Keynote Address by the Hon Seuula Ioane, Minister of Education, Sports and Culture at the Launch of the Next Generation Judgment Day (Corporate Boxing Dinner)

Wednesday, 23^rd 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 25^th 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.

November 24, 2022

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