By Craig Hardie @ Ringside – This past Saturday we witnessed a truly international pro-am card promoted by Boxfit’s Regan Foley at the Panmure Lagoon Stadium in Auckland, NZ. The card featured 3 US professionals Super-Middleweight Brian Cohen, Light-Heavyweight Jameson Bostic and WBO top 10 Ranked Heavyweight Chauncy Welliver. They were matched against Fijian/Kiwi Taito Raturere, Samoan/Kiwi Atalili Fai and Cook Island/Kiwi Daniel Tai respectively.
After a series of amateur bouts the pro card started with Jameson Bostic dominating the game but over matched Atalili Fai, after an initial feeling out round in the first Bostic went about pummelling Fai from pillar to post landing at will and beating him to the punch everytime wobbling Fai numerous times during the 2nd round.. Fai under instructions from the ringside Doctor called it a day and didn’t come out for the 3rd handing Bostic his 22nd professional win of his career and now looking towards bigger and better fights. We then moved on to the WBO Oriental Super-Middleweight contest between Brian Cohen (15-2-0 14KO’s) and Taito Raturere (6-0-0 1KO). Cohen started strongly but Taito soon found his rhythm and had Cohen walking into his right hand almost at will, the first round ended with Cohen being dropped with what appeared to be a shot to the back of his head. Cohen started the 2nd strongly as he did the first but before long Raturere found a home again for his right and had Cohen in some trouble. The fight took a strange turn when Cohen appeared to vigorously throw himself from a clinch landing heavily on the canvas taking a knock to his head in the process. Cohen stayed on the canvas for up to 5 minutes and looked to be in some serious difficulty, the referee having given Cohen ample time to return to action waved the fight off declaring it a No Contest to the disappointment of Raturere’s home fans who clearly believed he was starting to come on in the fight. A rematch may be in order perhaps?
The fans were then treated to a WBO Asia-Pacific and New Zealand Heavyweight Title fight between Kiwi favourite and WBO Top 10 ranked Heavyweight Chauncy Welliver (43-5-5 14KO’s) and Cook Island/New Zealander and former New Zealand Heavyweight Champion Daniel Tai (18-8-2 6KO’s.) Having met twice previously both combatants knew each other well and no love is lost between the bitter rivals. There last meeting being in May of this year where Welliver went about schooling Tai over 12 rounds, Tai was called in to fight Welliver for a 3rd time after numerous other opponents found various ways to avoid facing Welliver also known as “The Hillyard Hammer.” Sitting ringside it was evident Welliver had trained hard for this fight coming in in great shape and focused his new team including the legendary Joe Hipp as head trainer doing a great job of transforming the once affectionately known “Fat, Dorky, White guy.” Tai entered the ring equally as focused chomping at the bit to have another crack at his fiercest rival, he looked like a man determined to turn the tide against Welliver and snatch a win back. However as the first bell rang it was all Welliver as he went about beating Tai down to a pulp, establishing his piston like jab with ease Chauncy was able to set up hard cracking body shots to Tai’s mid section which had this writer and sections of the crowd wincing in pain. The Body assault was relentless and by rounds 3 and 4 Tai was visibly showing the affects with large welt like markings to both sides of his body. Tai was fighting in patches trying to get off 5 and 6 punch combos maybe once or twice a round but with little affect Chauncy mostly blocking or making him miss and as each round ticked by his efforts became less and less tiring quickly due to the fast pace set by Welliver and the body shots that continued to rain in the slippery slope to defect had been set. By round 10 you could sense Welliver was starting to really enjoy himself engaging with the crowd he looked happy to be getting in some valuable rounds with bigger fights on the horizon championship rounds under the belt are money in the bank. But with Tai almost out on his feet Chauncys corner were encouraging him to go for the stoppage so in doing so Welliver turned it up another notch showing his supreme conditioning Tai had know answer and was being hit at will being staggered numerous times during round 11. As the final bell rang for the 12th round Welliver was bouncing around on his toes ready to finish strongly, and finish strongly he did Tai still exhausted from the 11th round nose bleeding and carrying almost hideous like welts to his body walked flat footed to meet Welliver centre ring. Welliver unleashed hell on Tai in the 12th and with a minute to go dropped Tai with some beautiful flush shots to the chin Tai was finished the referee appeared to wave the fight off and this writer counted Tai being on his knees for at least 12/13sec. But Tai climbed to his feet and with 30sec remaining in the round the ref for some unknown reason allowed the action to continue, Tai was almost down again as the bell sounded to end the fight.
It was an immense display by Welliver showing world class boxing skills and the ability to stick to a game plan and make it count. This 3rd fight between the two rivals was no schooling it was beyond that simply put it was a massacre. Tai has no business being back in the ring with Welliver, however it must be said he possess great heart and is tough as nails. It cannot be ignored also that Welliver should have scored a TKO12 win over Tai had the ref been on his game, only Danny Green has stopped Tai previously.
Welliver and team have made it clear they’d like a shot at David Tua and that’s a fight of great significance in New Zealand. Right now as it stands the winner would almost surely be in line for a World Title fight given there current rankings within the WBO. Watch this space!!!
NB: Also some undercard results Harry Funmaker WUD4 over Tongan Heavyweight Champion Alipate Liava’a and Steve Heremaia Drew with Harry Venka in a rematch for the Auckland Light-Middleweight Title.