CITY KICKBOXING STARS SUPPORT OTARA COMMUNITY BOXFIT

For the last two years MMA & Kickboxing fighter Sigi 'Showtime' Pesaleli has been running a free boxfit programme for his community in Otara out on the basketball court at Otamariki Park.

He started off on his own and since then the numbers have slowly started to grow and he now has the backing of the Otara-Papatoetoe local board and Bridge the Gap Charitable Trust.  He also set up the Desire for Greatness initiative or 'D4G' sharing his life experience with youth in South Auckland and developing leadership skills while also promoting mental health awareness.

"It's good for our people - it brings them together, for wellbeing, health and mental health it's very good.  Tonight was bringing our community together and showing what I love with them and making them happy." Sigi says

The Samoan figher has an impressive resume - Shuriken light-heavyweight champion (MMA), King in the Ring - The Force 4 man eliminator champion (MMA), WKA Commonwealth kickboxing champion, WKA New Zealand kickboxing champion, two-time NZ Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion and he most recently fought in the PFL MMA comp in 2019.

Since November 2018 Sigi has been working under City Kickboxing coaches Doug Viney and Eugene Baremen and last night his CKB team mates came out to support his work with the community.

"These guys are like heroes aye?  It's good for our young people to be able to see them in the flesh and the way that they think about them"  he said.

City Kickboxing stars UFC Middleweight Champion Israel 'Stylebender' Adesanya, UFC fighters Shane Young, Kai-kara France, Brad Riddell, Carlos Ulberg, Heavyweight boxer Junior Fa and King in the Ring Super Middleweight Champion Mike 'Blood' Diamond along with their coach Eugene Bareman, made the trip out to Otara to train alongside Sigi's community group and donated a couple of boxes of MMA and boxing gloves while they were at it.

About 150 people from the community packed into the Otara Recreation Centre last night and at least 100 participated in the training session which was led by Gina Gee - 2x Australian Golden Glove Champ & Amateur North American Kickboxing Champ.

She led them through a short warm up game of tag and then got them going on different combos.

Freelance film maker Samson Vaotu'ua who has been attending Sigi's boxfit sessions from the start said that last nights session was the biggest group they've had.  

"I've been able to see it first hand because I'm accountable for my cousin and I can see the confidence in our community and individually everyones been eager to come through to train" said Samson "It's cool to see these guys come out to support our community especially Izzy, Carlos, Eugene and everyone"

Old high school friends of Carlos Ulberg (who will be making his UFC debut on Stylebenders card - UFC259) from Hillary College were there to train and when asked what he was like in school said "Nothings changed, he's still exactly the same guy from when he was at school.  We've always been supporting him.  It's mean and it's cool as to see someone from Otara making it."

It was a homecoming of sorts for Carlos who is the only one from the CKB group to have grown up in Otara.  

"Coming back to Otara was amazing, I met up with a few people that I grew up with and went to school with.  My cousins came through as well.  It's really good to be here with family and also be in the place that I grew up playing volleyball in"  Carlos said "When I went into the changing rooms it gave me so many memories of back in the day playing volleyball and basketball here. It's good to come back and hear that good positive vibe and see the community come together and we were here together with them."

At the end of the training session City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman then gave the training group the opportunity to ask the CKB stars their questions.  The questions ranged from asking the boys about their diets to what motivated and inspired them.

"We've really enjoyed being out here in Otara and being a part of the community" he said 

We're just normally really, really busy, full on and we don't get amongst the community as much as we'd like.  This was just a good opportunity for us to help one of the brothers out and at the same time get amongst the community and just spread some love and some inspiration & try and help people.  

A scouting opportunity for future talent perhaps? 

"There's heaps of talent out here in South Auckland and there's heaps of talent out in Otara." Eugene says "You never know what one will lead to and you never know who got inspired today."

Heavyweight boxer Junior Fa who has an upcoming fight with Joseph Parker at the end of the month was well impressed with the turnout. 

"Oh man it was awesome - it was awesome to get back into the community and it's been a while since I've done something like this.  There was a massive turnout, Sigi's doing such a great job here with the youth.  It was great man, it was fun!  and I'll pop in every now and then because I'm only 10 mins down the road."

For UFC champion Israel Adesanya, it wasn't his first time coming out to support Sigi - he'd been out over a year ago to help out at an event they were holding at the park but he said it was good to come back with all the boys and "Show love to the hood" 

"Yeah it was a good turn out" he said "I liked the vibe, some of the kids stood out to me and I just liked the fact that you can shine the light on something positive Sigi's doing out here and he's been doing it for a long time before the lights.  The fact that we get to bring attention to it - that's beautiful."

If you're keen to try out Sigi's free Box-Fit classes head out to Otamariki Park on the following days and times -

Tuesdays 6.30am

Swipe through from more pics from last night below -