Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has sung the praises of Alex Winwood in the Parliament following the 25-year-old's coming of age win in Perth on Friday.
The member for Canning in WA's south-west and Winwood's hometown Mandurah joined in on the groundswell of support behind the Noongar boxer with his member's statement in the lower house on Monday.
"We've got a lot of young sporting talent in Canning. One of our best took centre stage at the weekend, and that was local Indigenous man Alex Winwood," Mr Hastie said.
In just his second professional fight, Winwood was dominant against former world champion and experienced fighter seven years his senior to claim the WBC light heavyweight international title with fourth round knockout in devastating fashion.
The shadow minister for defence drew attention to his progression as an amateur, Olympic and Commonwealth Games campaigns and training under Brian Sartor at Mandurah's Eureka Boxing Club.
Winwood's success and commitment were heralded within the walls of government as both a future star of Australian sport and proud Indigenous man.
"His success hasn't come easily. A good boxer must be able to take a punch, and he's had his setbacks. In 2016, Alex narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Rio Olympic Games. But he didn't let that stop him," Mr Hastie said.
"Alex spent the next four years in training, eventually qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and, later, the 2022 Commonwealth Games."
"He made headlines as the first Indigenous Australian announced to represent our country at the Tokyo Olympics and became a fan favourite when he performed a traditional Indigenous dance during the opening ceremony.
"His win at the weekend is yet another impressive achievement. On behalf of all of my electorate, we look forward to seeing him become the world champion."
Winwood's triumph on Friday is just an early step towards grasping a world title belt within six professional fights in unprecendented time, one less than current Australian record holder holder Jeff Fenech who reached the feat in seven.
An International champion belt falls shy of world title honours, though for Winwood, it's something to add to in aspiration to match a First Nations icon of yesteryear.
"No other Indigenous fighter has won a WBC title, other than Lionel Rose," Winwood told NITV.
"If we can get that one into the collection because, mate, I love the way this looks already, that would be the cherry on top."
Winwood is continuing preparations for his next fight at his new base on NSW/Queensland border with trainer Angelo Hyder.
His next bout is due to be scheduled for the coming months.