A long-time boxing promoter and manager says an incident on Saturday night that saw an amateur boxer collapse and die during a fight in Hamilton shouldn't reflect badly on the sport.
Mike Edwards says at the moment, there are simply too few details to comment on what actually led to 49-year-old Neville Knight collapsing onto the ropes during a match.
A doctor attending the event at the Te Rapa Racecourse tried to resuscitate Mr Knight for more than 30 minutes, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The event, organised by Nabby's Boxing Gym, was shut down out of respect after 9pm following his death.
In the wake of his passing, Mr Knight's fiancé Michelle Burke updated her profile picture to a photo of the two of them posing together.
Mr Edwards said while it was difficult to comment on the incident conclusively due to a lack of information, that there are myriad safety measures in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
"They're always checked by doctors thoroughly before they get in the ring - and that includes the corporate fights," he said.
Mr Edwards says he knows the owner of Nabby's Gym, and says he "absolutely" runs a tight ship when it comes to safety procedures - and has a history of insisting on heavily padded gloves and headgear.
In professional boxing, there is also a one-month stand down period for fighters who have been knocked out, he says.
The fight card made for the event showed Mr Knight was fighting against fellow Nabby's Gym member Nic Trott.
Nabby's Boxing Gym posted on their Facebook page that Nev Knight, whose nickname was the Terminator, had been part of the gym for two years, along with other members of his family.
"As a boxing whanau, we need to say how devastated we are tonight. Our only concern is to support Michelle and her family," the post said.
"This amazing family have been part of our whanau for two years, three family members fought tonight and they loved the sport. We all need to come together now as a Nabby team.
"Team Nabby, TRAIN HARD, FIGHT EASY. You trained hard Nev, you earned your name the 'Terminator'. RIP."
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