Recently I attended the funeral of John Hughes. Probably in more recent years John was known as a top Auckland Police Officer. The detective inspector was a dedicated ultra-distance athlete, having held many distance records, and in the 1950's he won the Light Middleweight Title on three occasions, from 1955 to 1957.

The following piece is from a N.Z. paper dated October 1956. "The likeable young Auckland naval artificer, Jackie Hughes, retained his light middleweight title with a maximum of evasion tempered with a minimum of aggression. The thing was that Hughes knew just when to come, and when to go.

Hughes it was who downed Maurice Tuck in the final of his division. For two rounds the Aucklander had defied the longserving West Coaster to catch and nail him.

It might rightly be said that Hughes evasive tactics, in an Olympic tournament, would not be tolerated, but this is not Olympia.

When he found the time was ripe, Hughes came at Tuck strongly in the last round, bouncing off the ropes to down the old champ with a fast right cross to the head, and then making it even more decisive by stepping into Tuck and dropping him again shortly afterwards."

From another paper in 1957. "The heavier classes–above welter-were disappointing, with navalman Jack Hughes dominating the light-middle weights to take his third consecutive title, but his constant retreat robbed his bouts of colour."

I worked next to John Hughes at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland and we had some good talks. In later years I used to run into him in Takapuna and he always stopped for a chat. Sad to see this great athlete pass away, and with a thousand mourners at it his funeral it was easy to see he was a most respected person.