Kitione Lave

Kitione Takitau Lavemai (16 April 1934 – 2 June 2006), who fought under the name Kitione Lave, was a Tongan heavyweight boxer from the island of Hunga, Vava'u and Kotu, Ha'apai. At the age of 18 he became the South Pacific heavyweight champion and in 1956 he, unsuccessfully, challenged Joe Bygraves for the vacant Commonwealth title. A heavy hitting fighter, with the vast majority of his victories ending in knockouts, he was known as The Tongan Torpedo. After retiring from boxing he had a brief career as a professional wrestler.

Personal history Lave was born in the island of Hunga, Vava'u, Tonga in 1934. In 1953 he travelled to New Zealand and set himself up in Auckland. As well as fighting professionally, Lave also found work as a gardener at the Auckland residence of Queen Sālote Tupou III. In 1955 his boxing took him to Great Britain, where he met school teacher Patricia Gee. The two were married in 1957 and they had one daughter, also Patricia. While in Britain Lave joined the Royal Air Force, and served for some time in Singapore. After retiring from boxing, whilst in Britain and Singapore, he took up professional wrestling. Once he had completed his time with the RAF, Lave became a successful nightclub owner running an establishment in Sheffield. He and Patricia moved to New Zealand in 1971 where he attempted to run a casino, but with little success. Lave died after a long illness at a rest home in Beach Haven in 2006.

Boxing career

Early career Kitione Lave began his boxing career as a teenager on the island of Vava'u, Tonga. His first recorded fight took place on Vava'u where, at the age of 16, he won a three round fight on points. By February 1952 Lave had seven fights under his belt, having lost only one. He then moved to Fiji, where in August 1952 he beat Semi Galoa with a last round knockout. After two more successful bouts, Lave was matched against Fijian Miliano for the South Pacific heavyweight title. The contest took place on 7 March 1953 in the town of Ba and was scheduled for 12 rounds. Lave knocked out his opponent in the fifth round to take his first belt. He defended this title on 13 April 1953 in Fiji through another knockout victory in the second round against Inoke Davu.

In June 1953 Lave travelled to New Zealand on the steamship Tofua. Within a month he was boxing at the Town Hall in Auckland and quickly became a regular fighter at the venue. Described as a "boxing promoter's dream drawcard", Lave was young, good looking and was able to knockout opponents with either hand, and in his first three months in Auckland he fought six times, winning all of them within the distance. The last of these six fights was against Don Mullett, the New Zealand heavyweight champion, who he stopped in the seventh round through a cut eye. In 1955 Lave travelled to England to continue his career, under the management of Woodcock, where he was dubbed The Tongan Terror. He was given a baptism of fire when his first opponent being Commonwealth Heavyweight champion Johnny Williams. It was an inauspicious start to his European career as Lave was stopped via a technical knockout in the first round. He wrestled in Sheffield where he owned his night club, and while in Singapore he was managed by Emile Czaja, fighting alongside the likes of Prince Kumali.