Boxing's power couple 'WE'RE CHANGING LIVES'

The pair have set their athletes up for success beyond the ring

- Fleur Guthrie

When Alina Peach first met her now husband Isaac – the trainer behind New Zealand’s top-ranked boxers – it was the opposite of love at first sight.

She was in her early twenties and working at a boxing gym on Auckland’s North Shore, where Isaac trained with former Boxing New Zealand national coach Dr John McKay.

After enjoying the box fit classes, Alina then started training with John too, which meant she and Isaac would often have to run around the track together.

Recalls Alina, “He was the only professional boxer at the gym and he just seemed really arrogant. We hated each other at the start and I dreaded training with Isaac. We didn’t speak to each other for six months!

“Then one day, Isaac said to me, ‘Do you want to spar on Saturday?’ And I questioned why he suddenly wanted to help me with my boxing.

“But the other girls in the gym were like, ‘Oh, he’s so hot,’ so I started seeing him in a different light and thought to myself, ‘Yeah, maybe he is a bit attractive and he is kind of funny.’”

What started as a slow burn quickly ignited into love and the fitness-loving pair had a whirlwind engagement.

“The only obstacle initially was worrying what my mum would think of him,” laughs Alina at the memory.

“She’s Japanese and quite traditional, and doesn’t like tattoos, so I worried about what she would think of this skinhead, tattooed, sweary boyfriend I was bringing home! But she loved him instantly and they like to gang up on me together.”