[Tom Heeney, heavyweight boxer]

Tom Heeney, New Zealand heavyweight boxing champion of the 1920s, talks about his boxing career.

He recalls his first fight in Gisborne, which he won by a knock-out, and his second fight, which was professional. He lists some of the fighters he boxed against in New Zealand and then went to Australia.

Then he went to England with Fred Donnelly and was sparring partner with Tommy Gibbons who was training to fight an American, Bloomfield.

He went to New York and had some preliminary fights. He knocked out Charlie Andersen and from then on his reputation was established. He says he received a lot of support from Irish-American boxing fans, because of his Irish heritage.

He explains how he came to fight against Gene Tunney for the world title, and the infamous 'thumb in the eye' incident which he dscussed with Tunney when they met up during World War II.