Exclamation point for Daniels

AuthorBOXING Mike Dinsdale
Published date25 May 2023
Publication titleNorthland Age, The
Daniels has done the hard work and is now ready for the historic women’s IBF world heavyweight title fight against Alrie Meleisea at Eventfinda Stadium on Saturday night

This bout is historic because this is the first world title fight contested between two New Zealand-born boxers and the first time between Māori and Pasifika boxers.

Both boxers are ranked Nos1 and 2 across the world boxing bodies, making this a true best-of-the-best world title fight for the heavyweight division.

This might be Daniels’ last fight because she has stated that win or lose, she plans on retiring after this bout.

The only reason she would continue to fight is if she gets big paydays in the future. Meleisea plans to fight on regardless of whether she wins or loses.

Daniels has been here before, though, and is hoping that experience will put her in good stead on Saturday.

In March 2019, Daniels took on Brazilian-born New Zealand citizen Geovana Peres for the WBO world light heavyweight title. Peres won the fight by unanimous decision, becoming the first LGBT person to represent New Zealand to win a world boxing title.

Daniels believes she has the experience as a world title contender going into this fight.

International records-keeping website Boxrec has practically dubbed this a 50-50 fight. Both boxers have a 47 per cent chance of winning this fight, with a 6 per cent chance of the bout being a draw.

However, the stats weren’t always like that. Earlier in the year, Daniels was 6 per cent ahead of Meleisea but that was changed due to the number of months between now and both fighters’ previous fights.

Meleisea has the support of Joseph Parker and David Tua. Leading into the fight, former world heavyweight champion Parker sent a video of support backing Meleisea in the fight. On Radio Samoa, legendary Kiwi heavyweight boxer Tua was interviewed alongside Meleisea...

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