02-19-2016, 02:36 PM
I believe that once Junior fought for Tonga he was then unable to fight at the NZ Nationals. I stand corrected but I think he won a Bronze at the Commonwealth Games with Tonga in the same year at Super Heavy division that Joseph Parker fought in 2010 - Joe lost marginally in the second round. After that he went to the World Series of Boxing for the Indian franchise, it was an uphill battle fighting the very best world ranked "amateur" Super heavies. The payment agreement used to be half for the boxer half for the country of origin while still keeping your amateur status for the Olympics. He is a very skilled boxer and used to spar with a youth amateur heavyweight boxer of ours when they were both in the Auckland team. Back then he was as fast as a middle, light heavy with plenty of power. Last I heard and quite a while before his pro debut he had settled down a bit with a wife and later a child. Certainly one to watch for the future especially with his long time coach Lolo in his corner and only 26.