Pictures: Jess Burges
Retired world champion boxer Daniella Smith was known in the ring as “Diamond Daniella”, but these days, the Northland star’s greatest pride is in another title – as “nanny” or grandmother.
“I’m so lucky to have two little beautiful mokopuna,” says Daniella, who is joined by one of her grandkids, three-year-old Anaya, for our shoot in her hometown of Kaikohe.
Anaya, who also calls her “Nunny Dunny”, has watched a video of Daniella fighting and rather than being alarmed, she clapped. “It was pretty spectacular!” laughs Daniella.
The boxer, who is of Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahungunu descent, became the IBF Welterweight Boxing Champion of the World in 2010 at 38 and retired four years later.
Now aged 52, she’s back in the spotlight, sharing her story in a new five-part podcast from RNZ, Uncut Diamond Daniella.
In her own words, she tracks her rise from amateur boxer to superstar as she paved the way for other females in combat sports, including IBO champ Mea Motu. Looking back, she has always been a force to be reckoned with.
Her supportive 81-year-old father George recalls that he and Daniella’s late mum Beryl didn’t have much money. Regardless, they offered her and her four siblings ample opportunities and encouragement growing up. Daniella was a naturally sporty, tough and fearless girl who smashed school athletic records.
Then in the late ’90s, at 26, her best mate Katrina introduced her to boxing in Auckland. It’s safe to say she fell in love with it. She faced early discrimination in what was then a male-dominated sport, but Daniella didn’t care and even fought the men.
“I just loved the challenge,” says Daniella, mum to Jordan, 33, who lives in Brisbane with son Lakoda, three, and daughter Talia, 29, Anaya’s mother. Daniella raised them as a solo mum and is still “happily single” today.
Boxing led her to work with Monty Betham and Shane Cameron, who introduced her to US boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. Daniella says she’s sure Sugar tried to hit on her. “I swear he was. I felt flattered. He’s a lot older than me and I was like, ‘This is so cool,’ but he’s like an icon. You don’t do that!”
She asked Sugar what she needed to do to become a champ. He said, “Make boxing your life,” which she did.
A successful amateur career followed, during which she won numerous national and international titles. After turning professional and winning two national professional titles and beating world-ranked international opponents, she was invited to fight for the IBF World Championship in Berlin. Dad George accompanied her as a stand-in coach.
Winning was both incredible and sad. Six months earlier, her brother Allon died suddenly at 36 and Daniella was still grieving.
“Allon and I were very close, and after he passed, I absorbed myself in training,” she shares. “It allowed me to focus on boxing and not deal with the pain. Later, I went through depression.”
There was more heartache last year, when her mum died four weeks after she, George, Talia and Anaya returned from the US, where she was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame.
Beryl had been wheelchair-bound for some time but was capable and sharp. During their trip to the US, George lost his suitcases at LAX. Using her phone and laptop, Beryl tracked them down from their home in Kaitaia and sent them to their Las Vegas hotel.
“But by this stage, Dad had bought himself a new tuxedo, two pairs of shoes and a very fancy suit!” she laughs. “He said, ‘Don’t tell, Mum!’ What does an 80-year-old do with two tuxedos?!
“My dad is a very charismatic, stylish, good-looking Māori male and in his tuxedo, he looks like James Bond.”
Looking back on the adventures, it’s been a wild ride. Nowadays, she’s a programme facilitator for the Department of Corrections, delivering rehabilitation initiatives in prisons and the community. She also coaches professional fighter Trish Vaka and Kaikohe locals – 10 of whom from Te Kura Kaupapa o Kaikohe accompanied her to Vegas last year and received a standing ovation for their haka.
Making her podcast has made Daniella see she’s lived a life of no regrets. Well, maybe one. She wishes she’d given a shout-out on the podcast to her childhood hero. Her grandmother May Smith was a top basketball and softball player.
May once challenged a man on a train to move seats after he bullied her female teammate.
“He got a bit uppity, but she held her ground,” Daniella says. “She was a very staunch Māori woman. I remember thinking, ‘I want to be like you, Nanny. I want to have your assertiveness and class.’”
Daniella has achieved both as a boxing wahine warrior.
“When people told me it couldn’t be done, I thought that was their limited thinking. I thought, ‘Wow, I’ll show you’. I chose not to take on board their beliefs and, luckily, I didn’t.”
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