love to watch Niwa because he’s an entertainer. Michael’s a little bit more quiet, but he gets in that ring and he just becomes a beast of a fighter, let his hands go. Yeah. Great fight

Trent
Great, great awesome fight. I think when we go back through our three events that we had this year, I think there are a few fights that we do need to mention before we continue. So from our 102 event, we got Leilani Leatherby of Barbwire® versus Sarah Mischewski out of Olympus. That was awesome. That was one where the fan vote didn’t quite match up to the judges vote. They were opposite sides of the fence, which is awesome, which is great.

And then also Bobby Katene (Barbwire®) versus Wills Moala out of Olympus. Really, really tough fight for Bobby, him coming having his kind of first fight at Cruiser, taking on Wills who I think maybe might have come down to Cruiser and he’s, a big boy, strong puncher and Wills walked away with the W on that one, but that was a very, very gutsy performance. Moving into 103.

Wow, Natariki Rokoteni vs Charlie Ainsworth, which was the fan voted fight of the night. That was a beautiful back and forth. was such a wonderful back and forth of so many exchanges. You can see that those two, even though it was only their first and I think second fights respectively, they carried themselves an air of mana that was just very strong and it permeated all throughout during that fight.

James
Yeah, absolutely. And if there is a fight that the online vote had it one way, the judging had it the other way, these are the fights I want to really focus on next year (in 2025) as well, they are the fights that deserve to have a rematch. So, if your fight did go either way of the judges to the online vote, expect a phone call, expect an email because I’m very keen to get those fights on the card for 2025.

Trent
Definitely, we want definitive results.

James
Yes we do.

Trent
For 103 also, I think this doubles up too as this was my choice anyway for the biggest upset of the year was when Jono Hous defeated Hamish Rowe. Hous fighting out of Safari, survived a really strong early onslaught from Hamish and then he came out in those first two rounds and was just bopping away. There was no let up from Hamish, but Jono, stayed composed, he breathes and he ended up actually outboxing Hamish a bit and all credit to Hamish he left it all in the ring but on that in that fight the better man really won and I think that was a big surprise because even Jono had some hesitations coming into that fight. When I spoke to his coach he discussed to me that after his shark tank the week before the fight man he just saw something switch over and we saw that on the night.

James
Yeah look Jono fought really well. Hamish is a good fighter, I’d love to get him back in the gym, get him going for next year. Yeah, great fight. One of my favourite fights for the series, for the year. Yeah, good on Jono, digging deep. He lost those first two rounds. And he came back and won that last round and got a TKO.

Trent
Yeah, and he did well. But what’s your choice for the biggest upset over the year, Batman?

James
Probably Joseph Howard over Paw (Maming). Unfortunately, Paw didn’t have a great training camp. So he probably wasn’t quite ready for that fight, but good on Joseph, mate, he turned up, trained hard and got the win. I think that was probably the upset for me.

Trent
I think that was a really good display of what Hydras is all about. They have produced some strong fighters and on the last card, we were lucky enough to have four of their fighters on the card and all of them showed out, turned up man. Joseph really went out there and he displayed some beautiful footwork. We talked a lot about power and his proficiency in his footwork but there was a few moments there in the exchange and it was like wow, he’s getting the better of him. Not with the hands but with the feet actually, just had the positioning and it was like wow, Joseph was really good. Wow, awesome. Good work on him.

James
Yeah, I like to see Paw do a good training camp and he felt a bit down and out after that fight because he knew it wasn’t his great performance. Maybe that’s a fight that we could look at repeating the game for next year.

Trent
Never know. So moving on to your favourite fighters of the year. So the people that got in the ring and did their thing. So what’s your picks?

James
I can’t go past Bobby. Bobby and Liam Kupe, they’re both from Barbwire® Club. They train hard, they’re good people. They have jobs, they look after their family, just generally great people to have in the club. So I can’t go past them as my favourite fighters.

