BENJI WATT'S CENTURY OF PRO FIGHTS
Local boxing judge Benjamin Watt, the world's first openly gay boxing judge, set a huge milestone over the weekend by reaching 100 professional fights whilst officiating an event for Craig Thomson Boxing. NZ Fighter wants to offer a huge congratulations to Benji, as he's known around our offices, on reaching such a massive milestone. Benji is a brilliant official, commentator and sometimes contributor to this publication so we wanted to tell you a little bit about how he got to those hundred fights and the journey along the way.
Benji started his career in late 2014 as New Zealand’s editor for Boxrec.com. From there he got the contacts he needed to get into the industry and become a boxing judge. Craig Thomson who kept in regular contact with Benji, introduced him to the secretary of NZPBA Pat Leonard, from there the rest is history.
He made his Professional boxing debut as a judge in mid-2015 where he was chosen to judge a Craig Thomson boxing event on the North Shore. His first fight was between Shay Brock and Sivan Hermez, however, his scores were not needed as the fight ended in the first round. He also judged the Main event of the night between Panuve Helu and Mose Auimatagi Jnr, which to this day Benji names as hardest fight he has ever judged.
During his judging career he has judged 18 title fights including an Interim WBO Oriental title fight with Junior Fa. He has judged famous boxers who went on to do amazing things including World Champion Geovana Peres, Junior Fa, WBO Oriental champion David Light, IBF 15th ranked boxer Bowyn Morgan, World title contender Robert Berridge, World number 2 ranked boxer Alrie Melesiea, World title contender Lani Daniels, top 15 amateur ranked boxer Jerome Pampellone and many more.
Soon after his debut, he was diagnosed with Lymphoma Cancer which he battled for 5 years before finding himself in remission. But instead of succumbing to cancer, he did more for the boxing community. He wrote articles for multiple websites including World Boxing News, Stuff NZ, Women’s Boxing Archive Network and of course New Zealand Fighter.
Benji has also contributed over 90 boxing related articles to Wikipedia. He has written famous pages and pages for boxers and events that are well deserved to be appreciated including Geovana Peres, Lani Daniels, Junior Fa, David Letele, Robert Berridge, Gunnar Jackson, David Aloua, Reece Papuni, Sam Rapira, Mose Auimatagi Jnr, David Tua vs Shane Cameron event, the Joseph Parker vs. Junior Fa event and many more.
Benji has also dabbled in promotion with two events in the past, once in 2016 with the main event being between Nailini Helu and Ange Davis for the NZ title and 2019 co-promoting with Terry Reid-Batchelor and Vasco Kovacevic with the main event between Conrad Lam and Semisi Kalu.
And finally, he was on the team of World Light Heavyweight Champion Geovana Peres, featuring as her PR manager and attending the LGBTI awards and multiple boxing events together.
Today during the lockdowns Benji has been focusing on getting all of New Zealand’s amateur results up to date on Boxrec as they now record have world rankings for Amateur boxing. Huge congratulations on this achievement Benji, and for all of your hard work, thank you from NZ Fighter.