Rapira Fitness Ltd

I have room for just one more fight on the card and I want to finslise the card this weekend. Get in contact to join this amazing journey!

No experience required. Everythubh is provided if you meet the criteria.

Think you’ve got what it takes?

Taranaki Explosion #21 is searching for corporate undercard fighters to step into the ring on May 16.

No previous experience needed — just heart, discipline, and commitment.

📧 Email your application to: [email protected]

Who should put their name forward? Tag them below 👇

Who in Taranaki is brave enough to step in the ring with Butterbean? 🥊
Tag them 👇

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Dave Letele - the Brown Buttabean - has been coaxed out of a seven year hiatus to step into a boxing ring in New Plymouth on May 16.

Promoter Sam Rapira announced the fight today – with a caveat.

He has issued an open invitation to find an opponent for his next Taranaki Explosion at the TSB Stadium, where the Letele fight will head the corporate card.

“People can send me videos expressing interest if they want the fight,” he said.

In a three week window he’ll weigh up which contender would be best suited to take on the Brown Buttabean, who last fought at heavyweight level. Rapira already has a good idea of the field – he has been staging corporate boxing event twice a year for more than a decade.

Rapira is also negotiating a New Zealand title fight as the main event.

Letele, 46, is an institution in Auckland where he has spearheaded community projects through Buttabean Motivation (BBM) including gyms, kitchens and foodbanks. In 2022 he was named Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year.

He has been on his own weight-loss journey – losing 90kg after at one time tipping the scales at 210kg and says boxing saved his life.

And there is a simple reason for accepting Rapira’s invitation.

“It’s a fund raiser for charity and times are tough.”

And the fact he lost his last fight back in 2018 is another reason.

He says he has been pumping weights – but is moving to cardio work now and “I’ll be super fit”.

It will be his second bout in Taranaki – his last was in 2016 in Waitara, a win over Che Barlow.

His last fight was a short one – he was knocked out by former Warrior Manu Vatuvei who was seven years his junior.

Letele subsequently met Vatuvei when the latter was serving a jail term after being convicted on drug charges. Vatuvei later teamed up with Letele and now speaks publicly to encourage youth in particular not to take the wrong path.

The Brown Buttabean name was copied from giant heavyweight Eric Esch – known as Butterbean – and suitably tweaked to avoid copyright issues. The two beans have never met.

For Letele a return to the ring will be part of a year with a difference when comparing 2026 to 2025.

He has been an outspoken critic of the government and its level of support for projects like a social supermarket in Tokoroa and says it got to the point of getting him depressed.

But he now quotes Serenity Prayer - “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Rapira says his support community projects via Taranaki Explosion events over the years makes having Letele on the May fight card a perfect fit.

Its is now official.
Dave ‘The Brown Butterbean’ Letele is fighting at the Crowded House Bar & Cafe Taranaki Explosion 21 at TSB Stadium!

Who wants to take him on? If you know someone… tag em!

A comeback fight announced for Taranaki Explosion David Letele, the Brown Buttabean, has been coaxed out of a seven-year hiatus to step into a boxing ring in New Plymouth on May 16.

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