Samoa has emerged as the only nation to defeat Australia in the boxing finals on Friday after Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali won the men's 92kg division.

With a path to the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier on the line, the stage was set for one of the most anticipated events of the Pacific Games, and it was a nail-biter of an event.

Australian boxers won six out of seven fights in the Olympic qualifying rounds on Friday in Honiara - all but one.

Australia's Adrian Paoletti threw down with Samoan Plodzicki-Faoagali but was beaten.

The crowd roared in support of Samoa's underdog victory. 

"I feel like I've always been against the odds," Plodzicki-Faoagali told ABC Pacific.

"I appreciate all the support. The crowd was good. Even the Tongans and all the islands supported me. They'd seen Australia get the win. So we had to put Samoa on the map and the islands on the map.

"I knew I lost the first round. Second round I came in strong. Third round I came in strong."

 

Plodzicki-Faoagali came to get gold.(ABC Pacific: Dinah Lewis Boucher)

Paris 2024 will be his second appearance at the Olympics after he represented Samoa in Tokyo but was defeated in his fight against Belarusian Uladzislau Smiahlikau.

In Honiara, he said he had one goal.

"I'm not coming here to get silver; I'm coming here to get gold.

"It feels good to earn the right to Paris. I'm very grateful to everyone."

Steven Faoagali, Plodzicki-Faoagali's father, cheered on from the stands.

"Even though this is his second time qualifying for the Olympics, this one means more to me, because this is our backyard. This is our Pacific Games," Mr Faoagali said.

"To see Australia taking the first six fights, and all qualifying, and for Ato to come up against another tough Aussie, it was against the odds."

Among the Olympic qualifiers was Marissa Williamson Pohlman in the 66kg division, who will become the first Indigenous female boxer to represent Australia in Paris next year. 

Olympic qualification at stake

After kicking out the International Boxing Association from its ranks, the International Olympic Committee made the boxing at Honiara's Pacific Games an Oceania Continental qualification tournament, said Andrew Minogue, CEO of the Pacific Games Council. 

Previously, he said, Oceania boxers had to go through Asia. 

The move meant Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand competed in the boxing event for the first time this year.

"The International Olympic Committee is overseeing boxing at the moment," he said. 

"What they've determined is that all of the continental games around the world, from our games in the Pacific to the Africa Games, the Asian Games, and so on, will act as a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

"There's seven men's divisions and six women's divisions at the Olympics. And so those divisions, when they're being fought in Honiara, the winner will qualify directly to the Olympics." 

 

Andrew Minogue, CEO of the Pacific Games Council. (www.sol2023.com)

Overall, Mr Minogue said this was a good move. 

"This is a good step in the right direction for Oceania to get their quota spot back at the Olympics. So it means you win ... effectively at home. In your own region. You go to the Olympics, you don't have to go up through Asia or the world championships or whatever it is," he said. 

Plodzicki-Faoagali earlier told Pacific Beat the change was a good thing for the future of Pacific boxing.

"It's good to see that we get more opportunity for the islands to get more exposure to boxing because it really needs to grow, but the islands don't have the funds to travel," he said. 

"Maybe if we get the funds, we will be better boxers as well. Because Australia and New Zealand have a little bit of a different style, and most of the islands are just used to the good old 'stand there and fight'. So it's good to get that exposure to different styles of fighting."