Days of future past

Nelson McKnight was a Hamilton welterweight boxer of the 1920s and

1930s. Whether he won or lost it resulted in criticism. A ten round decision against Salvino Jamito in October of

1925, at Hamilton’s Theatre Royal, was, for example, ‘‘met with dissent’’, McKnight deemed ‘‘the superior boxer’’, his opponent the better ‘‘fighter’’.

His following two bouts, a draw and a loss in Cambridge and Te Aroha, respectively, did not dissuade McKnight from trying his luck in Australia. In May of 1927 he took on George Pringle in Newcastle, knocking Pringle down in the seventh round with a right hook. However, referee Sammy Chapman seemed determined to declare the bout a ‘‘no contest’’. When Pringle got up, only to meet the canvas a second time, felled by ‘‘a left hook to the body, following a right to head’’, Chapman refused to accept the obvious.

Returning home, it was widely reported that McKnight had damaged his hands in the last of his Australian losses. Undaunted, he fought again in Hamilton in September of 1927, losing on points to Jim Broadfoot, an inferior opponent who was said to ‘‘lack a real [knockout] punch’’.

Our man then set sail for the USA. His record there is open to dispute. The NZ Truth, drawing on letters written by McKnight himself, claimed the New Zealander triumphed over the ‘‘coloured’’ Winks Jenkins in Martinez, California. The official record suggests otherwise. McKnight lost five out of six bouts in North America, a consolation draw coming in Vancouver.

Amazingly, he returned with a reputation as a ‘‘knock out artist’’. Promotion for his fight against Artie Hay, in May of 1928 at the Auckland Town Hall, stressed his ‘‘vigorous’’ nature.

Unfortunately, the billing proved misplaced. McKnight was controversially counted out in the 14th round after going down to Hay’s right cross.

There was ‘‘an uproar of surprise and dissension’’ from the ‘‘very large crowd’’, especially after McKnight demonstrated his willingness to continue with a ‘‘sprightly pirouette’’.

Poor Nelson had little luck. In 1934, long retired, he was a victim of police brutality, allegedly resisting arrest when caught after hours in a Wellington hotel.