Tongan born New Zealander, Nailini Helu’s win of two Women’s heavyweight titles on 24 September against New Zealander kickboxer, Ange Davis, was short lived after a massive backlash on social media in the New Zealand Boxing Community.

The NZPBA Female Heavyweight Title and UBF Asia Pacific Female Heavyweight title have been declared vacant after an appeal submitted to NZPBA by Ange Davis’ team on 26 September, resulted in a draw.

The fight was extremely close throughout the entire bout and both boxers were very well matched.

Boxing News [2] reports that after the fight, Ange Davis’ trainer and manager, Terry Tuteru, screamed abuse at the judges and the promoter stating the judges were bribed to make Nailini Helu win since Helu was hyped up a lot through marketing.

The appeal was made by Ange Davis’ team on the grounds of one judge altering their scorecard after the fight was finished.

The appeal was accepted and a panel looked at the footage and scorecards.

In a statement, NZPBA said that apart from the alteration of scorecards after the fight, the addition total on one of the judges card was incorrect and instead of 58/56, it should have been 57/57, resulting in a draw. The points allocated should have been 58/56 Davis, 58/56 Helu and 57/57 making the fight a draw.

The draw means that both boxers are the mandatory challengers for both titles and it is unclear whether Helu and Davis are interested in a rematch.

Helu was due to fight on Saturday 8 October against Victoria Nansen but has not been able to train due to the stress caused by the backlash.

New Zealand Box Rec stated that Davis has grown a massive following in New Zealand since the fight but it is not known what she will do next.

NZPBA has also announced that a new rule has been put in place for Women’s titles. Boxers will now fight for a minimum schedule of 8 rounds instead of 6.