Their friendship formed in unlikely circumstances

In the 1970s they were two of the biggest names in Liverpool's amateur boxing scene, but half a century later these former rivals have set their competitiveness aside.

Over the years Liverpool has produced some of the biggest names in boxing including John Conteh and, more recently, Tony Bellew. But in the 1970s on a local level the city's boxing scene was in its heyday, producing a number of fighters who became household names across the region.

One of those was Stephen Jones, 67, whose interest in boxing started amid a difficult time in his childhood. He told the ECHO: "I got bullied at school, so my uncle Ged Griffin got me into boxing. If it wasn't for him, I'd [still have] no self-confidence."

"He was the best trainer from where I lived, in Maghull. He won the trainer of the year award, he was fabulous. I used to go and sit on the wall opposite his house and watch him train Ray Steel and fighters like that, and he used to say 'Do you want to come?' "

By the time he was 17 Stephen had made his debut in the featherweight division and quickly found his feet against fellow amateurs in the local leagues and championships around Merseyside. He said: "I went to the Maple Leaf Boxing Club [in Bootle] and I had this phenomenal run of about 20 knockouts on the trot. Then I went to box for the championship and Jimmy Duncan had it."

He added: "I'd seen Jimmy the year before, it was the first time I'd seen a champion live, so I was sitting next to a friend and I said 'I want him. I want that title.' He said to me 'be careful what you wish for son'. "

After watching on from the crowd, Stephen's wish of taking on Jimmy came true in January 1977, when they came head-to-head at the Liverpool Stadium on Bixteth Street.

Anticipation grew around the city as the date of the fight grew nearer. He said: "Everybody wanted to see the local derbies on West Lancaster Championship Fight Night. But there was no trash talk in those days, just respect. I knew he was the best, but he knew I had a knock-out punch that could knock out whoever I hit cleanly

"Liverpool was blessed with derby fights like that, and the stadium was sold out. I've never known an atmosphere like it, before or since."

After a closely contested fight, Jimmy came out victorious following a points decision. Following the fight, Stephen expected the fighters to go their separate ways.

He said: "Jimmy came in [to my dressing room] afterwards and he was dead honest, he said, 'you won that, matey." I didn't feel like a winner, he didn't feel like a winner. We just bonded after that. We were pretty much mates for life and he took me under his wing and showed me the traps he sets, which I'd never learned before."

"You you can only learn in those days [by being trained], we had no YouTube, so you had to learn it by sparring with someone who was good enough to show you, and he was good enough to show me."

He continued: "We would go to training and then I would go and stay in his house on a Friday night, and then come home on a Saturday. I learned a lot because I was young, I was naïve, I was only 17, and gullible, but he's a few years older than me, so he was a bit more streetwise, and he was very protective of me, so I appreciated that. He became like a big brother to me. He was brought into my life for a reason."

After first crossing paths in their younger days, over the years the pair went on to start families of their own. Jimmy would move to London while Stephen remained on Merseyside.

He said: "I boxed competitively for nine years, from the age of 16 until I was 25. But once my boys were born I had no desire to punch people anymore. I worked for a shipping company so I got a decent pension, and now I've got grandchildren who say I was too soft to ever have been a boxer. But I have some amazing memories, and I made friends for life with champions like Jimmy and trainers who put themselves out for me, like Ged Griffin."

Now years after the end of their respective careers, the friends reunited at one of Stephen's favourite restaurants in Southport.

He said: "As soon as he recognised me, his face lit up, I was like 'wow, it's not just me that's excited to see him, he's excited to see me'. It was an amazing experience, that'll live with me to my dying day, that we still get excited to see each other after all of these years."

"Jimmy was looking through my trophy cabinet and we spent six hours at my house just non-stop talking. It was phenomenal to hear things from his point of view, from his side of things, and what he's done with his life since we first met. It just lifted me."

In fact, it was a lift that had been much needed for Stephen. Just a few years ago he had survived a rare form of bacterial meningitis.

He said: "They give you 24 tests, and the last one of those is a cerebrospinal fluid test, that's the big one. I was in the Walton Neuro Centre in Walton and they specialise in brain surgery and things like that.

"They told me that normally 93% of these cases get found post-mortem, so I'm lucky to still be alive. At the time, I didn't feel lucky because I couldn't speak properly, I couldn't think properly.

"I think the medication caused problems were I'd be crying one moment and I'd be jumping up and down the next, and then I'd be snappy, and then I just couldn't control anything because of the medication that I was on."

After some difficult times since his health struggles, he said that he's got a new appreciation for life, enjoying visits to the park with his carer and becoming spiritual.

It is that spirituality that has enabled him to realise the importance of Jimmy.

He continued: "People are brought into your life who are part of your soul family, they're not blood relatives, but they have to be in your life for you to learn from them. Jimmy was definitely brought into my life."