Ken Gamble

My eyes all closed up.

I've got blood dripping down my face.

It was the proudest moment of my life at that stage.

Your boxing career came to an end pretty quickly after that, though.

What happened?

It did, yeah.

So I was training again for the state titles, state Queensland titles in the open adult division.

But unfortunately, about a week before the titles, I got in a brawl in a pub.

Someone had a go at me, an older guy with a beard, trying to tell me that I wasn't old enough to be in the pub, something stupid.

And of course, it ended up in a fight.

I knocked him down in the pub and then I was kicked out and I went outside and I was standing on the footpath waiting for a taxi and a...

And a big guy came out, a big guy about six foot six came out and he took a king hit at me and he just swung and smacked me in the head and he opened up my left eye above my eyebrow and I was rushed to hospital with six or seven stitches in my eye because he cut it open and it bled really badly.

And then the following Monday, I walked into the trainer and took one look at me with all the stitches in my eye and it just shook his head.

And that was the last thing I remember about my boxing career because I walked out of there that day and that was it.

It was all over.

Because that injury was so bad, it was always going to be at risk of damage.

Always at risk.

Having a cut above your eye would always be a risk of opening up again during fights.

So it was kind of, you know, it was too risky.

Were you a big drinker yourself back then, Ken?