Controversy swirls around Boxing New Zealand with several top boxers pulling out of Commonwealth Games contention while an investigation into the organisation and its head coach Billy Meehan continues. With Meehan still in his role, Mei Heron reports on the multiple allegations against him, and the frustration of the athletes who await the Sport Integrity Commission’s findings.
At just 19, Tasmyn Benny made history in 2018 as the first female boxer to win a Commonwealth Games medal. Five years later, she quit the sport she loved.
“I feel let down,” she says. “I should not have been treated like this. Especially with everything that happened with the cycling,” she says, referring to the establishment of the Sport Integrity Commission in the wake of the Olivia Podmore tragedy. “There should be better pathways and more support for other athletes.”
In 2023, during an Olympic qualifying tournament in Solomon Islands, Benny says she and another boxer were left in tears after a disagreement over pre-fight preparations.
According to Benny, the national coach Billy Meehan yelled at them right before their crucial bout.
Meehan is also a local politician, serving as councillor for Palmerston North’s Te Hirawanui general ward.
“We were both crying before our fight because we were upset. I was like, 'what the hell have I got myself into? This is not how I’m going to win',” says Benny.
She went on to lose, and no New Zealand boxers ended up qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games.
“I felt defeated before I got in the ring.”
1News understands at least four athletes have made complaints to the Sport Integrity Commission about Billy Meehan. Coaches and referees have also been interviewed.
Goal to create 'safe, fair, inclusive' environments
The Sport Integrity Commission was set up in 2024 after a string of damning reviews into the country’s elite sporting environments in the wake of the death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore who took her own life.
The commission’s role is to “ensure sport and recreation in New Zealand environments are safe, fair and inclusive” with responsibilities set out in the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act 2023.
It opened an official investigation into Boxing New Zealand in May last year. Since then, Meehan has remained in his position as head coach.
Athletes and coaches tell 1News that the length of time the investigation is taking has prompted them to speak out, because the lack of progress is having a tangible effect on this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with athletes pulling out.
Tasmyn Benny told 1News that Meehan targeted athletes and boxers he didn’t like and she has refused to continue with amateur boxing while he’s in charge.
“To make himself feel better, he likes to put others down and I think he did it with all of us fighters,” she says.
Fellow Commonwealth Games boxer Emile Richardson agrees.
He left Meehan’s gym in 2019 to fight with another coach but, like all amateur boxers, is still required to work with Meehan as National Coach.
“It was like he didn’t want me to succeed,” Richardson says. “He’d have a real blunt attitude towards me, kind of like undermine me in ways."
Despite being number one in New Zealand in his weight division at the time, Richardson says he was unexpectedly dropped from the 2022 Commonwealth Games selection team. He appealed to the New Zealand Olympic Committee and that decision was overturned.
But he says a similar thing happened again as he sought to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, this time in favour of a fighter he’d beaten four times.
Richardson was again surprised not to make the cut.
“I feel robbed. Beyond disappointed,” he says.
This time he didn’t appeal the decision.
“It's just so stressful. You don't want to go through it again,” he says. “We fought for a bit and that's why then we ended up going through the Sport Integrity Commission.”
The complaints against Meehan
Despite multiple allegations against him, head coach Billy Meehan has remained in charge. (Source: 1News)
1News understands that the complaints against Meehan received by the Sport Integrity Commission include being drunk on trips, making inappropriate comments, bullying and favouritism.
The Commission refused to confirm the nature of the complaints or answer questions from 1News about the investigation. However a spokesperson emailed a statement saying: "We take every complaint seriously... Timeframes for resolving complaints vary and depend on the nature, complexity and unique circumstances of each case. No matter the situation, we are committed to a process that is fair and thorough."
Both Boxing New Zealand and Billy Meehan have said they won’t comment while an investigation is ongoing.
'He just gets to carry on’
The enduring investigation is now having an effect on other top boxers, including New Zealand’s top light flyweight Emma Nesbitt.
In a letter to the Commission seen by 1News, Nesbitt’s coach Isaac Peach writes that “her aspiration of representing New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games has effectively come to an end — not due to her performance or conduct, but due to concerns surrounding the coach in charge”.
“Due to the seriousness of the allegations that have been raised… we have made the extremely difficult decision to withdraw Emma Nesbitt from this pathway,” it said.
Peach questioned why Billy Meehan has been allowed to stay in charge during the investigation, taking a team away to the World Champs in September last year.
Tasmyn Benny says it makes her angry. “I've had to stop everything like because of him and nothing's happened,” she says. “He just gets to carry on.”
1News is aware of at least one other top New Zealand boxer who has also pulled out of contention for this year’s Commonwealth Games New Zealand team to fight in the games for another country.
However, that boxer’s coach says they are too afraid to speak out on the issue.
Eleven concerned coaches
A total of 11 coaches have also spoken to 1News anonymously, all of them expressing concerns about the current situation in Boxing New Zealand.
“There's a great deal of fear,” one said. “And it's not fear for the coaches themselves… what bothers them the most is that if you do speak out, their boxers sometimes suffer as far as selection goes.”
Another said coaches feared speaking out would lead to their boxers being “mistreated”.
“This is how these guys operate. If they don't like the coaches, they punish the athletes,” they said.
Others have questioned the hierarchy of Boxing New Zealand. With Billy Meehan’s wife, Cathy Meehan being the president they feel there's no appropriate avenue to raise their concerns with the organisation.
“They have created a dictatorship to serve personal egos instead of developing a culture and environment that can consistently achieve international success,” one coach said. “They have created a culture that's destroyed many dreams.”
Emile Richardson is one of those boxers who feels his dreams were shattered.
“I would love to pursue this year's Commonwealth Games and the next Olympics and stuff, but yeah, after what I've dealt with, it's not worth it. Which is a shame, big shame,” he says.
While he and Tasmyn Benny still hope the Sport Integrity Commission can implement changes at Boxing New Zealand, the lack of progress has left them feeling sceptical.
Asked why she decided to speak up, Benny, a mother of one, says she thinks about her young daughter.
“I don't want to do this just for me. I'm doing this for other young girls that are going to be in the team or other young boxes. I don’t want this to ever happen again.”
Tasmyn Benny and Emile Richardson both have ambitions to go professional with their boxing, but their hopes of wearing the Silver Fern again are now a distant dream.
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