Kiwi boxing commentator Mike Angove is adamant Joseph Parker's world title bout against Hughie Fury will not be moved to Samoa following a stoush regarding government funding.
It was revealed last week the New Zealand Government refused to contribute any funding for the May 6 fight, reinforcing their stance after denying any assistance for last year's world title fight against Andy Ruiz Jr.
With Duco Events director David Higgins in Apia negotiating with the Samoan government, which provided funding for Parker's fight against Ruiz Jr, a possible fight re-location to the country has been rumoured.
Angove put the idea down to a little bit of gamesmanship by the promoters.
"I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell [the fight] will go to Samoa," Angove told The AM Show on Tuesday.
"I think it's probably a bit of a red herring. Samoa would of course love to host it but the sheer logistics around doing something like that on a short lead-in period, such as we've got, and simply just shifting the whole event over there is just not doable."
However, Angove said there would be benefits to New Zealand to providing assistance so the fight could be held in Auckland.
"In terms of direct benefit for Auckland, surely a global event that is going to attract a certain amount of internal tourism, it's going to be screened to hundreds of millions of homes around the world.
"Surely that qualifies as a major event that Auckland would like to have and like to support and get behind."
A fight has been held in Samoa before with Parker fighting Jason Bergman there in 2016, but that was a far cry from a world title defence, according to Angove.
However, he wouldn't rule out Duco taking a fight there in the future.
"Personally I think there are a lot of hurdles to go through.
"The logistics would be massively different, but certainly a whole country getting behind it is a fascinating concept."