Trent
Fair go, fair go. I’ve got to say that I agree with you when it comes to Bobby. Bobby’s had a really big year. He’s taken on a lot of challenges and he’s just every step of the way, whether it was win or lose. He went out there and showed some sensational heart. I think my fighter for the year throughout the series was probably Lennox, Lennox Benjamin out of Safari. Big boy, heavyweight, love to watch him fight. He’s got an interesting style. Fights open stance. He very much invites the action to come to him. And I might be a little bit biased because I’ve been training with him too, but seeing him go from his first fight to his fourth fight, all in the matter of, I think it was four months, really was a testament to him, his toughness, his grit, his ability to just grind it out when it comes to the gym. And on top of that, he’s a wonderful, wonderful human being, extremely humble individual.

And all those boys from Safari, they’ve really done well for our cards this year, but big props to Lennox and obviously to Bobby as well and all fighters that have competed on the BFC cards this year.

James
Every time you walk through the ropes and every time you do the training camp, there’s always a lot of pressure. Anyone that walks through those ropes, they deserve a pat on the back. It shows a lot of courage. 98 % of people couldn’t do it. It’s only about 2 % of the world that would climb through the ropes and do it. And it’s just not about doing it once. You gotta do it time and time and time again to master your craft. It’s a beautiful sport, but it’s not for everyone. So the ones that do it, yeah, my hat off to them.

Trent
100%. So, what’s been your favourite event of the entire year this year?

James
Has to be 104. To have the support from PRO-BOX NZ, to have the heavyweight Women’s title fight was my favourite thing. Just to have that confidence that our shows are good enough to put on a heavyweight title fight and have the fans’ engagement with the online votes. New Zealand are seeing the benefits of doing it this way, engaging more people. So 104 event was probably my favourite because I also set a goal to do three events this year. So we accomplished that and just to get it over the line.

Trent
On Friday the 13th, nonetheless, you mad man you! So yeah, 104 was awesome. My favourite event for the year was actually 103. That was the crowd, the vibe, the set up. It was our first time properly broadcasting, my first time announcing on the shows and that a big thing for me to do my first show of commentating and also doing the announcing of the fights on the night were just, wow, that was so awesome. I think 104 definitely had the better bouts but 103… I think it was the vibe in the air that night, it was wonderful, everyone was engaging hard out, the crowd was into it and from the first fight right until the main event the energy did not stop the entire time. So that was wicked.

So, moving into 2025 who are some of the fighters that you would be telling people to watch out for?

James
Well Leilani Leatherby, she hasn’t had a loss in her four fights. She loves to fight, she mentally prepares for it, beautiful fighter, the way she moves. So Leilani Leatherby, watch out for Leilani, she’s got big future in boxing, big future with BFC professional series as well. And another fighter that I really like is James Asi from Olympus Gym. He trains hard you always see him out there doing the runs, doing the weights, doing the pull ups, the push ups, know, the squat jumps. Beautiful fighter, nice person. So yeah, my two fighters that I would say watch out New Zealand these two fighters are going places.

Trent
James is awesome man, he competed on our 102 event and he did extremely well I believe he beat Weiss there, beat Weiss, second round TKO and wow just looked super strong you know that night Olympus was on full display that night they did such a great job but James specifically I agree with you he always seem out there he’s putting the miles in on the road he’s doing his road work, he’s doing his pad work. He’s in the gym, he’s loving it, so massive props to James.

I think a fighter to watch out for in the future, I think a fight actually, I’ll choose a fight so I’m trying not to show any bias. But a fight to watch out for next year might be Prince Tutahione versus Phoenix O’Connor. I would really love to run that back because both of them, wow, Phoenix, lots of energy, very strong presence there in the ring. And then you look at Prince and Prince is a bit more calm, he’s a more cool, but both of them went out there on the 104 event and they just showed out. To me that was probably, if Lennox hadn’t come back with that Lionheart performance, that would have been my performance of the night, because they were dropping each other with shots and you know, the fan vote was split to the judges vote, so that was really, really cool.

