TOP KICKBOXERS SET FOR BATTLE IN BAY

Some of New Zealand's top kickboxers will fight in Napier later this month.
SHANE HURNDELL discovered they will be competing in a tournament which will
also be promoting healthy lifestyles and the fight against the use of the
methamphetamine drug "P". International and national titles will be
contested later this month, in the first major kickboxing tournament in
Hawke's Bay in two years.

A "Kickboxing Extravaganza" promoted by the Napier-based Jackals Martial
Arts Club will be held in Taradale's Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, on
February 21.

New Zealand champion Mark Spencer of Wellington will take on the Australian
champion - yet to be decided - for the World Muay Thai Council's South
Pacific welterweight title in the feature bout.

Spencer holds four national titles from a 16-bout career which has included
14 wins and two losses and is tipped by promoters to perform well in what
is shaping up to be a classic Kiwi-Aussie contest. Dannevirke's K1 fighter,
Edwin Marsh, will take meet Aucklander Sio Vitale in a bout for the TBA New
Zealand super heavyweight title.

Former Hawke's Bay age group rugby league representative Shannon Wilson,
who has been fighting for three years, will take on Aucklander Eugene
Bareman for the New Zealand light heavyweight title.

Wilson's Jackals clubmate Pumipi Ngaronoa, a nephew of former top Hawke's
Bay fighter Hape Ngaronoa, will fight Rotorua's Kara "Smooth" for the North
Island junior lightweight title.

Co-promoter of the extravaganza Leighann Banham will vacate her super
bantamweight title to enable two of the country's up-and-comers, Sarah
Clunie of Palmerston North and Wellingtonian Ngapera Parata, to battle for it.

Host club fighters Doug Kamaru, Peter Johanson, Dave Murdoch, Graham Ruru,
Angus Benson, Clint Durban, Tom Sanson and Hohepa Cahill will be matched
with opponents from around the country to complete the 14-bout programme.

Banham's husband and co-promoter, Andrew Banham, who is also no stranger to
winning national titles, says the event is being used to promote healthy
lifestyles and to raise community awareness about the dangers of
manufacturing, distributing and using the methamphetamine drug "P".

As part of the buildup to the extravaganza, a light-hearted one-on-one
debate between anti-P campaigner Dennis O'Reilly and television actor Pat
Rippon will be staged in Napier on Thursday.

The Mad Butcher will adjudicate the debate. And the topic? "National Party
leader Don Brash Must Be on P."