Latest news with #MongrelMob
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Police take action after UFC star Dan Hooker held wild fight event in his own backyard - then blasted 'lefties having a sulk' after shocking footage came to light
UFC star Dan Hooker has helped a senior member of one of New Zealand's most notorious gangs avoid trouble with police after he competed in a wild fight event in his backyard. Hooker put up a $50,000 prize for the 'one-minute scrap' tournament at his Auckland home on May 24, attracting 32 amateur fighters who punched each other on his lawn while his elderly neighbours watched on in disbelief over the fence. One of the fighters, Jon Paul 'Fightdog' Te Rito, was filmed winning fights at the unregulated event, and was referred to police because he was allegedly supposed to be attending a rehabilitation program at the time. Te Rito - who was seen wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet while fighting and is a member of the Mongrel Mob gang - could have broken his bail conditions, a Department of Corrections representative said. The fighter was referred to police over the matter, leading to Hooker stepping in. The 35-year-old wrote a letter supporting Te Rito, claiming the event was a 'platform for self expression, and a healthy outlet to cope with life's pressures'. 'Physical activity is a proven tool to help men overcome mental health issues, such as depression or addiction,' he wrote. 'It can be more productive than an unrelatable counselling session.' Hooker posted his letter to Instagram with the caption, 'Today 'Fightdog' was released from custody. 'The judge ruled his attendance at my event did not breach his bail and he was able to return home.' The post came with a photo appearing to show Hooker and Te Rito's supporters celebrating outside a courthouse. Hooker's event came in for harsh criticism after he released a video of all 30 of the tournament fights on YouTube. New Zealand Boxing Coaches Association president Billy Meehan told Checkpoint the event was 'straight-out thuggery'. 'What you've got there is just thugs getting in there and going out and they're just like absolutely smashing each other, and we're going to see somebody get seriously hurt, if not killed,' Meehan said. 'It's just barbaric, the biggest issue is the people getting in the ring half the time aren't conditioned enough to be there, they aren't matched correctly.' Hooker got his fellow Kiwi UFC star Israel Adesanya to help him promote the event by telling fighters and fans, 'Bring the family, bring the whanau [Māori for extended family], come watch, you'll get knocked out or knock someone the f*** out.' Hooker reacted to the criticism by saying only one fighter got hurt and what happened in his backyard didn't break any laws. 'There's a few lefties having a sulk, but once everyone watches the full 45 minutes and sees the respect for the fighters, since when did putting gloves on in the backyar and having a punch-up become illegal?' he told popular MMA program the Ariel Helwani Show. 'It's being run by some of the most experienced combat sports people in the country. 'I knew everyone would think it was crazy, I knew there would be people who would have issues with it. I wanted it at my house so I could control it. 'There were a couple [of] bumps, a couple [of] scrapes, obviously a few of the boys were run through concussion protocol.' Hooker added that he believes his bouts were safer than boxing because he had a three-second knockdown rule in place and fights were called off if one competitor suffered two knockdowns, leaving the pugs 'a lot less banged up' than if they'd fought over multiple three-minute rounds in the ring. Critics of the backyard brawl-fest have had the opposite of their desired effect, with the lightweight UFC star saying their actions have convinced him to stage another tournament. The Kiwi UFC star (pictured weighing in for a fight last year) has been spurred on to hold more beatdowns in his backyard 'Now you've challenged me. I was going to leave it but now there are people trying to stop me,' he said. 'Now I am honour-bound and forced to pursue it.' Cameron Harcourt, who fought in the event, gave it his full backing. 'We're going to fight anyway,' he said. 'There's fights out in 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.'