James
And just a big shout out to Olympus, I mean, if you’re living around Taranaki or in New Plymouth guys, you know, great club and they’ve got some great fighters. So Olympus, real strong club. So get in there and support them.

Trent
Definitely. Massive shout out to our major gyms that have helped us out and provided us with fighters for the BFC events this year. So it’s a big shout out to Olympus, shout out to Safari, shout out to Snapback, shout out to Eltham Hydra’s and all of our other gyms that we would be remiss if we didn’t mention. Big shout out to all of you guys. You guys really made the event. We don’t have much if we don’t have our fighters and we don’t have our gyms supporting us. So, from the bottom of our heart here, we do say a massive thank you.

2025 man is going to be a massive year. We’ve got shows planned, we’re going all throughout the nation. It isn’t just about us broadcasting, we’re also going all around New Zealand and we’re putting on shows in towns and going, hey, this is what we’re about. We’re here for this.

James
Well, we’re going to bring something to New Zealand that’s been missed, and it’s about the fighters getting paid proper money, real money, it’s about fan engagement. And it’s always been for me, lets give back, lets give back to the fighters mainly, because I know what they go through to prepare for a fight and this is where the whole concept came from, lets give back to the fighters. So what’s the best way to do it? Get some money in front of them, fan engagement, live streaming it all around the world. Really excited about 2025.

We’re taking the fight game to places where it’s never been seen before in New Zealand.

Trent
New heights man, new heights for the NZ fight game. Pro Series coming up man.

So, our BFC recap. It’s been awesome. Let’s talk about the boxing world a little bit man. What a year it has been for boxing. So first and foremost, this is coming out prior to David Nyika versus Jai Opetaia. We’ll talk a little bit about our predictions, James, I’m really interested to hear your thoughts on this fight.

David Nyika vs Jai. listen man, I had the unpleasurable experience of doing some sparring with David Nyika just before he went to the Commonwealth Games. I don’t want to experience that again. And I’ve been in the ring with some world class fighters, but I just noticed with David Nyika, he took it to that next level, a level that I’ve never seen before. A lot of people are saying he’s not ready for Jai.

I disagree man, you just go look at his amateur background, look at his professional fights, pretty much one every fight by TKO or KO. I’m gonna go and pick David Nyika on this one.

Trent
You would be remiss if you didn’t. David, is one of the brightest prospects to come out of New Zealand in a long time. He’s sitting at 10 and 0 right now and his opponent, the current Cruiserweight champion, Jai Opetaia, sitting at 26 and 0. I saw David’s post the other day saying that he’s very well aware that he is the underdog. It’s definitely going to be an interesting match. I can say that for the absolute least, but I think I’ve got to back the Kiwi boy, David Nyika. I’ve got to say TKO round nine.

James
Why not go David Nyika, New Zealand boy. No one’s ever done what he’s done in New Zealand boxing, in the amateur boxing. I could be wrong, but he’s got a silver or bronze at Olympics. He’s got two gold at the Commonwealth Games. He’s won world boxing amateur tournaments. He’s just a world class fighter.

And good on these guy’s for putting this fight on so early on in their career. And it’s about time boxing started getting these world-class fighters at their prime. So great fight, looking forward to it.

Trent
Yeah, Definitely. Speaking of New Zealand boxing, really excited also to see the co-main event of Beterbiev/Bivol 2 is going to be Joseph Parker versus Daniel Dubois. Dubois still riding high off of his defeat of Anthony Joshua in a very undefinitive fashion. You haven’t even seen him defeated like that since Andrew Ruiz did it. And obviously Joseph Parker, I was blown away when he beat Deontay Wilder and so to see both of them sort of kind of around the same age, to see them competing at what could arguably be their primes, it’s quite amazing. He’s something of an anomaly Joseph Parker and definitely one of the best cube boxes to come out of here in a very long time.

