Wednesday, 23rd November 2022- Marist St Joseph’s Sports Club Lotopa

It is my privilege to be here this evening to

officially welcome on behalf of the Government of

Samoa all those taking part at this Friday’s “Next

Generation Judgment Day fight night”.

I also want to make special mention of the boxers

and officials from overseas, namely Australia,

New Zealand and Fiji.

The sport of boxing was introduced to Samoa by

the Marist Brothers. Aside from rugby and

weightlifting, boxing is another sport that Samoa

has always excelled in. Samoa would always win

Gold Medals at the Pacific Games from boxing.

We also have Samoans who have fought on the

World stage in the likes of David Tua, Joseph

Parker and Maselino Masoe to name a few.

About 7 years ago, Marist re-started their boxing

ring. The aim was to develop our local talent and

to win Gold at the major international games.

In February 2016, the Marist Boxing Samoa

hosted its first Fight for Marist. Since then, the

Fight for Marist instalment has become an annual

event where Marist has been able to bring overseas

boxers to either fight against our local talent or

appear as special guests. One such special guest

was Jai Opetaia, the current World IBF Boxing

Champion in the cruiserweight division.

I am told that funds from the annual Fight for

Marist events have helped develop and support

those that fight under the Marist Boxing Ring.

Two of those boxers are Ato Faoagali and Marion

Ah Tong. Both of them had represented Samoa at

the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo. Ato had also

won back to back silver medals at the last 2

Commonwealth Games.

The next instalment of the Fight for Marist (to be

called Next Generation Judgment Day) is this
Friday 25th November where both Ato and Marion

will debut as professional boxers. They will be

fighting against top ranked professional Fijian

boxers.

Our other local boxers will be fighting against

boxers from New Zealand and Australia. So this

Friday will be quite a night to witness quality

amateur and professional boxing.

So I urge everyone to buy a corporate table for this

Friday and support the sport of boxing.

I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge

Samoa Boxing Federation and Samoa Professional

Boxing Association for supporting Marist Boxing

Samoa. It is good to see the 2 associations in

charge of amateur and professional boxing in

Samoa come together to develop our local talent.

To our guests from Australia, New Zealand and

Fiji I wish you all the best on fight night. I also

hope you will find the time to visit our pristine

beaches and enjoy our Samoan culture and

hospitality.

To our local boxers, sauni e tau le taua e pei ole

tatou Toa Samoa lea faatoa maea atu le latou

taaloga mataina. Ia malamalama tou mata, ia po

uliuli tou tino, ma ia tafe toto tou ala. Ma tautuana

ia outou, “E le sau le moa folau vivini i totonu o

eleele o le moa fanua.”

Lastly, I want to thank Marist Boxing Samoa for

helping to develop boxing in Samoa. My

challenge to you Marist Boxing Samoa is build up

our boxers so we can win Gold at the next

Olympics Games in Paris, France. I wish you all

the best and trust you will host a successful fight

night this Friday.

God bless and soifua.