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Rooting out the nastiness
We spent this weekend up a ladder, standing on water tanks, on woodshed roofs, cutting the hedges at Pūrākaunui. They had grown huge, lumbering, pushing over the smaller trees in front of them, forcing them to bow in subjugation. I'd let them get out of control because I knew how much work it would take to tame them back and I just couldn't summon the energy to get started. I felt defeated before I'd even begun. But the weekend was going to be sunny, I wasn't alone, and the Yorkshireman had just bought a new piece of Milwaukee. The gateway tool was a battery-operated grinder, but things escalated quickly, and his Milwaukee addiction is now officially out of control. The last time he came through customs from the Gold Coast he had two drills in his hand luggage. He has lines of red batteries, red tool boxes. Grinders, an impact driver, hammer drill, weed eater, reciprocating saw, circular saw, LED lights, leaf blower and now a massive pole saw, everything red, like a Mongrel Mob prospect's wardrobe. Milwaukee also sells a system of tool boxes and shelving/racking that make it impossible to quit, because you need more things to put in the boxes. ''I don't have a Milwaukee addiction,'' he says. Denial, de nail. Now is a good time to take advantage of these dormant months to prune branches, letting those smaller plants formerly in shadow - baby ferns, grasses - unfurl and bask in the sunlight from which they were being blocked. Winter gardening is the best way to promote strong spring growth. You need the sharpest tools to remove any dead, dying or diseased wood and to be ruthless. Know it will look bad to begin with, sparse, a bit straggly, but things will come back green and beautiful in time. Cutting the dead wood, trimming those giants that cast shade and take a substantial amount of the nutrients from the soil ... I thought, I can't be the only person to have Googled ''When is the next general election?''. When can New Zealand topple the political dead wood, dig out the hemlock, assemble a bonfire of the vanities, the vainglorious, and go back to being the country we used to be - a little mixed up, doing our best, but not nasty, vindictive, petty. Result: ''The next New Zealand general election will be held after the current 54th New Zealand Parliament is dissolved or expires.'' Dissolved in a vat of acid, hopefully. This government is truly awful. It seems like not a day goes by without some new horror visited upon us. Some group that already didn't have enough suddenly getting less. Fewer rights, less in people's pay packets. There's been a whittling, a winnowing. Less food in school lunches. Less te reo spoken, less regard for our nation's wilderness areas and unique biodiversity, less humanity. It shouldn't come as a any surprise: ''I don't care'' is the prime minister's constant refrain. I take no satisfaction in being right when I said this coalition would be the three-way none of us wanted, a tragic episode that would leave us traumatised and sent back to the '50s in term of race relations and rights for workers. No-one listens to me because I'm funny. Cassandra probably cracked a few, too. Two days of solid work, and we had a pile of hacked limbs, ready for the bonfire. The Yorkshireman, in addition to being addicted to red apparatus, is also a pyromaniac and eyed the pile saying, ''Just a splash of petrol...''. ''Don't burn the green wood. It will smoke a lot and be really obnoxious. Let's wait until it dries out,'' I said. ''It will burn,'' he said. ''We can just start with a small amount, and once those catch, add more and more until the heat gets enough and, before you know it, it'll all be gone.'' He's right. As Paul Kelly sings in the iconic protest song paying tribute to activist Vincent Lingiari: ''From little things, big things grow''.
RNZ News
27-05-2025
- RNZ News
Fighter at Dan Hooker's backyard brawl event referred to police
File photo. Photo: 123RF One of the 32 fighters involved in a controversial and unregulated backyard fight contest at the weekend has been referred to the police. The man, whom Checkpoint understands to be a senior Mongrel Mob member from the Bay of Plenty, was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet in footage of his fight released to social media and was supposed to be attending a rehabilitation programme. Over 30 fighters gathered on Saturday in an undisclosed Auckland backyard to compete for a $50,000 prize. Social media posts show the event promoted by a well known MMA fighter Dan "Hangman" Hooker. It was billed as 32 fighters going head to head in one minute scraps to be the last man standing and crowned king of the streets. All fighters were subsequently offered $1000 for competing. Checkpoint raised the issue with Corrections earlier on Tuesday. Its director of community operations David Grigg said the gang member with the electronic monitoring bracelet was granted approval to attend a rehabilitation programme by a provider approved by the courts. He says it was part of the man's bail conditions. He said Corrections received assurance the absence was for a rehabilitation activity focussed on wellness and physical health. He said since receiving new information about the nature of the gang member's absence, it has now been referred to the police. More to come Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- RNZ News
Aramu Walker jailed for shooting his partner in the face while on bail for hammer attack on Mongrel Mob member
