Boxing needs to be revived

18 April 2016, 12:00AM

The Secretary of the Samoa Amateur Boxing Association (S.A.B.A.) Lialii Lautapaa Wong King said that boxing needs to have its own facilities for the sport to be revived if the government needs to see a change in boxing.

Liali’i said the major problem that the Boxing Association is facing is that there is no permanent facility for the Association to hold its competitions.

“There are a lot of boxers in Samoa but the problem is there are no facilities,” he said.

“We have a gym at Tuanaimato but it’s like a family house and only training can be held there but not competitions because it’s too small.

“So kids are training in their own clubs and that is all that they can do is to train but there are no competitions to show everyone their talent like other sports such as rugby and others.”

As for the ring at Vaiusu,  Liali’i said that ring belongs to Asiata Stanley.

“I have asked him (Asiata) but he is not willing to give it to us unless we pay him $400tala per week but we can’t afford that amount,” said the S.A.B.A. Secretary.

“I understand also where he is coming from because the S.A.B.A. used his ring before but there were fights between the village kids and the boxers so he (Asiata) does not want to be responsible which is understandable.

“The ring that we used to hold competitions in at Apia Park is the Tumua ma Puleono Aiga Fealofani ring but there were also some problems with Samoa Sports Facilities Association and their security guards.

“People kept ruining our rings and all our equipment and so I complained to the media and the result is, I was kicked out.

“So now we have nowhere to go. People criticize us and our performances but the problem lies at the top.”

Liali’i also said that with no facilities, no competitions the result is there will be no more boxing in Samoa.

“The government needs to help us out on this because they are also the ones criticizing our performance so they need to help us,” he said.

“Give us a facility so that we can own and have our training so we can do better in all our tournaments,” said Liali’i.

“That is the work of the government and then the government to S.A.S.N.O.C .and then to us S.A.B.A.

“We need to have this so that we can revive boxing because there are a lot of negatives about boxing but that is the real problem.”

18 April 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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