Benjamin Thomas Watt
| Benjamin Thomas Watt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 13, 1992 Greenhithe, New Zealand |
| Residence | Sunnynook, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Citizenship | New Zealand |
| Occupation | Boxing Judge, Audio Documentary Maker, Matchmaker, Boxrec Editor |
| Years active | 2015–present |
| Organization | New Zealand Professional Boxing Association, World Boxing Federation, Boxrec.com, Pridenz.com |
| Known for | First Openly Gay Boxing Judge |
| Home town | North Shore City, New Zealand |
| Spouse(s) | Skyler Parker Watt (Married 2015) |
| Website | boxrec |
Benjamin Thomas Watt (born June 13, 1992, Greenhithe, New Zealand) is the world's first openly gay professional boxing judge.
Watt started his career in boxing as an editor of Boxrec.com for New Zealand. In April 2015, the Australian Boxrec editors forward Watt onto the New Zealand Professional Boxing Association after he expressed interests of becoming a referee and a judge. Watt spent four months training as a shadow judge and doing corporate boxing fights. In August 2015, Watt judged his first two professional fights of his career. It was on a small boxing promotion called Weekend Warriors II, promoted by Craig Thomson. Watt was shortly recognized after as the worlds first openly gay professional boxing judge.
In 2012 Watt traveled the North Island of New Zealand for project called Q12 the tour where he did audio interviews with over 70 LGBT people. The aim of the project was to archive the information for future research on what it is like to live as a LGBT Person in 2012. Watt got first noticed on YouTube with his documentary called Radio Documantary on NZ Gay Youth Abuse. Pridenz.com approach him to do only twenty interviews, however due to the popularity of the concept they was decided to turn the project into a tour. The tour originally was to travel to fourteen cities and towns in ten regions. However Gisbourne, Tauranga and Taupo were cancelled due to lack of support in the local regions. Despite the cancelled dates, the tour itself concluded successfully.
In March 2016, Royal Rampage announced on Facebook and Boxrec that Watt is one of there boxing matchmakers.
Watt was also a matchmaker for the Asher Derbyshire vs Paane Haraki fight for the vacant NZPBA Cruiserweight title. Originally the fight was scheduled for Derbyshire to fight Thomas Heads. Unfortunately Heads received a severe concussion, resulting in being pulled out only 7 days before the fight. Watt offered his services to find a replacement fight on six days notice, in which he did it in two.
In July 2016, Watt announced that he will be promoting his first boxing event called Fight 4 Charity. The event will in a selection of up and coming boxers, including bouts like Nailini Helu vs Ange Davis for the New Zealand and Asia Pacific Title, Zane McNab vs Nick Hikuroa, Kendall Cooper vs Jonathan Taylor and many more.
Watt is semi blind in the right eye by birth. Even though he is fully capable to judge, his optometrist will not clear his to drive a car.
At the age of 15, Watt was diagnosed with Scheuermann's disease. Watt stated for years he has been through painful physiotherapy however to this day he still has back problems.
...
Wikipedia