Alrie Meleisea takes on two-time Commonwealth Games competitor

Photos: RAW Photography and olympic.org.nz

Announced today, Isaac Peach will return his Pro-Ama event to ABA Stadium on April 4.

The first fight that has been announced will see world-ranked boxer Alrie Meleisea (5-0-1) will take on two-time Commonwealth Games competitor Magan Maka.

This fight has set the boxing scene talking as it could be the toughest test in Alrie Meleisea's career.

Even though Magan Maka is making her professional debut, she is an extremely experienced amateur boxer who has three New Zealand national amateur championships in three different divisions, reaching the top 32 in the 2010 Youth World Boxing Championships and the quarter-finals in both the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Magan, who resides in Wellsford, is trained by Fili Maka and Isaac Peach.

They have ambitious plans for her career, including taking on Geovana Peres in the future.

Alrie Meleisea is ranked 3rd in the WBA and 6th on Boxrec. She returned to boxing in September last year after being away from the ring for 22 months.

In November, she made her television debut in a fight against Ashley Campbell. After the fight, Alrie uttered the boxing quote of the year: “The ring is my happy place”.

The quote was shared widely around Facebook and Twitter, as people were impressed with the performance of Alrie.

This is a very risky fight for Alrie, as she has a lot to lose, especially being on the verge of a world title fight, with current talk occurring to make this happen.

A loss for Alrie could lose her that opportunity, but a win will prove how ready she is for a world title fight.

A win for Magan Maka would certainly wake up the women’s division and she would receive a massive rankings boost into the top 10 in the world.

If she wants to get to Geovana, she will need to defeat Alrie, Lani Daniels, Tessa Tualevao and then Sarah long before getting a world title attempt.