Paris Olympian turned slow-walked heavyweight prospect Teremoana Teremoana is set for his second straight Matchroom main event, this time battling Tonga’s Hemi Ahio on November 18th at Pullman Melbourne Albert Park.
Despite falling in the 2024 quarterfinals to eventual gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov, Teremoana (12-0, 12 KO), who’d previously dipped his toes in the pro scene, looked to be the most promising big man to emerge from the games. He’s been plenty busy, but that’s about all you can say about his tenure in the paid ranks; nobody’s taken him past the second round because Matchroom’s made no effort to pit him against someone who can take him past the second round. His record is littered with professional victims like Curtis Harper, Bowie Tupou, and most recently DeAndre Savage, who boasted one win over an opponent with a >.500 record and lasted all of 86 seconds into the second round.
“I’m excited to be fighting again down in Melbourne and this time headlining against a strong opponent from New Zealand in Hemi Ahio,” said Teremoana.
“I am really looking forward to the challenge he will bring. Nothing changes for me. I am here to prove I am the best and Ahio is the next obstacle in my way. I respect what he’s achieved but he shouldn’t have taken this fight.
“I’ve been training hard and with another five weeks of preparation until fight night I plan to show the difference in levels. God willing, I will be victorious.”
Ahio (25-1, 19 KO) followed a similar blueprint as Teremoana minus the pedigree, feasting on the dregs of Australia’s and New Zealand’s heavyweight scenes for nearly a decade. He even fought the incredibly large but very bad Julius Long twice, only to bite off more than he could chew against Lucas Browne victim Faiga Opelu and suffer a stoppage loss in 2022. His six fights since have been garbage, including a TKO of 0-3 Richie Feulufai, a TKO of an even more cooked Browne, a split decision over Opelu in their rematch, and a knockout of 3-5 Joe Ageli in his last fight.
13 years in the ring and nothing to show for it. Still, he clears the unbelievably low bar Teremoana has set. Maybe he’ll be good enough for Teremoana to actually learn something.
“I’m in great shape, maybe in the best shape I have been my entire career,” said Ahio, who has lost just once in 26 contests with 25 wins on his resumé, including 19 stoppages.
“There’s going to be fireworks, and we will both be dropping big bombs. I’m ready to throw down with the big man. Let’s go!”
The best fight on the card is actually the co-feature, which sees undefeated middleweight Mitch Leek (14-0, 8 KO) fight never-before-stopped veteran Joel Camilleri (31-8-1, 15 KO). Not much else of interest to those who aren’t Oceania diehards, but they did screw up the formatting on their press release and accidentally cut out the last bit, which I thought was funny.