Ben Watt. NZ's first openly gay boxing judge
Benjamin Watt's career as a boxing judge continues to grow with the New Zealand Professional Boxing Association, but there was a time he thought he would never make it ringside.
Watt is a cancer survivor and says it is one of two battles he has had to overcome.
Being the first openly gay professional boxing judge has also had its challenges.
Ben Watt, New Zealand's first openly gay boxing judge wants to climb the ranks and judge a world title fight.
Two years ago, the Aucklander was diagnosed with a rare grade three non-Hodgkins B cell lymphoma. He had countless treatments before emerging even more driven even more driven to become one of New Zealand's best boxing judges.
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He was told he was in remission two weeks ago.
Benjamin Watt says, after defeating cancer, he feels lucky to be working as a boxing judge.
The 25-year-old is the first openly gay man to judge a professional boxing match worldwide - something he feels is significant in one of history's longest surviving sports.
Watt struggled with his sexuality from about age 13 when he became aware he was gay. He was 17 when he was able to finally come out and tell his loved ones.
It was only then he realised life would carry on pretty much as normal and the great majority of those around him would support him. "I was in denial for a long time, but I kind of always knew I was gay.
"Personally, I never had a problem with anyone due to my sexuality. In fact everyone has been very encouraging, but every so often I hear things that 'one person said one thing' behind my back, but I take that with a grain of salt."
The former Westlake Boys' High School student said being gay at school had its trials and set him up for a rough few years when he left school prematurely because of bullying.
"I had the nickname of Homohill, and even though I wasn't out, a lot of people thought I was gay so a lot of bullying happened at the school. So I left school when I was 17 and did hospitality. After that I kind of lost myself in what I wanted to do because I jumped from job to job and course to course."
Watt said although he has never hidden who he is since coming out, he did struggle for some time with being accepted in boxing circles - and still does.
He shared a supportive post for marriage equality in Australia, only for an anti gay slur to be plastered on his Facebook page.
Watt has heard snide remarks about his sexuality, but has learned to deal with them and his advice to anyone else struggling with their sexuality was to "be out and proud, don't be afraid to show your true self."
He said lesbian boxer Geovana Peres, the New Zealand light heavyweight champion, had been great for the LBGTQ boxing community.
"This was a big deal because Geovana is lesbian which made her the first person from the LGBTQ community to win a professional New Zealand title regardless of gender."
When Watt shared his excitement for Peres on social media he received "mostly positive feedback", but several comments came back from professional boxers themselves and even one senior official at the New Zealand National Boxing Federation saying "this doesn't matter", "this isn't a big deal", why are we still talking about this?, this isn't news".
"I tried to explain to them why it was important, but then they kept on saying 'don't play the victim, everyone gets bullied', and other stuff too.
"Eventually, I just blocked them from the page and deleted their comments because there was no reasoning with them."
Married for two and a half years, Watt says he is in a great place and wants to climb the world boxing ladder to one day be on the panel of a world title fight.
He got "hooked" on boxing during the David Tua-Lennox Lewis fight in 2000.
Watt was introduced to then NZPBA national secretary Pat Leonard (now the national body's president), who gave him his first opportunity to train at a Shane Cameron promoted event.
"Pat looked after my judging training and said I always did a perfect card with no problems and was interested in my developing quickly.
"From there I made sure I went to every boxing event I can so I can learn and after four events they got me to do my first event as an official judge."
Due to several concussions Watt has never actually boxed himself, but as a five-year-old he was a karate kid and later reached yellow belt status.
He judged a WIBA World title fight in Wellington between New Zealander Gentiane Lupi and Thailand Tanwarat Saengiamjit in 2015 and his toughest fight so far was a bout between Panuve Helu and Mose Auimatagi Jnr.
- Stuff
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/97271287/cancer-survivor-talks-about-struggle-with-sexuality-in-boxing-industry
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