By David Finger
Boxing fans in New Zealand were treated to an exciting evening of heavyweight boxing on Saturday (December 14th) at the Ellerslie Event Centre just a few miles from downtown Auckland. The event was highlighted by undefeated bomber Samisi Kalu, who won two bouts in one night to win a regional tournament that had excited boxing fans across the North Island. This despite the fact that the planned “Auckland Eight Dare To Be Great” one night tournament was whittled down from a eight man to a four man tournament due to some last minute cancellations.
The tournament was originally slated to be a one night “March Madness” style tournament where the winner would be crowned the “Pro Box Pacific Heavyweight champion”. However, after the cancellations the belt was pulled from the tournament and it became a battle for bragging rights only.
In the end, the winner Semisi Kalu didn’t come home with a belt. But he may have gained something even more valuable than a regional title: credibility.
Entering the ring the amateur standout, who fought in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, looked to be a fighter still trying to make his mark in professional boxing. But by the end of the night it looked like he had established himself as a legitimate prospect, albeit one who is still very much a work in progress.
Going into the tournament Kalu’s record stood at 1-0-1, and many fans in New Zealand couldn’t overlook his draw against Conrad Lam in his second fight back in June of 2019. His opponent in the opening fight was the rugged William Quarrie, who was seen as a quality litmus test for a fighter like Kalu. Although Quarrie was not a world beater, and although he was coming into the fight on the heels of a long spell of inactivity (having last fought in August of 2015), he was a very solid gatekeeper in New Zealand. Of Quarrie’s four losses, three came against undefeated prospects and only the former world ranked Izuagbe Ugonoh was able to score the stoppage against him. For Kalu, a knockout would be a major statement in his quest to establish himself as a world class prospect.
However, for much of the first round, it looked like Quarrie was going to slam the gate in Kalu’s face. Quarrie seemed keen on keeping the plodding Kalu one step behind as he peppered the hard hitting prospect with quick flurries upstairs. Kalu seemed unable to pin down Quarrie, stalking his fleet footed foe but never quite closing the gap. Kalu’s strategy became clear early on however: keep moving forward and find a home for the overhand right. Well, two minutes into the opening round showed fans the reason for his methodical strategy. A hard right to the temple stunned Quarrie and sent him to the canvas. Although it was not ruled a knockdown due in part to Kalu’s over-aggression leading to him pushing Quarrie down after hurting him, there was little question that he rattled the veteran. Kalu again seemed to have Quarrie ready to go down again before the bell ended the round.
Round two saw Quarrie seemingly recover and revert to the strategy that had shown some success: firing off quick flurries upstairs and taking advantage of Kalu’s lethargic aggression and his over reliance on the right hand. Kelu’s stalking was enough to anger his cornerman, who yelled at the prospect to “work off the jab!” But Kalu still was successful with his right hand-centric offense and found another opening later in the round, prompting Quarrie to again hold on in the final 30 seconds of the round.
By round three the chopping right hand of Kalu had finally broke through and seconds into the third and final round he dropped Quarrie with a picture perfect overhand right that looked like it could have been featured on a Tim Witherspoon highlight reel. Quarrie was able to get up on shaky legs and tried to jab his way out of trouble but another hard right hand had him wobbled and backed him into the neutral corner where the undefeated prospect tried his best to be only the second man to stop the gritty Quarrie.
In the end Quarrie was able to survive the round, and with only three rounds of action he was able to keep it close on the judges scorecards despite the disastrous third round. Judge David Craig and Judge Soraya Sebetian scored the fight 29-27 while Judge Benjamin Watt scored the fight 28-28. Fightnews scores the fight 29-27 for Kalu. With the win Kalu improved to 2-0-1 and advanced to the finals while Quarrie fell to 5-5, 2 KOs. The referee was John Conway.
