Real estate sales consultants exchange blows... and it's all for a good cause
Wednesday 14 April 2010, 4:58PM
By Bayleys
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In a crushing victory in the boxing ring, big-hitting Bayleys Canterbury residential sales consultant Mark O’Loughlin knocked over his opponent from Harcourts in a charity boxing Fight for Youth event held in Christchurch on the weekend.
Super-fit O’Loughlin – who is a leading member of the Bayleys residential office in Merivale – defeated property industry colleague Ta Karati of Harcourts Grenadier through a unanimous points decision after dominating the bout made up of three two-minute rounds.
O’Loughlin, 44, spent eight weeks intensively training for the event – held to raise funds for youth charities and junior sporting organisations throughout Canterbury. During the strict training regime – which included pre-dawn sparring sessions with Riverside boxing gym, personal trainer Brad Milner, a special high protein diet, and running up 100s of steps at Addington raceway – O’Loughlin lost 12 kilograms.
The battle of the residential real estate giants took place in front of a roaring crowd of over 1000 fight enthusiasts and charity supporters – including five tables of Bayleys staff, clients, and personal friends of O’Loughlin.
Other ‘industry versus industry’ match-ups included first-time fighters representing Telecom and Vodafone, and a local newspaper reporter battling it out with a city councilor. More than $40,000 was raised by the “Fight for Youth“ event, including personal sponsorships collected by each of the 18 individual corporate boxers.
After the fight, a bruised but victorious Mark O’Loughlin said he was retiring “as the undefeated and undisputed king” of the Christchurch real estate sales consultants boxing fraternity.
“That’s it. I’ve crossed that one off my ‘bucket list’. It was a fantastic experience. It gave me an incredible amount of energy during the training process and made me a lot fitter and healthier, but the recovery certainly took a toll on my body – which was aching for several days afterward,” Mark O’Loughlin said.
“It didn’t help that the night after the fight Bayleys Canterbury and I were one of the key sponsors helping to run another black tie fund-raising event for some 200 guests - raising $9500 at a charity auction for The Spinal Trust at Burwood Hospital.”