By Tara Shaskey, Open Justice reporter of Aramu Rangi, pictured at an earlier sentencing in Tauranga District Court, has been sentenced for shooting his partner. He was previously sentenced for attacking a gang member with a hammer. Photo: Open Justice / NZME A woman sitting in a parked vehicle was shot in the face by her drunk partner after he fired a gun several times out the window of a house. The shooter, Aramu Rangi, was on bail at the time after he brutally attacked a Mongrel Mob member with a hammer, shattering the victim's skull with repeated blows to his head. Rangi, 38, went on to be sentenced in January to nine years' imprisonment earlier this year for the hammer attack. On Wednesday, in the New Plymouth District Court, his time behind bars was extended when he was sentenced for the unrelated shooting and drug offences. As Rangi was brought into the courtroom, he was greeted by a large group of whānau and friends, pleased to see him from the public gallery. Judge Gregory Hikaka warned Rangi, who was addressing his supporters, to save his socialising for another time, leading defence lawyer Paul Keegan to apologise and say Rangi had not seen them for a while. As the sentencing progressed, Judge Hikaka detailed how the shooting happened on 23 November 2023, after a night of drinking at an address in New Plymouth. About 3.20am, Rangi began firing shots out a window at the house. Four shots went through the bonnet of a vehicle parked in the driveway. Rangi's partner of one month was sitting in the driver's seat of the car and was hit in the face by one shot, which had ricocheted off the car's roof. Rangi took the woman to the emergency department, where she was treated for grazes to her nose and upper lip, and fractures to the bone at the base of her tooth. A tooth was also dislodged. Judge Hikaka said it was unknown why the woman was sitting in the vehicle, and Rangi's reason for shooting the firearm was not mentioned in court. The judge said a subsequent police search of Rangi's vehicle revealed 12 rounds of .22 ammunition and a magazine with two live rounds in it. His cellphone was searched, and data showed he had offered to exchange 1g of methamphetamine and half an ounce of cannabis for a firearm. It also revealed he had offered to sell a total of 3.7g of methamphetamine to several people, and 59g of cannabis. Following the incident, Rangi was given a sentencing indication of four years' imprisonment on charges of offering to sell methamphetamine and cannabis, and one count of discharging a firearm with reckless disregard for the safety of others. He accepted the indication and pleaded guilty to the charges, but at the sentencing, Keegan worked to have the four years reduced after receiving more information on Rangi through a presentence report and a letter from a woman who had known him for most of his life. Crown prosecutor Jo Woodcock submitted that Rangi should be sentenced based on the judge's indication that he had accepted. The court heard Rangi's wife of 17 years had died in 2020, leaving him grieving and the sole custodian of their four children. He spiralled into drug use and other criminal activity soon afterwards. Rangi previously worked as a stevedore and studied an automotive course. The woman's letter described Rangi as kind-hearted, generous and loyal. She said he had become overwhelmed by grief and did not have the tools to cope. However, the woman said Rangi was "not beyond hope" and she was confident that with the right support, he could become the man he once aspired to be, and who his children deserved. Judge Hikaka agreed and stated Rangi had shown he was able to do the "right thing". In light of the new information, the judge said he was able to reduce the sentence by a year. He imposed three years' imprisonment on the new charges, which Rangi would have to serve on top of the nine years he was already serving. At the time of the shooting, Rangi was on bail for a hammer attack on patched Mongrel Mob member Mark Walker in February 2022. He was found guilty by a jury in Tauranga District Court last September on a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm relating to the bashing of Walker. Rangi had attacked him at Walker's home in Ruatoki, south of Whakatāne, leaving his skull "smashed open and bleeding profusely on the shed floor". It was believed the violence was connected to the Mob-related killing of Meihana Mason, with whom Rangi had a strong whānau connection. Walker now has a metal plate in his skull and can only eat soft foods and soups. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
RNZ News
12-05-2025
- RNZ News
Gang member charged with arson at Māngere Bridge funeral home
No injuries were reported in the arson at Just Funerals in Māngere Bridge last month. Photo: Googlemaps Auckland Police have arrested a patched member of the Mongrel Mob gang, after an arson at a Māngere Bridge funeral home last month. The fire broke out at Just Funerals on Kirkbride Road in late April, with the building suffering minor damage. No injuries were reported. Officers searched four properties linked to the Mongrel Mob in South Auckland, arresting a 30-year-old patched member and charging him with arson. He is expected to appear in Manukau District Court on Tuesday. Police also found a pump-action shotgun and ammunition at one of the addresses. They charged two other gang members with breaching bail and another with an unrelated assault. "What was of real concern was that there were children present at the address the firearm was located at," Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Hayward of Counties Manukau CIB said. "However, overall, this is a pleasing outcome in that we have been able to catch up with the alleged offender and take another firearm out of circulation in the community." A 34-year-old man has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, and is also expected in court on Tuesday. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
