After almost quitting, Daniels feeling primed for title defence

Tucked away off a West Auckland road in a small carpenter's workshop, world champion boxer Lani Daniels is sharpening her own tools for a title defence this weekend in Hamilton.

There's not a lot of space to work with, given the machinery and furniture all around the place, but it's become home for Daniels ahead of the biggest fight of her career — defending her IBF light heavyweight belt against mandatory challenger Bolatito Oluwole.

"I feel like I'm the sharpest I've ever been," Daniels tells 1News.

"I watch clips of myself and think, 'holy heck, what a beast!' I get scared of myself, to be honest. The accuracy, the sharpness, it's like a wow factor for me and I'm like, 'is this me?'

"And I feel like I'm only just scraping the true surface of my potential."

It's no surprise she doesn't recognise the fighter in the mirror though, given the training camp she's gone through with former boxer and now coach John Conway.

While the tale of going to "dark places" during pre-fight training isn't a new one, for Daniels, it's been almost too much for her story.

"This camp got me to a place where I was on the verge of quitting," she says.

"I got to a stage where externally, things that got me to this point weren't working anymore — I was doing it for my whānau; I was doing it for our youth; I was doing it for my coaches for what they're giving to me. I was trying to do it for them but it got to a point where it was too overwhelming.

"It got to a point where doing it for everyone else wasn't enough... and I made the decision where I said, 'alright Lani, you're not doing this for anybody else but yourself. You're choosing to walk this path so suck it up buttercup and get on with the work'!"

And it's that mindset that her coaching team admires. Conway sees a more refined version of himself in Daniels, taking the same journey but with less mistakes while self-proclaimed "camp mother" Ant Fryer recalls a first he had during the camp too.

"She handles the dark places," Fryer says.

"We've had a moment with Lani and I took her aside and this is the first time I've ever had to say this to a fighter but I said, 'we do this because we love you'.

"There's a lot of burden she creates on her shoulders and that can be tough so it's important that she knows that we love her. We wouldn't put her in any place we wouldn't go ourselves."

Tonight's fight is against someone just as motivated though, albeit for different reasons.

Across town a week after landing in New Zealand, Oluwole — a 9-0 boxer fighting for the first time outside of Nigeria — is also in her final preparations with the weight of a nation on her.

"For now, Nigeria, we are disappointed in the last Olympics — we did not win any [boxing] medals," she explains.

"They believe me coming here, I should bring the title home so it can be a victory for us."

That's not to say she also doesn't have personal motivation.

"I've been preparing for this fight for the last few months now and it's a dream come true."

Oluwole brings power to the ring, having collected five knockouts in her nine wins to date — an edge that doesn't faze Daniels or the Kiwi's coaching staff.

"I see a lot of areas in Lani's opponent that hasn't been exploited yet that we will exploit," Conway says.

"Her opponent is a powerful fighter but she has limitations... we need to demonstrate that Lani is a champion of the world so a one-sided beating is what we've planned for."

Should they get that dominant win, tonight's bout could be Daniels' last in New Zealand for the foreseeable future with title defences abroad and possible unification bouts on the cards.

In fact, there's already been talks with "a few people" Conway says, including two-time Olympic gold medallist Claressa Shields — one of only four boxers in history, female or male, to hold all four major world titles in boxing [WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO] in two weight classes.

But Shields' challenge has been put on the backburner due to "disrespect".

"Claressa Shields reached out with a handful of peanuts and I just responded we're not monkeys and when they come up with a real figure and a real opportunity, we're interested," a grinning Conway says.

"They're leaning on the fact that it's an honour to fight her — but we're champions too so it should be an honour to fight us."

Daniels has a chance to send that message via the tools of her trade tonight at GloBox Arena from 5pm.