As a former All Black, Rene Ranger has faced many big challenges in the sporting arena but nothing quite like Manu Vatuvei in a boxing ring over a scheduled four three-minute rounds.
Ranger, 39, will face the former Warriors and Kiwis wing on the undercard of the David Nyika v Floyd Masson IBF title eliminator at Auckland’s Eventfinda Stadium on August 8.
The event will be a pay-per-view broadcast on TVNZ+, but the Ranger v Vatuvei bout will be free to air on TV2.
Vatuvei, 40, has two knockout victories in his two previous fights, while Ranger last fought in a Fight for Life event against former NRL player Greg Bird in Auckland in 2012. Ranger lost.
After a professional rugby career which spanned six Tests for the All Blacks and a couple of stints at the Blues and in France, where he became a cult figure for his utter fearlessness when charging into contact – with or without the ball – Ranger is still playing for his beloved Wellsford club which this year celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Ranger, a former wing or centre, is used to putting himself in potentially compromising positions – he has recently played in the front row for Wellsford and commonly comes off the bench to play as a loose forward, but the obvious question now is… why fight a man who knows his way around the ring and whose nickname as a league player was “The Beast”?
“Just to see if I’ve still got it,” Ranger told 1News. “I’ve been out of the game for a while now and the old pay cheque helps too.”
Ranger, working in civil construction, added: “Opportunities like this don’t come around very often.”
What does he make of Vatuvei as a fighter?
“He’s an animal. He can throw some good punches, good combos. He likes to pressure you, and why wouldn’t he – he’s such a big man. I’ll just try to play it smart and move. If he gets a clean shot I’ll be going down.”
One wonders, too, whether Ranger is trying to prove to his four children – two girls and two boys – about facing up to potentially daunting challenges.
His boys, aged nearly 10 and seven, are keen rugby players – “they’re on YouTube trying to look at my highlights from back in the day” – while his daughters are more into netball and basketball.
They could do worse than to follow their dad in terms of commitment. Ranger was never the biggest player but he was always one of the hardest hitters. That desire to give his all, along with the flowing hair and beard, contributed to a cult-like status at many of his clubs, including the Blues.
He doesn’t look much older than he did as a professional player – his last stint was as a pre-season injury replacement for the Crusaders in 2021 (he didn’t play a competitive game for that year’s title winners).
“Surprisingly, I still get the odd fan still coming up for photos,” he said. “I’ll be playing club rugby and the opposition will recognise me and come up for a photo afterwards.
“They’re excited they’re playing against me. I try to duck my head down or put the hood up sometimes. But when you’re in that rugby environment, I’m always there to have a good chat, you know?”
It may be reassuring to others entering middle age to hear that it takes far longer for Ranger to recover from games than it used to.
“It’s sore, man,” he replied when asked how his body felt on a Monday after a club game. “I’ve only just been coming off the bench as well because I’m trying to get our young fellas playing. I always end up playing, though… my knees are sore, my shoulders are sore… it’s not like how it used to be in the old days when you had good recovery sessions.
“Now my recovery is at home taking the dogs for a walk or maybe going for a hunt or taking the kids out.”
Meanwhile, Kiwi Nyika, who fought for the IBF title in 2024 and was brutally stopped by then champion Jai Opetaia (the title has since been vacated), said he took a huge amount of motivation from his fiancee Lexy’s recovery from head and neck cancer.
The 25-year-old revealed recently that she was cancer free after “six excruciating months of chemotherapy and radiation”.
“It’s given me a lot of perspective,” Nyika said. “I threw my life into that chapter… life is good. I’ve seen so much resilience and tenacity in the way Lexy has faced this challenge.
“I’m planning on putting it on Floyd from start to finish.”
SHARE ME