Suggest to Hawke's Bay professional boxer Toa Leutele his next bout is a bold assignment and you get a nod of the head.

"It's the biggest fight of my career to date. Win this and the doors will open to the big stage," Leutele replied.

The Napier Boxing Club product who boasts a professional record of seven wins (six by knockout), two draws and no losses, will take on Australia heavyweight champion Demsey McKean in Brisbane on Saturday night. McKean is undefeated in 18 bouts and is the IBF Intercontinental and WBO Asia Pacific heavyweight champion.

Leutele (pictured above left) will travel to Brisbane today to complete his buildup and trainer and father, former Samoa champion and 1974 New Zealand Commonwealth Games trialist, Rocky Leutele (pictured above right), will join him on Thursday.

"Demsey has been struggling to find fighters. Taking him on will help fast-track my career," Leutele explained.

A father of one, Leutele, 27, is the fourth ranked Kiwi behind Joseph Parker, Junor Fa and Hemi "The Heat" Ahio.

"Fighting Demsey is better than taking on Hemi. If I beat Demsey I will overtake Hemi on the rankings and I could get a crack at Junior ... anything is possible in the boxing world," Leutele said.

While his father didn't want to go into the finer details of their plan he agreed his son had to take the fight to McKean. McKean, 30, is 6ft, 6in, slightly taller than Leutele.

However Leutele said the fact his last fight was against the world's tallest boxer, New Zealand-based American Julius Long, who is 7ft, will prove beneficial.
That was 21 months ago and ended in a draw. McKean last fought 13 months ago.

The 2011 national youth super-heavyweight champion, Leutele, finished his job as a kerbside recyclist in 2019 so he could train fulltime.

"Training has been good. I'm a lot more disciplined with my nutrition these days and I'm pretty happy with my weight of 115kgs," Leutele explained.

His father agreed his son has ticked all the boxes in training since the contract for the bout was signed in March. 

There's no doubt his son, a former Hawke's Bay age group rugby rep who was too heavy for Ross Shield rugby, has made steady progress since deciding to make boxing his priority in 2010. The excitement in his and his father's eyes was easy to gauge last night.

It was appropriate we should let his father have the final say in the countdown to Saturday night's fight which is scheduled for 10 rounds.

"Win this and we will start calling out some big names," Rocky added.