James
Yeah. Oh man, what a fight. It’s a 50-50 fight and that’s great. Daniel Dubois just had that incredible performance against Anthony Joshua. He reminded me of a bigger version of Mike Tyson. He shoulder rolled and just hunted Anthony Joshua. Beautiful boxing. And I love to see how he comes out against Joseph Parker, is he’s going to do that same shoulder roll, hunt him down, throw those big shots, looping shots, let his hands go. And then Joseph Parker, he’s just got to be picking him off, using his ring craft.

Trent
Pick and move, pick and move, beautiful. And I think it’s quite substantial to have a Kiwi, being the co-main of one of the biggest cards that’s going to be put on, in this year or the next. And yeah, I think I have to back Joseph Parker, obviously Kiwis and that, I’ve got to back Joseph Parker, I think I’ll go by majority decision.

James
I think it will go the rounds. Joseph Parker by majority decision.

Trent
Yeah, fair go. And speaking of that event, let’s talk a little bit about the main event for that fight between Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol. Obviously a very controversial fight the first time round. Someone’s ‘0’ had to go and it ended up being Bivol on the night. But Beterbiev man, those hands, they’re not to be messed with. They are not to be messed with.

He is an exceptional power puncher and from my understanding, he’s also the first undisputed light heavyweight champion in the four belt era since Roy Jones Jr. To be up there with that sort of company is something that’s quite amazing.

James
Yeah, Bivol’s got that Eastern European beautiful style, nice long punches, always coming forward, but just keeping it long, keeping it long. He’s a beautiful Eastern European style fighter.

But I’m picking upset, think Bivol will come back and beat Beterbiev this time. He’s just got a world class fighter in his attitude towards winning, he’s at next level.

Trent
Yeah, it’s really tricky from the first time around to try and make the call, but I think I’ll back Beterbiev for this one. He’s the champ, he’s still undefeated, so I think I’ve got to stand by Artur Beterbiev on that one. And I’ll say KO, I’ll say KO round 11. Bivol, please don’t hurt me, man. I’m sorry, I’m just giving my ideas.

And it’s been a mental year this year for the boxing world. Between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Jake Paul’s rise to fame in general, really, what he’s been doing has just been…wow

James
Look, he’s brought a whole new crowd to the game, hasn’t he? He’s brought all those YouTubers and all that younger generation to boxing. And that needed it. Yeah, it needed it. So good on Jake Paul for doing that.

Trent
Good on Mike Tyson for making it to the ring. Obviously he had some complications along the way and he could have nearly died at some points, but he got in the ring and he put on a fight. How many 60 year old men do you see out there getting in the ring going for a pro fight?

James
He got in there, he got in there, clenched his ropes and went the distance. I think boxing does need to be careful of not going too far one way and it becoming a bit of a joke. I mean, was on the verge of being, ‘oh, this is bullshit lets not watch boxing again’. They may have somehow got away with it. It’s not a fight that I ever want to see again.

It somehow attracted the world’s interest in a huge pay-per-view views around the world.

Trent
Showmanship, the whole world was about it. People who had never ever watched boxing before, saw that and were just like, okay, I think I might give it a go. If 60-year-old Mike Tyson can get in the ring and a 27-year-old YouTuber can get in the ring, I think I can do it.

I think that’s broadening the appeal of boxing to a lot of people.

James
Yeah, and all of a sudden, everyone wants to fight Jake Paul. Everyone, every fighter in the world wants a big payday fight Jake Paul, and somehow he’s marketed himself amazingly.

Trent
He has. He has. used his fame and turned it into notoriety, which is, all the best individuals that have been successful from working the show have all been like that. You look at your Ali’s, you look at your Tyson’s, you look at all your big talkers as well. And all of them, they have that one common thing, which is, they’ll turn everyone knows their name to, I want to see him lose. Even Floyd Mayweather, look at him.

Speaking of watch, his fight, man, his fight this year against John Gotti, eight round non-scored bout, but see Floyd in there, 50, still looking like Floyd.

James
He’s got a great training effect. He just loves to train and goes down as one of the great fighters of all time. And that’s what I want to ask. Where does Oleksandr Usyk now fit in the world rankings? Do we put him in the conversation of an Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson? Is he in that conversation yet, or does he need more fights?

