Latest news with #Covid-18
NZ Herald
17-07-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Boxing: Floyd Masson ready to take on John Parker in ‘statement' fight
'Make sure you bring your best John Parker in that ring that night.' Masson said he didn't know much about Parker's fighting style as a pro, however, he remembered him as an amateur. 'I remember [Parker] was brawling a lot back then, and it was a bit of a brawl-type fight back in the amateurs.' Masson doesn't usually watch a lot of his opponents' fights, saying he left it to his coaching team who came up with a game plan for the fight. If he did join his team, they would have a look at the fighter and the style, size and 'how he likes to fight'. 'Then we kind of work around that.' However, Masson said during 'fight camp' his team would focus more on his skills rather than on what the opponent does. Masson began his career as an amateur boxer in New Zealand before moving to Western Australia for his boxing career in hope to score more lucrative fights. Former Waikato boxer Floyd Masson will take on John Parker in Australia. When many boxers struggled during the Covid-18 pandemic, Australian promoter Angelo Di Carlo took on Masson. Di Carlo initially brought him out to spar with world title contender Mark Flanagan, but now, Masson lives in Queensland and works with Di Carlo boxing promoter Ace Boxing Group. During his time as world champion, Masson trained in Las Vegas, but decided to move back to this side of the world as his family was slowly growing. However, with one door closing, another door opened, and he quickly found a new coach, Blair Studley. Studley, owner of Nitro Boxing Fitness Centre in Chermside, trained many excellent boxers, including former Australian Super Welterweight champion Dan Hill, Australian Heavyweight champion Stevan Ivić, Jeremiah Tupai and Issac Hardman. Studley himself has 30 years of experience in boxing and martial arts. He previously held the Queensland Light Heavyweight Boxing and Queensland Light Heavyweight Kickboxing titles, and he has a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a black belt in Karate. Masson highly praised his coach, saying he wished he had met Studley earlier in his boxing career. 'He works what's best for his boxers and not what is best for the trainer.' The Floyd Masson vs John Parker fight for the IBF Pan Pacific Cruiserweight title will take place on July 30 at Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm, Queensland, Australia. Benjamin Watt is a retired boxing judge and New Zealand boxing writer with a decade of experience. Watt has also been BoxRec's New Zealand record-keeper since 2014.
Observer
23-06-2025
- Business
- Observer
What makes you, you?
Have you ever thought about what makes you the person you are? We think it is our thoughts. Maybe that is true in a way. But where do these thoughts originate from? There was an incident that made me think about it. It was a fast food restaurant, and I like to call it the Fatma experience. Fatma was energetic, humorous and helpful. Later, when she was talking to us, she explained that there is excitement in the air because the ownership has changed and they have been promised a salary hike starting this month. "In the past, I was not interested in promoting or marketing anything, but now I feel good, and I participate wholeheartedly in everything because of the new developments," she said. She is experiencing motivation. The joy is genuine, and one can almost see her drifting off for a few seconds once in a while. What could be the changes this salary hike is going to create? Definitely, it has generated an element of hope in her. Here, it was an external factor — a decision taken by the management that triggered her emotions that led to the motivation. No matter how hard one tries to stay self-motivated, an element of appreciation is a booster that makes one leap forward, and it is an exceptional feeling. It was not just Fatma but the whole team that was riding high on joy, leaving us too feeling nice. After all, emotions are energy in motion. Emotions are considered as dynamic forces that can move through us. Now wouldn't it be wonderful if every organisation could recreate that positive energy? Themes, ambience and marketing schemes can do a lot, but genuine happiness can be a game changer for an organisation. Recently, I came across a blue ice cream truck named Al Hara Ice Cream. It is Salam al Gamari's dream project. He makes his own ice cream. He started his project six years ago with two popular flavours, which were strawberry and vanilla. And when Covid-18 appeared, he had to stay at home, but he took up experimentation and came up with 13 flavours in total. He continued to pursue further, and now he has 23 to 24 flavours. He has four trucks and is on his way to Salalah for the Khareef season. Can we say circumstances made him who he is? He used the challenging period of the pandemic to his advantage. His knowledge is his asset, and his passion to serve his customers the best makes him work harder and harder. His passion fruit ice cream is sugar-free, and he is constantly trying to explore new recipes and flavours. It must be a great feeling to watch his customers come back for more with complete satisfaction. Interestingly, ice creams take us back to childhood memories. Again it brings back the emotions. The word 'emotion' is derived from the Latin word 'emotere'. And guess what it means? It means energy in motion. An energy that is felt sometimes as feelings. Emotions also have frequencies. talks about high and low frequencies of emotions: "Emotions like joy, love, gratitude, and passion are associated with high vibrational frequencies, while fear, anger, guilt, and sadness are linked to lower frequencies." So when you are following your passion, there is that extra zest. According to the experts, emotional energy relates to how negative or positive one feels. But the biggest vibration could be authenticity. It is that which sets each one of us apart. Authenticity makes the true you. This is probably why there is so much encouragement to find your true calling.
