Backyard battles take fighting off street, participant says
Photo:
Supplied
A participant in a controversial street fighting competition is defending it, saying amateur tournaments remove violence from the streets.
An unregulated tournament promoted by New Zealand mixed martial arts fighter Dan Hooker was held in a suburban Auckland backyard
on Saturday 24 May
, with 32 combatants competing for a $50,000 prize.
Hooker said the only major injury was to a fighter's arm and signalled plans
to host further events
, despite criticism.
New Zealand Boxing Coaches Association president Billy Meehan
described the event
as "thuggery, not sport", but Hamilton fighter Cameron Harcourt, who travelled up for the event, said the backlash was unfair.
"We're going to fight anyway," he said. "There's fights on the streets.
"The same way Streetbeefs in America started to get the fights off the streets. If you had beef, you apply for this and you jump in, and it gives us a place to do it in a controlled environment.
"The thuggery is taken out and we've turned it into a sport."
Streetbeefs is an unregulated American backyard fighting club and You Tube channel, hosting different combat codes. The founders said it was established as a response to more "dangerous forms of street and gun violence".
Cameron Harcourt (right) says the Auckland backyard fighting event took violence off the street and put it in a controlled environment.
Photo:
Supplied
Police are investigating one fighter from the Saturday event, who
was seen wearing
an electronic monitoring bracelet in social media footage of his fight.
Harcourt said he wanted to prove that the fights were a fair playing field, and not all about "tattoos and gang affiliations".
"Nothing changes what someone is - we're all humans. Doesn't matter about your colour, your size, your age, your background, we're all people and we all bleed.
"I think it is a good sport and I love fighting for that."
Up to nine different gangs were reportedly represented at the tournament. Fighters had to sign a waiver before taking part, stipulating that involvement was at their discretion.
He said, unlike team sports like rugby, he enjoyed how he was the only person accountable, if the fight did not go his way.
"You're stuck in a ring with contact and you just feel alive, and it's just sick," he said. "It's also art.
"You can create your combos and perform them. It's just a wicked sport."
Although billed as an amateur event, it is understood a professional fighter won the tournament.
Harcourt hoped to contest a planned tournament in Christchurch later this year.
The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) suggests participants of amateur street fighting events will be covered under the scheme, as it did not require details of how injuries occur.
An agency spokesperson said the scheme operated on a no-fault basis.
"All New Zealanders pay levies in different ways. The money we collect goes into one of our five accounts.
"We use each account to cover specific types of injuries. For example, if someone is injured playing sports, the money used to support their recovery is dependent on their individual circumstances."
Last year, the cost of active ACC claims for sport and recreation injuries exceeded $1 billion, while accidental injuries in the home and community, which covered injuries from assaults and also concussion, cost more than $2.3 billion.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter
curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Kiwi dad Dane Moule's desperate bid to see son in Aussie lands him in court
By Tracy Neal, Open Justice reporter of Dane Moule was sentenced in the Nelson District Court on charges linked to him forging two passports and travelling in and out of New Zealand for three years. Photo: Open Justice/Tracy Neal A man with a "chequered past", including a conviction list spanning 12 pages, was aggrieved when his partner left and took their infant son to Australia. It was the catalyst for Dane Antony Moule to forge two passports so he could travel between New Zealand, Australia and Fiji for three years using the false travel documents, clearing Customs and Immigration each time. Moule told police he "used a fake passport to travel" because he knew he wouldn't be allowed into Australia, where his son was living. Judge Tony Snell noted Moule's extensive criminal past included 83 previous convictions for drug matters, including importing heroin, violence, dishonesty, fraud, sexual offending and driving matters. The 61-year-old today narrowly avoided prison, partly because of health problems he suffered, and was instead sentenced to 12 months of home detention on two representative charges laid under the Passport Act for false representations and using forged and false New Zealand travel documents. The charges carried a maximum of 10 years and five years in prison, respectively. Moule's guilty pleas followed an amendment to what was initially eight separate charges. His lawyer, Mark Dollimore, said in the Nelson District Court that Moule had formed a relationship in the early 2000s and his son was born, but then his partner left with the child for Australia. "He knew he couldn't get to Australia because of his conviction history and he wanted to see his son, and try to re-bond with him," Dollimore said. "This is what fuelled him to do this." According to the police summary of facts, Moule asked an associate to complete the first of two passport applications in May 2015. The New Zealand passport was processed and issued by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) in his associate's name, but with Moule's photograph. The following month, Moule travelled from Auckland to the Gold Coast, clearing Customs with the passport, knowing it was false, police said. Moule used the same passport to fly back to New Zealand, arriving in Christchurch a few weeks later. He booked another trip to Australia in January 2016, using the same passport to travel from Auckland to Brisbane, returning eight days later. There was then a hiatus in Moule's travels until February 2018, when he travelled to Fiji, using a different, falsely obtained passport. He acquired this second passport in 2016, using the same associate to complete the application in his name but again using Moule's photo. In February 2018, Moule took off for Nadi, having cleared Customs using the forged passport before travelling back to Auckland nine days later. He was eventually caught by the facial recognition technology now used in passports. