BOXING - Old foes front up By Peter Thorley

Sport throws up some strange alliances - some of them turn into lifelong friendships while others are fleeting, but remain in our minds long afterwards. I got invited to a reunion of two old boxing foes, who met up for the first time in over four decades in Kamo.
When former Australian heavyweight boxing champion Athol McQueen visited New Zealand for the first time since his boxing heyday, one of his aims to track down his former Kiwi opponent Bill Kini - not for a rematch, but a catch-up.
McQueen and his wife Gloria, count themselves fortunate to have met with Johnny Logan, another former heavyweight opponent, in Greymouth, which led to information about the Kini's Kamo location.
McQueen and Kini, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, went toe-to-toe in the ring on two occasions in their successful careers and they got together last week to reminisce about old times and swap more recent stories.
"We had two fights against each other and we won one each and we've decided that we'll have the decider today," McQueen declared with a trademark chuckle.
Kini added: "It's great to see him, though - he hasn't changed a bit."
The Kinis were thrilled at seeing their unexpected Australian guests and the two former opponents shared an obvious bond that they both expressed in an easy banter between them.
The 66-year-old Australian had 81 fights over his lengthy amateur career, losing just 16 of them, one of them to Kini in 1963 and another - which he rates as the highlight of his career - a famous defeat by heavyweight legend Joe Frazier in a second round bout at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
"I made two mistakes that day, one was getting in the ring with Joe Frazier and the other was getting up after he knocked me down," McQueen laughs.
But McQueen gave no thought to giving up at the time. He stood up after being knocked down in the first round and then got ahead in the fight by knocking down Frazier twice in the next two rounds - a scarcely credible achievement.
"It was the first time for him, he'd never been off his feet before and he's often given me a mention in Ring Magazine and other interviews he's done, as the hardest opponent he'd ever come across," McQueen said.
McQueen was 23 at the time and had been selected for the Australian Olympic team as their heavyweight. The bout against Frazier was as far as he got in the competition. Frazier got up both times after hitting the canvas and then knocked McQueen down a second time, with 47 seconds of the fight to go.
"I've got a photo of me on my haunches looking at the referee for the count of eight but the referee, a Pole, stopped the fight instead of letting me get back up and continue the fight - at least it would have gone to a split decision then," McQueen said.
Frazier went on to win the gold medal and would later beat Muhammed Ali for the world heavyweight belt, while McQueen returned to his farm at Kyogle in northern New South Wales and continued his amateur career.
"If the draw had gone another way I might have come home with a bronze or a silver medal because no one could handle Frazier," he said.
McQueen doesn't rate boxing in the "same street" as when he and Kini used to box, saying the sport is dominated by money and showmanship - which used to be reserved for wrestling in their day.
The two former heavyweights finally decided against a rematch in Kamo and McQueen returned to Kyogle this week, leaving fond memories and firm friends back in Whangarei.