It was a double celebration at the village of Faleula-uta yesterday morning.

Why? Firstly it was the opening of the Faleula Boxing Ring.

Secondly Samoa’s Hero Lupesoliai Laauliolemalietoa Joesph Parker was there which made the day even more special.

Members of the village including the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture Loau Keneti Sio kick started the event with an ava ceremony to welcome the champ and his parents.

The boxing ring is an initiative by the Minister Loau.

According to a member of the village Maiava Faleoo Tuna the ring allows young people of Faleula to develop their talents in boxing. 

“This is a great initiative by the Minister Loau because this will help many of our young people,” he said.

“It is also extra special because one of our own Lupesoliai Laaulialemalietoa Joseph Parker joined us today.

“We feel very honoured that he is able to come here on this event.

“He is our young people’s biggest motivation so he’s being here has made today more special and besides they look up to him.”

Maiava went on to say he is not sure how long has the Minister planned for this but the important thing is it will play a big role in the young people of Faleula village.

“You know nowadays there are a lot of problems rising because of the young people and we are trying to find the solution for these problems,” he said.

“So this is one of the solutions for the young people of our village is this boxing ring.

“This ring will help trained the young ones who are not working and develop boxing in Samoa because to be honest boxing nowadays has gone down the drain so having one of this in each village will help revive the sport again.

“So it’s a big thing and we are very happy that our village has a boxing ring so that we can all come together and trained and even have competitions.”

After the formalities the Minister called out for two bouts to open the ring while the champ watched.