Where does the expression ‘to box clever’ come from, and who ever heard it spoken the way originally coined?

I remember using the expression in a press release when I started in this game 18 years ago. I can’t remember where or when I heard it, only that I first heard it as a pun, and I used it as a pun too.

For example: “XYZ Corp boxes clever with new packaging” (i.e. it’s new packaging might be a box instead of the more conventional bag).

Nowadays we still see that expression popping up in tired old press releases (oops, hope there aren’t any on this site!). But I still don’t know where the expression comes from, and I bet none of the people who now overwork it know either. I presume it’s a - well, a boxing expression. But I’ve never heard it used in that way.

In fact, I just checked Google, and there are around 11,200 results for the phrase “boxes clever”.

And out of the first hundred results, over 95 were that hackneyed pun, and the remaining few were just where ‘box’ and ‘clever’ just happened to run together [e.g. “…or using old boxes (clever idea, …” ]