Samoan boxers, Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali and Marion Faustino Ah Tong, who initiated the ‘pass the ulafala challenge’ to pay homage to their homeland and its people, say it was their way of showing support for Samoans in these uncertain times.

Plodzicki-Faoagali told Samoa Observer that the idea came about when they discussed the different challenges that's been trending on social media and they decided to do the 'pass the ulafala challenge’ and they asked a few of their Samoan boxing mates to join in. 

"The reason we made the "ulafala" video was to show our support to our people back home in Samoa to keep fighting and never give up during these tough times. With our people losing jobs and our tourist industry suffering from the lack of tourists it must be hard on our economy,” said Plodzicki-Faoagali. "So, it was my Samoan teammate Marion Ah Tong and myself that thought it'd be a great idea to put together a video to express our Alofa to our people back home as well as those that we have recently seen stranded abroad and unable to travel back home due to the restrictions.” 

According to Plodzicki-Faoagali, he tried to get as many Samoan boxers involved which led to the signing up of boxing peers Mose Auimatagi, Toese Vousiutu, Eman Carlos and Maeli Liaina.

The video was posted on the Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali fan page and was shared by many Samoans and other people around the world, and shows these fighters passing the ulafala around and showing their best fighting skills. 

Plodzicki-Faoagali said he cannot wait for the borders to reopen so he and his family can visit.

"God willing one day soon all this will pass and our warrior nation gets back up and dusts itself off, and carrying on fighting to get back to hopefully some normality, and I myself can't wait to travel back home with my family to the best country in the world," he added.