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) issued passports that were then checked by immigration systems when people left or entered New Zealand. At the border, New Zealand Customs used eGates to match the picture of someone's face in their ePassport with the picture it took of them at the gate. Visual inspections were also used, acting group manager of border operations Paul Williams told NZME before sentencing. He said that in circumstances where a passport was genuinely issued, but fraudulently obtained, it would not be easily identified by an eGate or a Customs officer. The DIA began issuing New Zealand biometric passports in 2005, but dozens of false passports were discovered during security checks before a new online passport renewal system was introduced in late 2012. DIA general manager of operations Russell Burnard told NZME that "falsely obtained genuine passports" were rare with none discovered since July 2024. He said Moule's actions were detected as part of a data-matching security project undertaken in late 2020 after an update of its facial recognition algorithm. In May 2021, Moule's image from his original passport in his own identity was matched against the images from his two falsely obtained passports, and the police were notified. Judge Snell said it was essential the integrity of the New Zealand passport system was protected. He said in Moule's case, aggravating features were the level of sophistication and premeditation. "The level of deception was high," Judge Snell said. From a sentencing starting point of two years and nine months in prison, Moule was awarded discounts for his guilty pleas and health status, which whittled the endpoint to two years. The sentence of 12 months of home detention was to be followed by six months of post-release conditions. Immigration New Zealand border director Geoff Scott told NZME that providing false, misleading or withheld information was a serious offence that increased risks for New Zealanders. He said false and misleading information was an issue immigration authorities across the world sought to eliminate, and INZ worked closely with its domestic and international partners to achieve this. The DIA said it was continually reviewing its manual procedures to minimise the risk of human error. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Police seek public's help after spate of suspicious fires in Northland
Photo: 123RF Police are investigating a spate of suspicious fires in Northland, with the latest involving road cones being set alight. Emergency services were called to a fire on Pataua North Road, Whareora on the morning of 20 May. "At around 7am, about 15 T8 Traffic Control cones were taken from a stretch of road under maintenance, stacked in the middle of the road, covered in diesel and set alight," Detective Sergeant Paul Overton said. "A second set of stacked cones were set alight further up the road." Detective Sergeant Overton said over the past seven months, police have received several reports of suspicious bush and scrub fires in the Matapouri, Tutukaka, Ngunguru and Pataua areas. "We encourage anyone who was in these areas or has any information about any of these fires to get in touch," he said. Anyone with information that could help police's enquiries, are urged to update police online or call 105. Please use the reference number 250520/3428. Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Khandallah murder trial: Blood 'wiped' onto walls to stage scene
Julia DeLuney is on trial for the murder of her mother Helen Gregory. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii A forensic scientist has told the jury in the Khandallah murder trial that, in her opinion, the blood on the hallway walls was staged. Julia DeLuney is accused of murdering her 79-year-old mother, Helen Gregory, who was killed at her Wellington home in January last year. The jury has already seen photos of blood smeared on the walls in the hallway, in and around the utility cupboard which houses the entrance to the attic. DeLuney's defence is that her mother was injured falling from the attic, and she put her in the bedroom on the floor while she drove to get help. In that time, the defence said, someone else caused those fatal injuries. But Knight gave evidence that the blood smears on the hallway walls looked like it had been applied to the wall with fabric. Defence lawyer Quentin Duff asked whether it could have been applied by someone staggering around the house - to which she replied that she doubted it. "I've never seen it in my experience." Knight said in her opinion, the most likely scenario was that blood was wiped onto the walls. She explained that the horizontal bloodstains along the wall curved upward and downward, making it unlikely they were made by the leaning shoulder of either an injured person - or an attacker covered in blood. She told the court an orange fake nail, broken off beside Gregory's body, was found sitting on a pool of blood, and was also covered in tiny blood spatters. Knight said it was possible it had been kicked onto the area of pooled blood, but in her opinion, it had been present and lying face up on the carpet while blood was flying around. DNA testing had shown there was "extremely strong scientific support" for at least some of the DNA on the nail coming from DeLuney. But the defence has argued throughout that the investigation suffered from tunnel vision from the very beginning. Duff pointed to an online exchange between Knight and her peer reviewer. He challenged her on her likely scenario, asking her to present an alternative explanation, and instead Knight doubled down, offering information she gained from police about what they think happened that night by way of explanation. She pointed out a number of things she understood DeLuney had done that night, which she said she was told by the police, to lend weight to her likely scenario. For example, she told her reviewer that DeLuney supposedly changed her clothes, took a shower, and chased a rubbish truck down the street to dispose of some clothing. It is not yet clear from the proceedings of the trial so far whether all of those things did happen. The defence said it caused the reviewer to change his own conclusion - but Knight said she thought of it more as a lightbulb coming on for him during the course of the conversation, and by the end of it, he came around to her way of thinking. Friday would mark the final day of the trial's second week, and it was set down for at least a further two weeks after that. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
