Bougainville’s Fidelis Laia takes another step forward in his professional boxing career when he heads to sunny Queensland this Saturday night.
Laia will face Australian boxer Thomas Ward in a four-round welterweight clash at the beachside Mantra on View in Surfers Paradise.
The bout will be contested at 147lb, one division above the 140lb weight class that is more suited to the PNG boxer.
Laia will give away around five inches in height to the rangy Australian orthodox striker, but the heavy-handed Bougainville fighter will be looking to make his power the great equaliser.
The event also features another exciting Papua New Guinean boxer, Mili Saul, who will take on a Thai opponent in a six-round contest.
Now based in Brisbane, Saul recorded two victories in 2025, and Saturday night will mark her first outing of 2026.
The main event features outstanding Jackson Jon England, who faces unbeaten Kazakhstan star Sultan Zaurbek (20–0) in a world-level qualifier.
It promises to be another exciting night of international professional boxing put together by renowned promoter Jamie Myer on the Gold Coast.
Despite suffering narrow losses, Ben Ligas and Jules Victoriano produced next level performances in the belt fights in Vietnam last night.
Ligas faced the vastly experienced Uzbek, the much revered "mini Tyson " Olimjon Nazarov. This was quality boxing from both, with "the Sniper" bringing the cleaner punches, but perhaps lacking the aggression of Nazarov, who looked constantly keen for work. This was a hard match to score, as neither fighter was particularly dominant in a see sawing affair, and the body shot in the 11th where Ligas took a knee was perhaps the only real difference.
Dinh Hong Quan is physically indomitable, and with his height and reach, this improving Vietnam boxer is a task for anybody. It was anticipated that Jules Victoriano would give him his toughest test to date, and he definitely didn't disappoint !
This was a great fight, and is probably best viewed in two parts. Victoriano boxed beautifully in the early rounds, but despite landing nice shots, the Vietnam champ kept stealing rounds with some heavier and more direct landed shots. Quan also "appeared" more dominant, more frequently backing Victoriano up and putting him on to combos.
Going into the second half of the fight, Victoriano definitely lifted his output and accuracy, and even gave the Vietnam opponent a couple of "dig deep" moments !
This was an exciting and fantastic match up, that very easily could have been scored a draw, it was that evenly contested! There is no doubt that Dinh Hong Quan produced the best performance of his career last night, and this was really needed because of the beautiful boxing skills displayed by Jules Victoriano.
VSP would love to see these two great young fighters rematch at a later date, maybe on a bigger stage!
Post event, all smiles, and pictured are Coach Toto Laurente, Ben Ligas, VSP Vietnam boss Lim Song, and Jules Victoriano. Great job by all !
