It’s a stadium NZ fans are more used to cheering on the All Blacks in, but come this weekend, they’ll have another Kiwi to get behind.
Principality Stadium, formally Millennium Stadium, has hosted rugby fixtures for years but it’s currently being transformed into a boxing arena for Sunday’s unification bout between Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua.
The stadium’s CEO, Mark Williams, says everything has been thought of for the transformation.
"We start tomorrow", he said. "The pitch gets treated, the pitch covering goes on, the build continues up until the morning of the fight. Everything will be out the night after."
The stadium has been set up on this scale once before - last year when Joshua defended his world titles against Frenchman Carlos Takam,
Parker has been giving the away dressing room – an area usually reserved for the All Blacks – to make his final preparations for Sunday’s fight while Joshua's home dressing room is where the Welsh usually prepare for battle.
Parker will then face a wall of noise with 80,000 fans, most against him, when he makes his walk out to the middle of the Stadium.
Williams said the moment should be a sensation.
"It'll all be quite dark. The roof will be on - it's the biggest indoor boxing venue in the world."
A city and a venue that's been special and on the whole, victorious, for Kiwis in the past.
Parker now has his chance to leave a mark.
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