In the other semi-final 37-year old veteran Junior Pati was the recipient of what could only be considered a somewhat controversial decision after he scored a split decision over a complete unknown commodity in William Whiu. Although Pati was a fighter with a less than stellar record, he was a boxer who had been fighting professionally for over 15 years and who had fought for a WBC regional belt against former world champion Lucas Browne in his last fight. With 36-professional fights under his belt the assumption with many fans at ringside was that the debuting Whiu was simply not going to be able to compensate for the huge edge in experience Pati was coming in with.
And for one round it looked like Whiu thought the same thing. As he cane down the escalator and entered the ring he appeared to be a man struggling to control the butterflies in his stomach. This was a sharp contrast to the veteran, who entered the ring as cool as a cucumber. But then nervousness began to fade away as Whiu boxed effectively against an opponent who was not nearly as aggressive as was to be expected. Although round one saw Pati score some solid shots to the body, by the end of the round it was the jab of Whiu that became the most notable punch of the fight. Although it appeared as if Pati had won the round it was also abundantly clear that Whiu had shaken his nervousness and recognized he was in the ring with a fighter he could defeat…despite the edge in experience his opponent had.
Round two saw Whiu box with some effectiveness as the rookie added some decent footwork to his arsenal. Although the jab of Whiu didn’t land much and wasn’t the prettiest jab in boxing, he was considerably more active with it and seemed to be out-hustling his lethargic opponent.
By round three it appeared that the moment was all with Whiu as he outworked Pati and even snuck in an overhand right. Perhaps recognizing that the fight was slipping away from him, Pati tried to jab his way in. But Whiu simply heled on whenever Pati got inside. By the end of the round it looked like the little known Will Whiu had done the unthinkable and scored the stunning upset. But much to the surprise of everyone at ringside the fight was even on the judges scorecards…necessitating a “sudden death” round four between both men. It was an exciting bit of unexpected drama (the first time a sudden death round was conducted in New Zealand since 2014) and gave fans of both men reason to stand and cheer as the fighters tried to push themselves to win the final round. But it looked like the momentum was firmly in Whiu’s corner as he boxed effectively for much of the final round. Although most of his shots failed to land, it seemed that the only response Pati had to the activity of Whiu was to clown his opponent. However, after the final round Pati was named the winner in what could only be considered a somewhat controversial decision. Judge John Conway scored the fight 39-38 for Pati while Judge Benjamin Watt scored it 39-37 for Whiu. However Judge Soraya Sebetian found in favor of Pati by a score of 39-37. Fightnews agreed with Watt and scored the fight 39-37 for the debuting William Whiu. The referee was David Craig.
With the win Pati improved to 13-23-1, 6 KOs but in a bizarre twist he was unable to advance to the finals after it was determined that he fractured his right had in the fight with Whiu. As a result the loser of the fight, William Whiu, advanced to the finals after having dropped a decision in his professional debut earlier in the night.
Unfortunately for Whiu, he also had no answer for the devastating power of Semisi Kalu and quickly discovered that the overhand right was Kalu’s answer to the jab. After Whiu tried to throw a quick flurry upstairs midway through the opening round he backed into the ropes where a picture perfect right cross to the temple robbed him of his legs and sent him stumbling into the canvas where he struggled to get up at 9. Referee David Craig took a long look at Whiu but let the gritty young boxer continue. But Kalu saw his opportunity and jumped all over his wounded foe. Although Whiu tried to clinch his way out of trouble the hard punching Kalu staggered him again at the end of the round.
Whiu didn’t fully recover by the start of the second but to his credit he tried to outbox the hard hitting bomber. But another hard right dropped him at the two minute mark. After getting felled again moments later referee David Craig wisely waved the fight off. With the win Kalu might have shown himself to be a solid prospect worth keeping an eye out on in the future. He doesn’t have all the tools of a contender, but he clearly has one major piece of the puzzle in his right hand, and if he can add some diversity to his arsenal he could just emerge as a legitimate prospect knocking on the door of the world rankings in a few years.
For promoter Craig Thomson, the show proved to be another knockout despite the unexpected setbacks and last minute fight cancellations. With a near capacity crowd and eleven amateur (or “corporate”) fights rounding off the card few fans left feeling disappointed by the end of the night.