Ringmaster Meehan keeps boxing on
Meehan said he does it to help keep kids on the straight and narrow.
There’s not much Billy Meehan hasn’t done in boxing, so it was fitting he was recognised for his countless hours of devotion to the sport.
Palmerston North’s Meehan was awarded the Brian O’brien Trophy at the national boxing championships at Rotorua at the weekend, which is awarded for outstanding service to New Zealand boxing.
He has been involved in the sport for nearly 50 years, as a fighter, coach and administrator, and while he was reluctant about being nominated at first, he said it was an honour to win.
‘‘It’s pretty impressive,’’ the 56-year-old Meehan said. ‘‘I’m pretty pleased about it.’’
Meehan started boxing when he was 8 at the Kiwi Boxing Club in Palmerston North and had about 300 fights as an amateur. In that time he won nine New Zealand featherweight titles and represented New Zealand from 1980 to 1990.
He reached the quarterfinals of the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and of the King’s Cup in Bangkok in 1984, won a silver medal at the 1983 Commonwealth championships in Belfast, when he lost in the final to a Nigerian who was No 6 in the world, won an Australian Games gold medal in 1981 and numerous Oceania medals.
He was nominated for three Olympic Games but never chosen.
In 1985 he won the Jamieson Belt for New Zealand’s most scientific boxer. Other Manawatu¯ fighters to have won the belt were Billy’s uncle Danny and Trevor Shailer.
Once he finished fighting he started Meehan’s Boxing Club in his back yard. Once he was overrun with children there, he shifted to Matipo St, then Bourke St, before moving to their current location on the corner of Rangitı¯kei St and Walding St about eight years ago.
He has trained 37 national champions and multiple New Zealand representatives, including Angus Donaldson, who was ranked 11th in the world and Marie-hau Benton(no 6).
Meehan has been president of the Manawatu Boxing Association for 16 years, been on the New Zealand Coaches Association since 2002, has been president since 2004, has been a coach educator for 11 years and did four years on the Boxing New Zealand executive committee.
He has been the national female coach and was the New Zealand elite male coach from 2006 to 2010. He has recently started coaching with the New Zealand team again.
The award was given to him because of all the hours he voluntarily puts into the sport.
Meehan said he does it to help keep kids on the straight and narrow and encourage them into sport. If some children can’t afford the fees, he will give them a scholarship.
A sport lecturer at Te Wa¯ nanga o Aotearoa, Meehan served two terms on the Palmerston North City Council, and runs the Palmerston North Boys’ High School boxing competition, the only school to do so. He also gets stuck into running tournaments.
Other Manawatu¯ winners of the award are stalwarts Malcolm Nicol, who runs the Palmerston North Boxing Club, and Allan Harvey of Foxton.
Both Nicol and Harvey are life members of the New Zealand Boxing Council.
Meehan is running another Make a Difference Fight Night at the Arena in December. He ran one in 2013 to raise money for a school scholarship and mentoring programme for at-risk youth.
Meehan took a young team to the national championships and won three silvers medals with Alex Wagner, Damon Meehan and Nakeita Jamieson. He had two other fighters there in Ruby Tufuga and Kaeya Waruparakuka.