Bowie Tupou has warned Teremoana Teremoana that he needs to leave Australia to realise his potential.
Tupou, 43, on Wednesday at The Melbourne Pavilion on the undercard of Skye Nicolson-Mariah Turner becomes the 11th opponent of Teremoana’s promising career, and is aware that Teremoana perhaps represents Australia’s most exciting active fighter of all.
The Paris 2024 Olympian’s abilities mean that he has come to be considered one of the world’s finest young heavyweights, and that he is featuring prominently on the promotions of Matchroom and Tasman Fighters throughout the course of him perhaps fighting five times in 2026.
Tupou – a former opponent of, among others, Joseph Parker, Bryant Jennings and Malik Scott – is convinced that regardless of how good or otherwise Teremoana proves when they fight on Wednesday the heavyweight’s career will be held back unless he leaves his home.
Teremoana remains a resident of Brisbane, and is about to fight in his home country for the eighth time in 11 fights, and Tupou believes that the lack of depth in Australian heavyweight boxing means that the only way that Teremoana can maximise his natural talent is by pursuing the sparring on offer in the US or UK.
“We don’t have that much good heavyweights in Australia for good preparation,” he told BoxingScene. “England’s way better; Europe. Everyone gets good sparring over there. In America most of the good heavyweights are in [Las] Vegas. You’re sparring every day. In Australia, you’ve got to travel out of state to get good sparring. You’ve got to find a way, step by step, to the top; you’re fighting people that don’t have that experience, like in England and America.
“The guy’s only had [10] fights. Here, especially, in Australia, they like to baby people to get to the top. But I can understand that. Small fights; easy fights; get you to the top easy. He looks like a tough guy; he can bring it. He has the tools; he’s got the height; he’s got the reach. They give you easy fights to get to the top, ‘cause I went straight to America, and it was tough – especially trying to learn again the fundamentals of boxing. You learn new things and you start to understand the science of boxing and realise that coming from Australia to America is a different world.
“I’m from Sydney, and it’s not easy to get sparring from a heavyweight that boxes like a boxer. Mostly they do different sports like kickboxing or bareknuckle. You take what you get and you learn from it, but if you want good heavyweight sparring you’ve got to travel. You go out of state to get good sparring.”
Teremoana, 28, fought and won in Australia’s Gold Coast in December, and in Orlando, Florida in March. He expects to fight a further three times in 2026 should he succeed against Tupou.
“He’s a good boxer,” Tupou said. “I respect the dude – what he’s doing – and I wish him all the best.
“What I know is about me – especially at my age – is trying to do what I know and what I’m good at and make sure that I can take that into the ring and hopefully that can work.
“I’m just grateful that I’m getting this – I thought ‘That’s it for me – I’m not getting any younger’. I’m getting old – to get this opportunity to fight… in Australia it’s hard.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity versus him – a young guy, coming up.”
