Kiwi boxer told RNZ that an alleged culture of sexism, favouritism and bullying drove her to walk away<\/a> from a promising amateur career.<\/p>\nCommonwealth Games medalist Tasmyn Benny said Meehan killed her passion for the sport.<\/p>\n
Described as a ‘boys club’ rife with verbal abuse, sexually inappropriate behaviour and misogyny, Benny said she was made to feel powerless and without a voice in the environment.<\/p>\n
“You can’t really go to Boxing New Zealand because it’s all made of his family and friends. They’re all in the same circle,” she told RNZ.<\/p>\n
After winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games in 2018, Benny said she noticed a shift at the organisation.<\/p>\n
“All the management and coaching changed for New Zealand boxing and that’s when everything went downhill. Billy was in charge the whole time.”<\/p>\n
Meehan has not responded to the allegations. The Integrity Commission has defended the delay in a resolution.<\/p>\n
![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4K73HYA_CHE_KENNEALLY_1610_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBilly Meehan.
\nPhoto: Supplied\/ NZ Boxing\n<\/p>\n
Wharehinga served four terms on Gisborne’s council – two as deputy mayor – before stepping away from local government earlier this year to concentrate on his business interests and reinvigorating boxing in Tai R\u0101whiti.<\/p>\n
The respected referee and judge thanked his colleagues on the Boxing New Zealand executive for “entrusting me with this important responsibility,” Wharehinga said.<\/p>\n
“The first thing I’d like to do as incoming president is pay tribute to Cathy for her tireless, selfless service to boxing in Aotearoa. Cathy is a tremendous kaitiaki of the sport and will continue to be an important contributor to our future success.<\/p>\n
“I’m incredibly passionate about boxing. It has been a huge part of my life so to be appointed to this role at an important time for the sport is a huge honour,” he said.<\/p>\n
Local businessman and Otago Boxing Association member Bryan Usher has been appointed vice president, replacing Mark Fuller.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boxing gloves Photo: supplied Former Gisborne deputy mayor Josh Wharehinga has been appointed as the new president of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[328,703,49,48,327,44,329,326,324,325,82],"class_list":["post-485332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-audio","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-current-affairs","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Boxing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4LBBO08_Boxing_Generic_NZ_jpg_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n