After 12 weeks of training, the fight is on. 

Rodney Zarif, father of three and manager at KD Cellars in Kiama Downs, got caught up in the Battle of the Ages, well the Battle of the Businesses, purely on a whim. 

The event, which raises money for the Illawarra Convoy, had its first outing last year and has been such an instant success it is already set to become a fixture on the annual calendar. 

There will be 40 businesses battling it out to be top dog, with Rodney as optimistic about his changes as he can be. Especially as he is up against the rather alarmingly named Jason Murdzevski from Flash Homes. 

The finale of all the hard work that has gone into the event will be on Saturday 20th at WIN Entertainment Centre.

Last year the Convoy raised $2.85 million for children’s charities in the Illawarra Area. 

But for Rodney it wasn’t so much noble intentions as an impulse, when he saw an advertisement on Facebook looking for participants in the Battle of the Businesses Boxing Championship and thought: “Why not?”

“I had a little bit of training when I was younger, and boxing was something I have always wanted to do,” he said. “I didn’t tell my wife at first, but I got accepted. And it was something my wife couldn’t say no to, because it was for charity. 

“Everyone is put through 12 weeks of intense training, three or four times a week. As soon as they said yes I started focusing on diet and training. 

“I am nervous about the actual fight, but health wise it has been awesome. It has changed my life in terms of fitness. They teach you boxing. The fitness side of it’s crazy. 

“Sometimes you are sore and don’t want to go to the gym, but you just have to push yourself. 

“Now that I have done it, I appreciate how difficult a two minute round of boxing is. You just feel drained. The biggest challenge has been events coming up, tempting me to eat bad or have a couple of drinks. 

“I am looking forward to it. I am a bit nervous, but… 

“Originally I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but obviously they want us to advertise for the event. It has been a good experience. The friendships you form at the gym, and networking business wise has been awesome. All sorts of people are involved, lawyers, real estate agents, electricians, there is just a massive mix. 

“And it is for a good cause.”  

Other businesses and individuals involved include Rebecca Moystn of Mostyn Legal, Steve Lozenkovski from Bears Auto Group, Tiarna Katrivesis from Fitness Express Shellharbour and Rob Mitchell from A Class Building.

Spokeswoman for the event Karlie Zec said we wanted to try and think of a fund raising event that would bring something different to Wollongong and raise a lot of money. “I think we’ve succeeded,” she said. “We have all sorts of businesses from all over the Illawarra. We deliberately picked people who hadn’t boxed before and gave them the training they needed.

“All the people from the various businesses get involved and we have sold more than 1200 tickets so far. It has created a great atmosphere, we all see other at the gym and it has become more of a family than a friendship.”   

The Battle Of The Businesses boxing tournament is sponsored by Tiny Tins, Wollongong Crane Trucks and Grechys Boxing & Fitness.

Doors open at 4.30pm for a 5.30pm start on Saturday 20th of this month at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster and start at $90.