With the 2023 National Championships moving to the realms of Boxing New Zealand history, gazing back one hundred years to the 1923 National Titles, shows the advancement in equality in our sport

Boxing was a male only affair a century ago, both in the ring and the spectators in attendance, with ladies consigned to kitchen duties.

Just eight open divisions, at the 1923 New Zealand Boxing Association National Championships contested at His Majesty's Theatre in Dunedin, vividly contrasted with the male and female age-group and elite divisions at the 2023 Nationals held in Tauranga.

The 1923 National Championships produced one of our sports history makers, in featherweight Charlie Purdy, who represented Auckland at the national title deciders. Purdy’s 1923 featherweight title, followed the same title the preceding year, with his first national amateur crown coming in the bantamweight ranks in 1921.  Such was the skill and fighting qualities of the Auckland pugilist, that he crossed the ditch to win the Australasian titles in the same period.

Charley Purdy, became the first New Zealand boxer to fight at the Olympic Games with his selection for the 1924 Paris Olympics.  He was adjudged to have been out-pointed by local French idol Marcel Thorley, although many at ringside were convinced that Purdy had prevailed. He made amends by annexing the lightweight title at the Táil Teann games in Dublin, along with the Guinness & Coy trophy for the boxer of the championship, before returning home.

Purdy, would go on to have a 78 fight professional career over a ten year period, after turning pro in 1924. While the vast majority of professional boxes hang up their gloves with losses overtaking victories in the later stages of their career – not so Charley Purdy, who won ten of his last eleven bouts (More about the professional career of the Auckland boxer in a later edition).

A citation for Tommy Griffiths from Otago said “Tommy Griffiths was rated one of the cleverest amateur boxers ever developed in New Zealand and he went on to chalk up wins against the best professional featherweights in Australia and New Zealand”. Griffith New Zealand Boxing Association role of honour, would include the 1922 flyweight title, double bantamweight success in the following two years, before signing off his amateur career with the 1924 featherweight title.

Of the 1923 champions, only Allan McCormick and Dick Pascoe failed to win more than one national crown

Jim Leckie,  from the prominent Otago boxing family, added the 1924 light heavyweight title to his 1923 12 stone 10Ib division win , before earning the open weight heavyweight division gold medal in 1927. Greymouth Middleweight, Laurie O’Neill, won back to back titles with Otago’s Lauchie McDonald adding the welterweight title to his 1922 lightweight division victory.

Another of the Leckie family to experience multiple national title triumph was Johnnie Leckie. His 1923 flyweight title, was followed by a loss the following year in the flyweight title decider. He would go on to have two big battles with the ‘fighting fireman’ Tommy Donovan in the featherweight ranks. The 1926 Napier nationals, saw Leckie earn the title honours with Donovan reversing the result in Invercargill the following year.

The 1926 and 1927 amateur battles were just the entrée to the pair’s meetings in the professional ranks. Leckie and Donovan met on six occasions in the professional ranks, with Leckie holding a 2-1 advantage, with a remarkable three draws on their all-time ledger cards. (The pair also demand a look their professional endeavours in a later edition on the BNZ website). 

1923 National Champions

Heavyweight                             Allan McCormick (Ashburton)

Light Heavyweight                    Jim Leckie (Otago)

Middleweight                            Laurie O’Neill (Greymouth)

Welterweight                             Lauchie McDonald (Otago)

Lightweight                               Dick Pascoe (Greymouth)

Featherweight                            Charlie Purdy (Auckland)

Bantamweight                           Tommy Griffiths (Otago)

Flyweight                                  Johnnie Leckie (Otago)

Article added: Wednesday 02 August 2023