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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Two Kiwi sports people with significant ties to Tauranga put their name up in lights in the United States over the weekend.
Cherneka Johnson climbed a huge mountain when she unified the Women’s World Bantamweight boxing title at the traditional home of US boxing at Madison Square Gardens in New York City.
At the other end of the US, Trent Boult played a vital role in Mumbai Indians New York earning the Major League Cricket T20 crown, at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
Cherneka Johnson was born in Tauranga before moving to Australia aged 11.
She represented Australia at the AIBA Women’s Junior (Under 16) championships in 2011.
Johnson took an impressive amateur background into the professional ranks, including fighting in four AIBA Women’s World Championships.
The weekend’s unification fight saw Johnson put her WBA title up for grabs, while her American opponent Shurretta Metcalf placed her IBF crown on the line.
The promoters added the vacant WBC and WBO titles to turn the fight into a unification title bout.
Johnson dominated the middle rounds with the fight stopped by the doctor at the end of the eighth stanza.
Just a day later, Boult was part of a Mumbai Indians New York side that had risen from the deck with just one win from seven matches in the preliminary action of the 2025 MLC T20 title race.
Two hard fought victories in the last three rounds of the regular season saw the New York franchise squeeze into the last playoff spot.
First up in the playoffs, they faced San Francisco Unicorns in a sudden death encounter where the loser went home. New York was in desperate trouble needing 19 runs from 12 balls with just the side’s tailenders to come.
Enter Trent Boult. Batting at nine, the Western Bay of Plenty resident belted two big sixes which propelled New York to the Challenger round, with a finals berth to the winner.
The Mumbai Indians team faced a partisan home crowd in the Texas Super Kings, in their quest to reach the grand final.
Texas posted 166 for the loss of five wickets. New York put on a blazing performance to get home by seven wickets with an over to spare.
Standing in the way of claiming the 2025 MLC title was the defending title holders Washington Freedom.
New York posted a solid target of 180 for seven wickets.
Trent ripped the heart out of the Freedom top order when he took two wickets in the first over of the Washington reply.
Washington were in sight of victory, before the last New York bowler delivered an unbelievably tight over, to see the Washington Freedom fall five runs short of back-to-back titles - and hand Mumbai Indians New York the 2025 MLC crown.