Career
He is also notable for convictions for assault and manslaughter. As an amateur, Pownceby was one of the New Zealand team"s main hopes for a boxing medal in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth games but he was eliminated from the competition after losing 6-26 against his first opponent. Pownceby was also selected for the 2004 Athens Olympics and was the only boxer chosen to represent New Zealand at this event.
Pownceby was eliminated from the competition after losing 19-33 against his first opponent.
Pownceby has also held the WBO Asia Pacific light-heavyweight title after defeating Togasilamai Letoa in a 12 round fight. Pownceby is ranked fifth in New Zealand"s pound for pound record.
On 19 October 1994, Pownceby killed his five-month-old daughter Jeanette Rikihana. Despite claiming to Police that he had dropped her in the shower, the post-mortem revealed "horrendous injuries - severe bruising to the head, including a cracked skull, and internal bruising." In addition to the injuries that resulted in her death, the autopsy also revealed that the baby was suffering from "six fractured ribs caused by a chest injury at least two weeks before her death" and was "malnourished with wasting buttocks and thighs".
Pownceby was charged with murder, however the jury at his murder trial ruled that he was not guilty of murder but was guilty of manslaughter.
Pownceby was sentenced to four years in jail. During the period 1998 to 2000, Pownceby was convicted of four violent assaults. One of these assaults was committed against an unnamed woman.
