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Closing in on his eighty-second
birthday, Patrick Leonard was
born on September 22, 1935 in a
New Zealand country town called
Te Aroha, and had a firm
upbringing by Irish parents. The
family later moved to the
district of Waikowhai, Mount
Roaskill near Auckland.
This
was in the depression times, and
before World War 2, says
Leonard, one of six siblings:
four boys and two girls.
My
father took a position as a farm
manager, and we produced cream
for the local dairy factory.
From an early age I worked on
the farm with milking and
feeding horses, pigs, poultry or
anything else that turned up for
feeding."
I
went to school ten kilometers
away, and if you missed the buss
you walked. Home again, back
down to the farm for more work.
At the age of sixteen Patrick
attended College, and passed
exams, but left school to assist
his parents with the upbringing
of his brothers and sisters.
At nineteen he began working as
a laborer in the meat-slaughter
and freezing industry, and
eventually worked his way to
becoming a qualified
slaughterman and Shop Butcher.
He later worked as a Meat
Inspector, Safety and Training
Officer, Employment Officer,
Staff Training Officer, Airport
Manager, among other things,
until retiring from the
work-force at the age of
seventy.
But while still a young man, he
started boxing and had some
amateur bouts, which he admits
was of mixed success for him.
His first boxing-idol was former
World Heavyweight Champion Jack
Dempsey, who coincidentally had
his last fight exactly eight
years before Patrick was born,
September 22, 1927.
When
I started boxing, my trainer
told me I had the punch of a
heavyweight, and I was only a
welterweight. At the time I was
also Bike-Racing with great
success, and I was totally fit
at 140 Lbs.
My
boxing trainer loved one
demonstration where I was in a
corner with my hands up to
protect my face, and he would
get a heavyweight to
stomach-punch me, and I would
shuffle forward and push the
heavyweight back across the ring
to the opposite corner.
Bike-Racing
made my stomach and muscles very
hard, they had to be when riding
160 Km races. But, after a few
years my trainer took me aside
and told me that I was a
superior Bike-Racer to a boxer,
and recommended that I
concentrate on racing. I always
thought there was a collusion
somewhere!
In Bike-Racing Leonard went on
to win national titles, but had
a bad crash when he was around
twenty years old and retired
from that sport too when he went
to Palmerston North in 1957 to
concentrate on his forthcoming
exams and future thereafter.
Besides being a valuable member
of the World Boxing Federation
team, he was recently elected
president of the New Zealand
Professional Boxing Association
(NZPBA). About his introduction
to professional boxing, Leonard
explains:
I
was married in 1960, and moved
to Auckland in 1966 with my
family. There I met an old
college friend who had boxed,
and knew that I had boxed. He
explained that he was the
president of the South Pacific
Boxing Association, and asked me
if I could assist him in
officiating at boxing
demonstrations and exhibitions.
Thats
how I got my start in
professional boxing, and I am
still going strong. I was made
secretary in 1967, and only
stepped down from that position
this month, May of 2017, to
accept nomination for and be
elected President.
The
South Pacific Boxing Association
became the New Zealand
Professional Boxing Association
in 1984, and I have covered
every position in the
association.
During his time with the NZPBA,
Leonard developed the
associations policy that boxers
health, safety and welfare comes
before anything, something he is
very proud of. He has also
mentored many young boxers who
went on to become very
successful, and he is a personal
friend to current WBO
Heavyweight Champion Joseph
Parker.
In 2010 he was honored with the
Member Of The New Zealand Order
of Merit, recognizing his
services to boxing and his
community service as a Justice
of the Peace, which actually
adds MNZP after his name. He
is the first person to be given
this recognition for service to
professional boxing in New
Zealand.
So, how did he get to become a
member of the World Boxing
Federation (WBF) directory?
When
Joseph Parker fought Francois
Botha in 2013 I was introduced
to (WBF President) Howard
Goldberg, who informed me that
he had something special going
on. He later contacted me and
asked if I would accept
membership of the WBF, and
offered me to serve on the
Championship Committee, which I
respectfully and quickly
accepted.
So, it has now been around four
years since Leonard joined the
WBF, and he has no plans of
stepping down from his position
any time soon, or from being
active in professional boxing in
general. But when the time
comes, all he wants to be
remembered as is a caring
person.
I
want to be remembered as a
person who cared for boxers,
promoters and the world body I
belong to. Things has to be
right and fair for all.
And
I love to see youngsters coming
on, being trained properly as
boxers or as ring officials. I
would like to be remembered as
someone who just wanted things
to be correct and right.
Even though boxing takes up a
huge part of his time, Patrick
Leonard still finds time for his
other big fascination:
Photography. A fanatical
photographer since the age of
sixteen, he is now a facilitator
and instructor in something
called the SeniorNat Camera
Workshop.
Just because a man is close to
eighty-two years old, doesnt
mean he has to take it easy. To
Patrick Leonard, age is just a
number...
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