Trent
No, I think he’s in there. I think he’s in there personally. Because of the level of competition he’s faced. Even though some would say, Tyson’s washed up, Fury’s washed up. But we’ve seen what Fury looked like washed up and he came all the way back from that. Even though on the night he was 60 pounds heavier, even though on the night he had the seven inch reach advantage, even though he had the age advantage, had everything height advantage, Usyk still out boxed him. And to be able to do that against him.

James
I think he’ll get there. I don’t know if I put him in the same category as Rocket Masani and George Foreman, not quite yet because I don’t think he’s had the fight numbers as a professional. You know, these guys have done 60, 70 fights. Oleksandr Usyk, what’s he done? He’s done about 25 to 35. So I always believe that in sport you need the mileage. You need the games. But man, he’s got to be in that conversation soon.

You say he’s there, don’t you? You reckon he’s already there? I’m not sure.

Trent
I think if he isn’t there, he’s at least on the very right path and he’s probably only a few steps away. Obviously, with this, I think he’s the only one to become undisputed. I think he’s the only fighter to become undisputed in two weight classes, cruiserweight and heavyweight.

James
Maybe Holyfield? If Holyfield did the same, I could be wrong, but I’m sure the audience out there will correct us in the comments but I’m sure Evander Holyfield and Oleksandr Usyk are the only two fighters that have done it.

Trent
He’s the only one to do it in the four belt era which is our modern era you look at I think it’s 2000 onwards, so that four belt era he’s the only one to do the heavyweight you know and be undisputed. I think for me that’s a massive achievement, I don’t know if that credits him in being in that goat talk yet, but I think he’s definitely on that right path already.

He’s got the championships, he’s now got defences under him, which is really good.

James
I think that’s what you need. You need defences under those little title fights. You need those defences. So lets hope Joseph Parker can win and see that fight against Oleksandr Usyk. And  that’s going to be a good fight. I reckon that’s a more dangerous fight than Tyson Fury. Just because style makes fights and the way Joseph Parker moves a lot better than Tyson Fury. I think that’d be a much dangerous, dangerous fight.

Trent
I gotta say, I agree with you on that. Me and a friend were discussing that the other night about the potential of Parker beats Dubois and Usyk beats Fury. Well, you to the math. It’s kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? But we know how boxing math is, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Next, we’ll talk a little bit about Tank Davis.

James
He’s got to fight against Roach on the 1st of March 2025. But I think it’s just a warm-up fight. I think Tank Davis should clean up Roach. Even though Roach is 25 and 1 with one draw. I think it’s a warm-up Roach for bigger things. And the bigger fight for Tank Davis would have to be against the guy Stevenson 22 and 0. Stevenson, I think, second in the world rankings in that weight class behind Tank. Two Americans going for it. It could be a huge fight.

And that Stevenson is a beautiful fighter. Tank Davis needs to probably win. Just to put himself as one of the greats in that weight class in that era.

Trent
And speaking of one of the greats, undisputed all-time lightweight champion, Terence Crawford. That feels so good to say. Terence Crawford’s been one of my favourite fighters for a long time now, the effortless switching stances, I’m a big sucker for that. If you can punch just as hard with your left as you can with your right, I’m sold. Great guy, Bud is just awesome individual. He beat Errol Spence Jr. earlier this year to take home the title of undisputed lightweight champion. I think that to me is amazing. Even if he were to never put the gloves back on again, he’d be considered one of the all time greats easily.

James
Yeah, Bud what can you say about him, just keeps on winning doesn’t he? A lot of talk about Canelo and Bud matching up. Obviously there’s a bit of weight difference.

Trent
Would need to be a catch wouldn’t there?

James
There’d need be a catch weight. But I think they would love to see the fight. And I think Bud would do it. Terence Crawford’s would do it. I’m not too sure about Canelo. I think he’s the one that seems to be standing off a little bit.

