“I want to be known as Teremoana,” said the exciting heavyweight prospect. “If people don’t know yet, that’s the whole reason I got into boxing, to let people know my grandfather’s name, which is Teremoana.”
It is a name on the lips of many in boxing as the 11-0 (11 KOs) Matchroom star prepares to face American DeAndre Savage in a main event on the Gold Coast on Wednesday, August 12.
“So, I can tell you a little bit. Back in the day, I used to go by my middle name, which is Samson. And so I used to let people call me Samson when I was younger. But I didn’t want to box back then. I didn’t want to do what I’m doing. And what made me do what I wanted to do is, when I turned 21, I asked everyone to start calling me by my first name, which is Teremoana. And then basically, from that day, all my friends, all my family, they stopped calling me Samson, as I requested, and then they started to call me Teremoana, which is my grandfather’s name. The whole point of me coming back to boxing.”
Teremoana’s grandfather was a teacher in the Cook Islands, and Teremoana said he prefers his friends to pronounce his full name rather than shorten it.
“Everyone’s okay with it, because respect goes both ways, as I say, and I would say I give off respect, so I expect it back. When I was younger, I didn’t mind, but because what I have set out to do is to let the world know my grandfather’s name, what’s the point of me doing what I’m doing if his name’s not getting across?”
It was Teremoana’s father who first took him to the boxing gym, not knowing that he was starting the journey of the Brian Peters-managed, 6ft 6ins puncher who is looking to climb the rankings and move into big fights.
“He always told me that he would have loved to do it,” said Teremoana. “He just didn’t have the opportunity when he was younger.”
Family is everything to the big heavyweight, as is fighting in his grandfather’s name and representing the Cook Islands.
Teremoana’s grandfather got a scholarship from the Cook Islands to go to New Zealand and studied at university to become a teacher. He moved back to the Cook Islands to teach, and it is both his grandfather and the Cook Islands that are the motivation behind the 28-year-old’s rapid rise.
