A kidney scare follows a serious knee injury, but Elijah Ngata has no other alternative but to fight on. Not for himself, but for his family.
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"For me, I grew up in a fighting background. I’m the youngest and have four older brothers, so we had to duke it out every now and again," Ngata said.
He has been fighting on with the prospect of a K1 kickboxing bout against Nikola Kresovic at Monaro Fight Circuit 29 at the Hellenic Club of Canberra on Saturday night looming large.
Has Ngata thought about how his children will react when he fights? Not really. But LJ, Lennox and Elijah-Latu, and wife Jade, are a huge part of the reason the 5-0 heavyweight is putting in the extra hours outside his work as a night shift security guard and a personal trainer.
"Most fighters come from a struggling background, so they have to fight their way out of the struggles. The kids have it a little bit easier so I don’t know if they have that mongrel in them or that fight in them," Ngata said.
"If they ever wanted to, I’d let them. I’d teach them everything I know. My kids are pretty kind, pretty soft - I’m pretty soft myself but I just have that different background.
"They keep me on my feet, but my wife is a good lady so she does a fair bit and takes a bit of stress off me.
"It’s another reason why I decided to take on fighting, more or less to do it for the family and see if, in this small window I’ve got left, if I can put the family in a better position than it is in now."
Growing up in the notoriously tough area of Glen Innes, the eastern suburbs of Auckland, Ngata had to fight to survive.
The area is for the most part a low-income working class area with around 1500 state houses. Among them were the Ngata family, with mum Valu and dad Tevita providing for their 11 kids.
There would be no afternoons spent in front of a television.
"I don’t know if you know much about Auckland but back in the ‘90s it was a pretty rough area," Ngata said.
"We didn’t grow up in the privileged areas, mum and dad made do with what we have. First in, first served - and because I was the youngest I was always last."
Ngata made the move to Australia when his brother encouraged him to link up with the Queanbeyan Blues during Simon Woolford's coaching tenure at the Canberra Raiders Cup powerhouse.
Wind the clock forward a few years and the 28-year-old is the breadwinner for a growing family of his own, no longer the kid scrambling for scraps.
A heart to heart with his father who has a heart condition inspired Ngata to take the gamble on a life in the ring, leaving rugby league in the rear-view mirror.
"He just told me you don’t want to be an old man looking back thinking ‘oh man, I should have made use of my talents while I had them’," Ngata said.
"That’s pretty much it. He had heart surgery last week and he has come alright. All is good. He is still in Auckland, all the family is still in Auckland. It's just me here.
"I don’t want to be one of those guys who looks back and thinks ‘I should have done that’. I would rather, while I’m still young and still have the talent to pursue it, to give it everything I’ve got.
"That’s basically what I’m trying to achieve here."
MONARO FIGHT CIRCUIT
Saturday: Monaro Fight Circuit 29 - Ben Edwards v Wallace To'o at the Hellenic Club of Canberra. Tickets from King Ape Supplements.
