Remembering Bantamweight great Lionel Rose, 1948-2011

Afternoon fellas, just thought I’d take a quick time out from the Pacquiao-Mosley fall out to salute former world Bantamweight champion Lionel Rose, who passed away this morning after a fairly long illness at the age of sixty-two, as I’m sure you’ll know.

When dealing with the usual torrent of Tyson fan boys who always make excuses for his every loss / sub-par performance due to the ‘terrible’ life he’s had, I have often pointed to the case of Rose in an attempt to make them realise that several others have had to endure worse, without complaint, and also (very sadly, in this case) without ever getting the recognition they deserve for such feats. Rose was one of nine children and learned his boxing from his (reportedly) extremely strict father, who himself had been a booth fighter. Like many other outstanding champions, Rose learned his fighting the hard way in a tough background, but not all that many fighters have had to turn professional at the age of fifteen in order to support such a large family, which he had to do when his father unexpectedly died of a heart attack.

I’ve always had an interest in Rose, first off because the Bantamweight era in which he fought was a truly superb one of the 118 lb division, and also because he was something of a character and, in many ways, a maverick, too. His famed pipe smoking was a regular indulgence, and certainly no gimmick, but in spite of this he possessed excellent stamina and as complete a skill set of any fighter to emerge from down under. He was also the first Aborigine world champion.

How good was Rose as a Bantamweight? Well first off, let me clarify – he was a great of the 118 lb weight class, no doubt at all about that. Certainly not top five, and for me not quite top ten either, but he’d be snapping at the heels of that select group and, as far as I’m concerned, anything outside of the top fifteen would be an insult to him. Couldn’t punch his way out of the proverbial wet paper bag, but could do absolutely everything else. Anyone who can go to Fighting Harada’s back yard (remembering that Harada himself is probably an all-time top ten Bantamweight) at the tender age of nineteen, floor him and deservedly box his way to a points win against such a fabulous technician in the form of his life clearly has little left to learn.

Three defences followed, one against our own highly-rated Englishman (another who is sadly no longer with us) Alan Rudkin and another against the all-action Mexican Jesus ‘Chuchu’ Castillo. The fight with Castillo was a belter (and is available online, will edit this article to post the link later today once I find it) and is well worth a watch, although the controversy remains as to whether or not Rose deserved the nod. Either way, he then had the misfortune to run in to probably the hardest hitting Bantamweight of them all (certainly in one punch knockout terms) in Ruben Olivares, who flattened him with a right hand in the fifth round after giving him a severe beating beforehand.

That hammering effectively ended Rose’s career as a top, top operator at world level (although he fought for a title again and scored a couple of notable wins in later years) but there can be no doubt that, beforehand, he did more to bring boxing back to the public’s awareness in Australia than anyone since Les Darcy some fifty-odd years earlier – although unlike Darcy, Rose remained a much-loved figure in Australia after his career ended, even finding time to chop the Australian pop charts in the late sixties and early seventies! Sadly, multiple strokes left him wheelchair-bound in recent years, although Rose always kept himself in the limelight as much as he could.

One thing’s for sure – Lionel Rose was a character. An all-time great for the ages? No, unless we’re sticking to the confines of Australian fighters. But a wonderful Bantamweight, a superb technician (the likes of which is so often missing in boxing today) and a sad loss for the sport? Certainly. Thought his career was worth a nod, so thanks for listening and R.I.P to Lionel Rose.

Cheers everyone.

Lovely article mate. The Castillo fight is on youtube was watching it a couple of weeks ago. I thought Castillo won but couldn't argue the other way tbh. Never heard this news. Sad to hear. R.I.P Lionel Rose

Great article chris, didn't know about this, RIP.

Nice article Chris
An inspirational guy and sad to hear of his passing.Very fine fighter as well

Nice tribute, Chris. This is sad news.

I remember the day he won the title as though it were yesterday, and I remember the acclaim heaped upon him by ' Ring ' magazine, Sadly, his was a star destined to burn brightly and briefly, but when he was ' on ' he was a great little fighter.

Cheers for the responses lads.