Boxing at the Delhi Commonwealth Games is certainly one of Mathew Titoa’s proudest moments.

The local boxer made his debut at the games on Thursday night in the heavyweight division against an opponent from the Dominican Republic.

He was eventually outpunched by his opponent and the loss has ended his short games campaign.

Titoa looked strong and focused in the ring but unforced errors saw two penalties awarded to his opponent in the first three minute round.

Each of the two penalties saw the Dominican boxer given two points and by the end of the first round he was up 4-0 against Titoa.

Adding to Titoa’s many challenges was the fact that his opponent was bigger and taller than him – but that didn’t worry Titoa too much.

His tactic was to go in low and force his opponent to open up but with little ring time under his belt – judging his opponent’s movement was another challenge for Titoa.

Titoa remained strong and kept plugging away with body shots but didn’t receive any points from the ringside referees.

His first point came a minute-and-a-half into the last round – although he didn’t know that at the time.

In the end his opponent won 6-1, of which four came from penalties, in what was a bout that Titoa was proud of.

For Titoa, the bout has shone the light on the need for local boxers to have more ring time by either attending regular competitions across the region or more organised events in Rarotonga.

Although disappointed with the result of the match, Titoa has marked the bout down as great experience in what he hopes will be a long boxing career.

Titoa has been training for the past seven months losing nearly 20kg since finishing up the league season.

In fact, Titoa says his time as a rugby league front rower has helped him build his muscle strength to the point where he didn’t feel his opponents punches in the ring

Titoa says that his training consisted mostly of work with the punching bag, which doesn’t allow him to develop good fight-reading skills in the ring.

This he says will only come with more regular fighting which he managed to get a week before coming to Delhi with a quick tour to Tahiti.

In Tahiti he realised what he was missing out on in terms of regular inter-club bouts that have honed the skills of Tahitian boxers who are top in the ring in the region.

But he’s not about to stop training, as he sets his sight on an upcoming tournament later this year in Rarotonga and the Pacific Games in Noumea, New Caledonia next year.

For the past week Titoa has been nothing but focused for his bout and now that he has done his family and the Cook Islands proud, he has begun to relax and look forward to improving his boxing when he returns home.

Big birthday bash in Delhi – page 11