In memoriam Dr. John McKay

The Boxing World mourns Dr. John McKay, a New Zealander, their legendary coach, who passed away at the age of 80 in the city of Auckland in the recent days.

New Zealand’s former boxing coach and manager supported Team New Zealand in three editions of the Olympic Games, five Commonwealth Games, three World Boxing Championships and several other competitions.

Dr. John McKay was in the corner as a coach when Michael Kenny won the Commonwealth Games at the Auckland 1990 edition and he supported from the ringside one of the Kiwi boxing icons, David Tua, who claimed a bronze medal at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.

He coached Team New Zealand from 1988 until 1993, and again from 1997 until 2000 and during this period three of his boxers reached the top-three world amateur rankings. He supported David Light also in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

He was also one of the former Presidents of Boxing New Zealand and he supported the country’s boxing life in the previous nearly 50 years.

Besides to his impressive and outstanding work in New Zealand, he became the head coach of Boxing Scotland in 2003. He worked in Scotland until 2009 and built up the next generations of boxers and coaches in the European country.

He had an amazing career in the medical field especially in immunology and he worked as scientist in Sweden, Great Britain, United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The Boxing Family will never forget his passion for our beloved sport, his enthusiasm and his nice personality who served New Zealand until this August.

May his soul will rest in eternal peace in New Zealand.