New Zealand's first female boxing world champion, Daniella Smith. Photo: TAHI
The journey of the first Māori and New Zealand female professional fighter to win an IBF title, Northland's Daniella Smith, is being unveiled in a new podcast.
Joined by legends Monty Betham, Shane Cameron and Mea Motu, Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahungunu) narrates how women's boxing in New Zealand transformed in a five-part RNZ podcast, called Uncut Diamond Daniella.
Smith, who started in the sport in 1999, told TAHI host (and mixed martial arts athlete) Janay Harding she was pushing boundaries from the start and did not care about the "anti-females boxing" voices in the background.
"I was always very outspoken. I remember being told ... our shoulders weren't allowed to be shown and we had to wear like T-shirts underneath our tops, but then we'd go away to international tournaments and you didn't have to, so I just started not wearing them and would get told off, and I was just like 'And what?'
"I stood up for what I believed in and ... just don't think they expected kickback from anyone but well they hadn't met me before, had they?"
She was the third New Zealand boxer to claim a world title, following Maselino Masoe and Joseph Parker.
In the new podcast, the Women's Boxing Hall of Fame inductee recalls how she had to overcome social and financial barriers to make her seemingly implausible dream come true.
Her beginnings in Kaikohe meant fighting was not a foreign concept, she says, with families gathering in paddocks and partnering each other up for a fight.
"I used to always get with a guy that was around about my age and we'd just rumble, we would rumble hard. And so it wasn't frowned upon, like it wasn't a scary idea. Being hit in a boxing ring the first time, I was like 'oh', it wasn't a big deal."
Later, she was introduced to the sport by a friend, and when she went to a gym to learn it, her sparring partner was amazed by her natural ability.
"I really just believed him, and that's when I was just like really wanted to go on and become a champion, at that stage it was New Zealand champion, and the more I fought and the longer I boxed, it was 'wanted to be an Oceania champion', and then I remember going 'I wanna be a world champion'.
"People laughed, I didn't care. That just motivated me more. I love proving people wrong."
At the time, she didn't even understand that it wasn't common for women to partake in combat sports, she says.
"The only thing I knew about boxing when I first walked into the gym for the first time was I knew of David Tua, Muhammad Ali, and The Coal Miner's Daughter [Christy Martin]. That's all I knew."
Lauryn Eagle cops a punch from Daniella Smith at the Woodstock Honey Fight For Life, Trusts Stadium Henderson, on 15 December, 2012. Photo: Photosport / Shane Wenzlick
But women's boxing has come a long way since then, she says.
"I think in recent years women's boxing has revolutionised, so people are taking notice of our women, our wāhine are standing up. It's quite exciting to watch."
Even the exposure in the media has changed, she says, with personalities like Mea Motu landing a spot on reality TV show Celebrity Treasure Island.
"You know what? I said to Mea when she said to me she was going on the show, I was like 'oh I'm so jealous!'
"Because I got phoned up to be on it, and then I was like okay, I'll talk to my boss and I'll get it sorted ... and then a couple of days later, they were like oh sorry, we've got someone else and I was just like 'oh man'.
"But in the same breath, so proud of her."
Smith continued competing until 2014, then focused on coaching boxers to four national titles.
Although she hasn't been present on the scene lately, she says she still knows most people from the tight-knit boxing community in New Zealand.
"As I say I've been living up north, working up there, so I haven't really been present, so I kind of missed out on I guess like the MMA stuff, how that's become quite the new thing on the scene."
As for a potential comeback, she says training with her daughter gets her fired up thinking about it but she's open to other avenues, like coaching, instead.
Uncut Diamond Daniella is available on Thursdays from 10 October on RNZ and on podcast platforms, and broadcast on RNZ National at 7am on Sundays from 13 October.
