Boxers are strange creatures.

Within minutes of having his face bloodied and in need of a few stitches after copping a pounding from Noosa’s Israel Kani, Melbourne’s Kerey Palmer said he wanted to fight the new Australian super-middleweight champion again.

I’m guessing many of us would say “once is enough.”

Not boxers though.

There’s always a rematch to be had.

A chance to remedy a defeat or an injustice.

“You may have beaten me once, but you won’t do it again”.

Of course, the same thing could happen to Palmer again when he gets a second shot at Kani sometime in the next three months as the contract they signed for Friday night’s title fight stipulated.

My money would be going on Kani to hand out another loss to the much younger Victorian.

Israel’s 35 but he doesn’t look it.

He’s got the body of a much younger man but the cleverness of a fighter who’s been around for a while.

Winning the Australian title in front of a Coast crowd by stopping Palmer in round five will be hard for him to top as his No.1 career highlight no matter what happens from this point of his career.

Even though he’s the new Aussie champ, he’s still ranked No.115 in the world ratings on the boxrec.com website, although he has jumped 60 places.

Kani’s first defence will probably be here on the Coast and you imagine that fight will pack them in.

The Lake Kawana Community Centre wasn’t quite at capacity on Friday night but the size of the crowd indicated that people still love the fights, even though there is probably an even larger group in society who don’t.

It’s just about the only the sport where the fans are happy for the main event not to start until after 10pm. That means the undercard bouts have been worthwhile contests – and there’s more time for some drinking.

And there’s not many sporting contests where ogling girls wearing bikinis isn’t frowned upon and sports memorabilia auctions fill in the gaps in the action.

It’s the first sports event I’ve attended that had a criminal lawyer as its naming rights sponsor.

But not the first that had music blasting away on high volume.

Boxing is never going to disappear.

Almost every year there are calls to ban it, but that would only force the sport underground.

It would still survive in some form, with less regulation than it has now.

Friday night’s show would not have been to everyone’s tastes, but if you don’t like it, it’s simple. Don’t go along.

Origin debate

Darren Lockyer’s injury woes have created a problem for the Queensland State of Origin selectors, but at least they have plenty of options if the skipper is out.

Karmichael Hunt was yesterday mooted as a potential Maroons No.6, but I can’t see the selectors taking the risk of playing him out of his normal position in Game One.

However, I expect he will be named at fullback, relegating Billy Slater to the bench at best.

The five-eighth decision comes down to Scott Prince against Greg Inglis.

Surely Prince’s outstanding form for the Titans this year will see him rewarded with a first Origin jumper since 2004, with Inglis filling a centre spot.

My Qld team: Karmichael Hunt, Israel Folau, Justin Hodges, Greg Inglis, Brent Tate, Darren Lockyer/Scott Prince, Johnathan Thurston, Dallas Johnson, Mick Crocker, Sam Thaiday, Petero Civoniceva, Cameron Smith, Ben Hannant. Reserves: Nate Myles, Jacob Lillyman, Carl Webb, Billy Slater.