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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Three days of intense competition distributed numerous 2026 North Island Golden Gloves titles to gyms from Whangārei to Wellington.
The holiday weekend that celebrates the English monarchy is the traditional date of the North and South Island Golden Gloves.
By my reckoning, this was nearly 30 Golden Gloves I have been ringside for, since my first at the now demolished Taupō Town Hall.
In addition to claiming a New Zealand Island title, the best of the best at the North Island championships earn a place in the North Island team that will take on their Southern counterparts at the New Zealand Golden Gloves next month.
Much as changes have happened over the past 42 years of Golden Glove competition, things stay the same.
Women’s boxing, which was introduced in New Zealand in 1997, has changed the face of our sport. There is now a place on the Olympic stage for the best women boxers in Aotearoa to dream and target as their biggest boxing goal.
Nearly 50 women boxers converged on the three days of action at Tauranga Girls’ College, with the carrot of a trip to NZ Golden Gloves in Christchurch high on their agenda.
Judging at the boxing tournaments has gone the full 360-degree circle since my involvement in the noble sport, which kicked off in 1987.
Forty years ago, three judges would score a fight, allocating 20 points to the winner and 19 points or less to his opponent, after each of the three rounds.
Blatant cheating at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul was the catalyst for change to the universal scoring system.
Computer scoring was introduced and an extra two judges (to five) were added to major tournaments worldwide.
Senior bouts were changed from three by three-minute rounds to four, then later five two-minute rounds.
Nothing really changed, with corrupt boxing officials finding a way to circumvent the new regulations.
The 2016 Olympics in Rio revealed a web of corruption. The McLaren report, which investigated the cheating in Rio, revealed systematic corruption, bout manipulation, and financial mismanagement by the International Boxing Association.
The IBA was kicked out of the Olympic movement by the IOC and boxing was to be dropped from the 2028 Olympics onwards.
Only the formation of a new boxing body of control, World Boxing, formed initially by European, North American, Australia and New Zealand, reinstated boxing as a continuing Olympic sport.
The full circle came when World Boxing reinstated the original winner of each round’s decisions, with “ten point must” where the winner receives ten points and their opponent nine points or less. In the event of judges scoring a round a draw, both boxers receive 10 points.
Being ringside on two of the three days of Golden Gloves boxing action rekindled my passion for the sport, which had waned in recent years with the threat of boxing being kicked out of Olympic competition.