As Joseph Parker and Junior Fa stole the attention of New Zealand boxing fans, another Kiwi boxer was grinding away in the background.
Now in just over a week, Bowyn Morgan will take on the undisputed star of Australian boxing, Tim Tsyzu, in the biggest boxing event to be held in Sydney for more than a decade.
Morgan hasn't tasted defeat since 2016 but he's not resting on his laurels.
“The mindset of this fight is exciting — you get up out of bed excited to get to training because of the opportunity,” Morgan said.
“It doesn’t come around much.”
Tsyzu, otherwise known as "the thunder from down under", is no easy task, having dropped former world welterweight champion Jeff Horn twice back in August in an eighth-round TKO win.
But Morgan’s trainer, Phil Shatford, said the Kiwi has got one thing on his side.
“He's trained super hard for this fight — he's been 10 rounds numerous times where Tim hasn’t,” Shatford said.
“Bowyn’s gonna drag him out to the deep water.”
Shatford has been there every step of the way of Morgan’s journey, ever since the Christchurch-born fighter was a late teen.
“He took me to the Comm Games in 2014 and after that he gave away his amateur licence to go pro with me and we haven’t looked back.”
Now the pair are just eight days out from their biggest showdown yet, where Morgan has a chance to gain a top 10 world ranking and eye up a world title.
“It’s Bowyn’s dream come true,” Shatford said.
“It’s basically like he’s been given a bottle of champagne and now he's just gotta take the top off.”
But with a fight this big comes sacrifice; he'll spend Christmas and New Years in managed isolation away from his partner and three young girls.
But if he gets things right, it’ll all be worth it.
“This is the pinnacle now and everything that comes after is greatness.”
He'll do the rest of his talking in the ring come December 16.
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