A deal with his nine-year-old son brought Nigel Bartlett into the boxing ring for the first time, where he earned himself a gold medal.
Nigel was one of 20 corporate fighters who got into the ring for the fourth edition of Fight for Rangatahi at the Motueka Recreation Centre a fortnight ago.
Nigel’s son Bodhi had been training at Dixon’s Boxing in Richmond for about a year and felt a little nervous about taking the next step – a one-on-one match up.
“He's really enjoying it, and he's going quite well, so I said to him ‘I’ll make a bet with you, if I have a fight, then you have a fight’.”
Bodhi was ringside to watch his dad take the win in a hard-fought bout against Team Lopez Gym’s Jade Rauhihi
“His face was unbelievable, and that was just enough, just seeing his face, like his massive grin, it was definitely worth it.”
Nigel says, the only thing he remembers from the bout is the first time the pair “knuckled down”, then the adrenaline took over and everything else is blank.
“I'm an analyser, my head doesn't stop thinking. So, if I have a hard sparring session, I'll go to sleep, and I'll wake up at night, and then I'll just analyse that whole sparring session. I would’ve done the same thing that night, but I had nothing to analyse. There's nothing there.”
He thought getting up in front of a crowd of hundreds would be the worst part of the night, but ultimately, he had “never felt calmer”.
Ruby Bay resident Nigel says that preparation training was intense. Paired with his job at Kelly Logging, which sees him training crews across the Top of the South and regularly travelling to Blenheim, his days started at 4am and ended with bed at 10pm after training.
But it paid off.
“My fitness was where I wanted it to be, I mean, you could always be fitter, but it was really enjoyable.”
But he reckons the lads from work, who were also watching ringside, were worse for wear on Sunday than he was, after celebrating the win.
“They gave me a call on Sunday morning, to see how I was and they were struggling.
“Me - nothing was sore.
“It was really good; they came out and watched. It was nice to have them supporting. That's where Kelly's are really good, it’s a big family kind of entity. He does treat everyone like they’re family. If you pull the line, they really look after you, which is really good to be a part of.”
And is nine-year-old Bodhi prepared to keep up his end of the deal?
“He’s dead keen,” Nigel says, with a smile on his face.
