By Barry Leabourn

Media coverage is a two-edged sword.

Boxing is a sport that often attracts media attention for all the wrong reasons. There is no better example than in 2022, when the Jameson Belt and several other trophies including the Ted Morgan Cup, were stolen in transit from Dunedin to Whanganui for the Boxing New Zealand National Championships

The stolen Jameson Belt story attracted a wave of media attention while the National Championships received scant publicity in spite of several media releases.

The Jameson Belt has a history and back story that the media had no idea about, and they quickly moved on to something else when the Jameson Belt story ran cold.

Here is the back story of the Jameson Belt presentation and Jack O’Sullivan who was the first to be presented with the Jameson Belt.

A New Zealand Truth newspaper article printed in 1927 gave an insight into the presentation of the Jameson Belt (It is interesting to observe the journalistic style of the 1920s).

“The firm of John Jameson and sons, Ltd, Bow Street Distillery, Dublin; following in the footsteps of the 'NZ Truth' has offered the NZ Boxing Council a belt to be fought at the NZ Championships each year's”.

“D Jameson, who represents the firm in New Zealand, is a keen boxing enthusiast and it his desire to see scientific boxing further into prominence. The belt will not be won outright, but will be awarded to the most scientific boxer each year to be held for twelve months. The winner will be presented with a special medal to commemorate his success”. 

“It now only remains for the NZ Boxing Council to officially accept this generous offer”. 

The first boxer to have his name engraved on the Jameson Belt was Auckland bantamweight Jack O'Sullivan who won the 8 stone 7 pound national title in Invercargill during August, 1927.

Just eight weight divisions were on offer at the Invercargill national championships. Boxers who had turned 14 years of age were eligible to compete in the open competition.

Prior to World War II, the Auckland and Wellington provincial titles ranked only behind a national crown in significance. O'Sullivan came to the Invercargill championship ring with the 1923 Auckland flyweight title and the 1924 Auckland bantamweight championship, amongst his string of victories.

Ring rust after a two-year break from the sport quickly disappeared when he knocked out James Evans from Manawatu in his first contest in Invercargill.

Next up O’Sullivan squared off with Canterbury pugilist, Percy Hawes, who had also recorded a knock out victory in his first bout. A points victory propelled the Aucklander into the semi-final where he faced C Brosnahan who was listed as being from Christchurch. A press report described his points win coming after three hard fought rounds. The Auckland boxer was said to be more aggressive and bored in repeatedly.

O'Sullivan met Wellington representative, Harold Larsen, to decide the 1927 bantamweight crown. 

The Southland Times newspaper reported: “The crowd was caught with surprise at the conclusion of the last bout of the tournament when it was announced that the Jameson Belt boxer, had been awarded to J O'Sullivan, Auckland, winner of the bantamweight title on the unanimous recommendation of the referees and judges".

“He (O'Sullivan) certainly gave a good exhibition from the point of view of science. In fact, after he was awarded the bout against Larsen, he was the only logical contender for the (Jameson) belt. Any other logical contender for the belt, had forfeited their chances by being defeated or knocking their opponent out in such quick order, that they were unable to give a sufficiently satisfactory or lengthy exhibition of their skill.

“Before meeting Larsen, the Aucklander had successively to dispose of such good men as Evans (Manawatu), Hawse (Westport) and Brosnahan (Christchurch) and in each case he had a much more clear-cut victory than he did in the final”.

Postscript: At the conclusion of the BNZ 2007 National Championships held on the North Shore of Auckland, the highlight of the prize giving presentations was the presence of Mr Dave O’Sullivan, who was a son of Jack O’Sullivan, the first winner of the Jameson Belt, some eighty years prior.

Dave O’Sullivan was a legendary thoroughbred  horse trainer, who kindly accepted an invitation to present the Jameson Belt (to middleweight champion Joe Blackbourn), eight decades after his father won the inaugural most scientific award.

There was great delight in the Blackbourn camp, when Dave O’Sullivan presented the 2007 James Belt winner with a large framed photograph of his father in fighting attire, on behalf of the O’Sullivan family.

Photo: Joe Blackbourn and his coach Russell Oliver.

Photo credit: The Post.

Article added: Monday 04 May 2026