The president of New Zealand's Boxing Coaches Association has called an event where 32 amateur fighters box each other to try and win $50,000 "straight-out thuggery."
The tournament, called "king of the streets", is being promoted by professional mixed martial arts fighter Dan "Hangman" Hooker and was endorsed by UFC fighter Israel Adesanya.
The event is being promoted as having no professionals and no weight limits, with competitors taking part in one minute "scraps" wearing MMA gloves.
Association president Billy Meehan told Checkpoint it's not boxing, as it's being billed as, and fears someone could be seriously hurt.
The tournament appears to be linked to a social media influencer and links to an online gambling site.
On May 14th, Hooker posted a video to social media with MMA fighter and former UFC middle weight champion Israel Adesanya endorsing the event and encouraging people to bring the whanau.
"Bring the family, bring the whanau, bring everyone, come watch, you'll get knocked out or knock someone the f*** out," Adesanya said.
In another video posted on the 17th of May, Hooker said too many fighters had registered, "so if everyone wants to drop their nuts that would be f****** great, hit me up."
President of the NZ Boxing Coaches Association Billy Meehan told Checkpoint the event is a street scrap and should not be classified as boxing.
"The rules are a lot different, for starters we don't do one-minute rounds. You're saying to the guy in the corner get out and start smashing the other guy as best you can. Boxing is an art form; it's a sport and this is straight-out thuggery."
In professional Olympic-style boxing, athletes use 10- or 12-ounce gloves, "nobody wears four-ounce MMA gloves," he said.
"What you've got there is just thugs getting in there and going out and they're just like absolutely smashing each other and we're going to see somebody get seriously hurt, if not killed."
President of the NZ Boxing Coaches Association Billy Meehan. Photo: Supplied/ NZ Boxing
To promote a boxing tournament, organisers must have a police permit, he said.
"It's got to be sanctioned by a sanctioning body. They're not even advertising where they're holding this so the police obviously don't even know."
He said there is a list of regulations on the Boxing and Wrestling Act.
"Other rules and regulations [are] around weights, weigh ins, full medicals, blood tests and it just goes on and on.
"People who can hold boxing tournaments are actually listed on the Wrestling and Boxing Act. Dan Hooker's not on the Wrestling and Boxing Act."
The implications of the fight having no weight restrictions is that someone could be seriously hurt, he said.
"[If] you've got a 70kg boxer or fighter getting in and fighting a 120kg fighter. You've got a little bit of difference here. Somebody's going to get hurt.
"They're actually saying to both sides to go just go out there and smash."
In a sanctioned Olympic style boxing tournament, every fighter must have a full medical check beforehand and there are doctors on site, he said.
"We have a registration book; everything is recorded in there. Your weight, your record, your experience, so when you're matching, you're matching against similar experience, we have weight divisions."
He said he has been seeing similar fights pop up around New Zealand.
"There's a lot of it starting to happen. Other ones that I know are involved, it's quick buck for them. We've got one setting up at the moment, it's called Semi-pro. There's no such thing.
"It's just barbaric, the biggest issue is the people getting in the ring half the time aren't conditioned enough to be there, they aren't matched correctly."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
