Gareth Jones’ remarkable research to collate every single Welsh National Champion for over a century
Boxing plays a vital role for so many across Wales, with countless figures in our community showing their love and dedication to the sport in so many ways.
Esteemed Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, however, has shown his passion in a unique way.
Covering boxing for a host of outlets including the Western Mail, the Echo, Boxing News, and the BBC during his career, Jones has looked back through time throughout his career to collate every single Welsh National Champion since 1910.
The comprehensive record of Welsh Champions has been no less than half a century in the making, a process spanning Jones’ whole career.
He has written about boxing for the entirety alongside sports such as football, rugby and cricket, but for the past 20 years has covered solely boxing.
“The passion for boxing stems from my father,” he told Welsh Boxing when we sat down to chat with him recently.
“We used to listen to Dai Dower fights on the radio; there wasn’t any TV, or we didn’t have one, anyway.”
As we head into a weekend where another set of Welsh champions will be crowned and added to Jones’ record, we spoke about the process of collating all that information.
“The first Welsh Boxing National Championships I actually covered as a reporter was won by a teenager called Colin Jones!
“So, I’ve been going to them for a long time, and I’ve obviously collected the results of all those recent ones. The older ones, I’ve acquired through looking in and pouring many hours over old newspapers and libraries. It’s taken 50 years.
“It’s the first experience that any boxer has of competitive, open draw boxing, whether it’s as a schoolboy or up to elite,” Jones responded when asked about the significance of the National Championships.
“It’s different from having a fight made for you on a club show, for example. You have to be good enough to take whatever the draw offers, and that’s how you really see that there’s a particular talent there that could go on and do something special.”
Despite having seen so many fights take place and medals won, Jones barely hesitated when recollecting the best he witnessed at the National Championships.
“The best I’ve ever seen at the National Championships would be the best I've ever seen from Wales in my lifetime, and that’s Joe Calzaghe.
“But the first time I saw Joe Calzaghe fight at the National Championships, he got beaten by Michael Smyth! So, the very first time I saw him, he lost! It was a very good fight, though, with Michael Smyth himself being a very good fighter.
“But I’m not basing my appreciation of Calzaghe on what he did in the amateur rounds, even though he did go on to win three British amateur title at different weights.”
A fascinating archive of boxing memory, Jones went on to recall standout moments in his career, particularly re-envisaging a certain British title match-up in which Colin Jones knocked out Kirkland Laing for the British title.
“He’d been outboxed for nearly nine rounds,” Jones narrated, “when he suddenly came towards me at ringside smiling, and in the next 30 seconds he just obliterated Kirkland Laing. I’ve never seen a look like it on a boxer’s face.
“Another memory that comes close to that was far more recent, when Joe Cordina knocked out Japanese champion Kenichi Ogawa to win the World title at the Cardiff International Arena in 2022.
“Those are the two single moments that are most memorable for me, while the best fight and display of boxing I ever saw would be Calzaghe against Jeff Lacy.”
The final weekend of April will see another crop of boxers look to emulate the achievements of some of Welsh boxing’s biggest names over the years, with Jones’ record to be added to.
Welsh Boxing would like to thank Gareth Jones for the immense work that has gone into collecting this record of Welsh National Champions over the years.
Gareth has kindly allowed Welsh Boxing to provide his records of the Elite Champions and these can be found in the Download section of the website.