Beyond The Ropes: Kayla Iwikau

Beyond The Ropes: Kayla Iwikau

I first contacted Kayla Iwikau over two years ago about the possibility of telling her story. Scheduling issues prevented the interview from taking place as planned in 2022, so as sometimes happens, the interview was put on ice. We kept in touch, and the intention was always to do the interview, and finally, our schedules aligned.

I can’t quite remember how or why Kayla Iwikau came on my radar. Some fighters just do. Algorithms and other things that are well beyond this old scribe.

I didn’t know too much about her. Some fighters away from the bright lights are often reluctant to tell their story. A reluctance to share their darkest moments or a fear that their story isn’t worth sharing. I always say everyone has a story to tell. Some are better than others. The story of Kayla Iwikau is most definitely one of the better ones.

Wikipedia describes her birthplace as:

Feilding is a town in the Manawatū District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 54, 20 kilometres north of Palmerston North. The town is the seat of the Manawatū District Council.

If the Internet can be believed, less than 20,000 people reside there. Iwikau grew up there with her five brothers and two sisters. In her later years, she ended up in Sydney, Australia, a move that was the catalyst for her boxing journey.

Iwikau had only recently returned to Australia after leaving Sydney to go back home after her long-standing relationship broke down last year.

“I came back to Sydney in November. I went back to New Zealand for about seven months,” Iwikau told me over Zoom. “But I slowly made my way back. I was originally here for ten years. When I started boxing, I was with my partner who coached me. We were together for about six years. It was a little bit of being away from home for so long and just being a bit homesick. It was about me being back with my family, friends, and my culture. I always thought it was a bit of a reset. But I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen from there.”

Before the personal turmoil, after a brief amateur career, Kayla Iwikau had turned professional, winning her debut on points over Ali Jensen in June 2023. It was a winning introduction to her new world, and the plan was to build on that.

“I had my pro debut in 2023, and the plan back then was to stay active. I was in my second camp and a fight lined up. I think I was three weeks out. But then it all just crashed and mentally I just went. It just wasn’t good. The plan now is a little uncertain. I am slowly building back up. I took quite a big break. I have just started back training. I had an ACL reconstruction about eleven years ago, and when I came back home, I injured it again. It was just a little tear. So, I am in rehab at the moment. I think I should be back in the ring around August.”

Many a fighter tell me they want to win world titles. Some say it with conviction, while others say it more in hope than reality. But for Iwikau, it was never about reaching the pinnacle of her sport.

“For me, I have never had any aspirations to be a world champion,” Iwikau says of why she chose boxing. “It’s more about the journey for me. I love the fight game for what it is and what it brings. I am 33 now, and I started quite late. I started when I was 26. I never expected to turn pro. I always expected to stay as an amateur. But I developed quite fast, and I knew I was doing well. I had met my second coach, who had pushed me towards turning professional. He was originally from America and fought in the 60s and the 70s, so he was very old school. Right now, the first step is to get back in the ring and see how I feel.

“I actually fell into boxing quite randomly. There is obviously a strong drinking and partying culture in New Zealand. I come from a small country town so there is not that much to do. I had always been fit and very healthy, but I kind of felt myself going off track. I had a friend who suggested I just do this one corporate fight. It started there, and I got a taste of what the training was doing for me and how much growth I was going through at that time with my body shape changing and my mental state improving. After the corporate fight, I stayed active with it.”

Iwikau had eight amateur fights before turning professional and fighting the experienced Ali Jensen at the Revesby Workers Club, Revesby, just under two years ago.

“I fought a girl from Queensland. She had five fights under her, so she had a lot more experience,” Iwikau says of her professional debut. “I had a bit of a crash three weeks out. I had peaked too soon and had to take about five days off. I managed to work around it, but I think it was more my mental state that crashed. But it was an unreal experience.”

Boxing, despite its flaws, can often give someone something they can’t find elsewhere. It can be a kind of therapy for guidance through life itself. For Kayla Iwikau, you sense that’s what she gets from her sport.

“I have experienced domestic violence before. I have been through that before in a previous relationship. But even before that, when I was a young girl in my late teens, I was picked on quite a bit. It wasn’t in a bad way. It wasn’t like I was bullied because I always stood up for myself, and I was always quite strong as a person. When I first came into boxing and experienced those hard moments when you had to dig deep, you are confronted with so many emotions in everyday life. Going through everything in boxing helped to build me. It’s like it almost gave me a backbone. That would even translate into my job. I work in health and safety, and I have worked in a male-dominated industry for about eight years now. Before, I would always find myself creeping back into my shell. I didn’t really back myself. But with the training and the resilience built through training and overcoming adversity, that is what built me and is why I am such a big fan of boxing.

“For example, the break-up that I went through. It was so hard and so dark for me because I had two lives with him. I had a personal life and a professional life with him. I didn’t know what was to come from it. When I was in the dark of all those moments, it was somewhat similar to when I was in the dark in my training and in my boxing. So, I was somewhat content to be in the storm because I could relate it to the tough times in training and fighting.”

It’s been a difficult period of late for Iwikau. But as ever, she has fought back. Her life is on the up again. She is back boxing again. A return to action this summer would complete her return from those dark times. But for Kayla Iwikau, it’s not about winning world titles.

“I want to show that boxing can bring so much into developing character and building confidence,” Iwikau relayed to me. “Also, to be able to sit and understand the hard moments that we all go through in life, like the inner demons we all have. That’s why I am starting to share more about the healing journey.”