Trent
I mean when you’re 70 fights into your career and you’ve only got single digit losses you really want to pick your poisons very carefully. And Canelo this year, he had two fights, great performances in both of them. He’s looking a bit beefy though. I think they’ll be awesome to see the Crawford Canelo fights, don’t get me wrong. Just being able to close that distance between the two of them, I think would be a very interesting way because even when you look at Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, Garcia put the condition out there that Haney had to make a certain weight, he didn’t and I think he paid him half a million dollars for every pound over he went.

There’s always been those sorts of things but I think for the sake of the purity of boxing I think that both men would be able to come to an agreement of what a good weight is for them and be able to fight at some kind of catch weight.

James
Yep the world will want to see that fight I believe. We’ll want to see it get those Saudi Arabia boys onto it.

Trent
Hell yeah, Riyadh season man, Riyadh season they’re all over him.

But yeah, what a wicked year for boxing this has been man. I’ve been, this is a little bit more on a personal note, we talked a little bit earlier about the inception of BFC and how it came to you when you were in a time where you weren’t necessarily in the right mindset, things were getting you down. I was in a very similar set earlier this year, it was quite divine that I reached out to you and you got back to me and then it just happened like this and it was just – all right, come for a try and then boom, just like that part of the crew and that’s happened. I’m truly grateful for this, Batman, this platform, this opportunity to be able to be doing all of this, this is a dream come true for me to be able to do all this and to be on the right path and heading our way up, doing big things, man. It’s going to be an amazing 2025 is going to be a BFC kind of year

James
Yeah. Nah, listen, I mean, my team I have to say thank you to you. You came forward, you’ve taken it on hand, you’ve taken the bull by the horns and say, yeah, I’m going to own this. And you’ve done it, between me and you, we’re the face of BFC. And we just need to get a few more fighters to be the face of it and we’ll get there.

So thank you. And everyone else that’s behind the team

Trent
And everyone else, our whole team, our social media team, our production team, our lovely director, (hi Dee). This year has been amazing, taking this off the ground, so to speak, doing something that hasn’t been done before, reaching new heights, gunning for new heights, putting on great fights. Biggest highlight for the year, I think, would probably be when we had the women’s heavyweight title. I’d say personally, that was my highlight of the year (apart from doing the 103 event), because that was, wow, this is a professional boxing match that’s happened right in front of my eyes, with two people and two really strong ladies.

I just want to touch on that a little bit, because we talked a little bit about it, but to me, that still boggles me that Maria (Hunt) still had the gas to go out in the championship rounds and just continue competing.

Round five, round six, seven and eight, she was still out there still swinging and finally finding her range. That displayed to me a bit more about what it’s about?

James
Yeah, Maria, right to the last round she kept fighting. The rounds were close, but anyone that saw the fight live stream would know that Sequita (Hemingway) won the rounds, but they were close round. They were close. The fight was good fight. New Zealand Pro Box, well done for allowing us to do it and well done for my team for putting on a great show to showcase it. And let’s get Maria and Sequita back on our shows. Maybe not fighting against each other, just mix it up a bit, right? But great athletes.

Trent
Oh, totally, totally. Great, work from our ladies to close out our final fight of the year.

James
If I could just say something that’s really growing on me is our team. We’ve got such a good team and we’re all coming together and trying to push everything in the same direction so we can grow the fight game in New Zealand.

My biggest achievement this year was just doing those three events. That was my goal, do three events and just growing the team. We’ve got a team of probably seven or eight now in our team.

And we can’t achieve anything without a team. And no businesses out there can achieve it without having a great team. And I believe we’ve got a great team to take that forward.

Trent
Definitely. We’re all doing our thing. We’re working in collaborative effort to march on forward, and cut the path for the New Zealand fight game, man. We’re doing some sensational work, but now doing crazy work, as they call it. Crazy work!

But yeah, I think that wraps our recap up, doesn’t it Batman?

James
It does, it does, let’s bring on 2025.

Trent
Indeed, so thank you all for tuning in and stay tuned for the next one until then Happy New Year – Trent Kiri, Batman Langton signing off. Happy New Year.