OZ boxers of the past - Discussion

[hofguy]

Saturday's sausage wrapper had an interesting article about the late Tony Barber and his father: Bill's careers. The feature focuses mainly on their amatuer days, but is it worth a read:

http://property.manlydaily.com.au/defau ... #folio=033

Bill & Tony Barber were brothers, not father & son.

[patron]

As a kid I remember my father taking me to watch Tony Mundine training & being in awe of him. Ken Salisbury was one of my idols as a kid, when Ken Pedler was promoting his fights he would let me go into the dressing rooms after the fights & I was rapped that Ken Salisbury would always have time for me, have a chat & sign an autograph when he had just fought a tough 10 or 12 round fight.
I also loved to watch Wally Carr fight, he had so much natural ability, could've been anything if he trained seriously? I was also a big fan of Barry Michael & Paul Ferreri but only got to watch them on TV.
Once Fenech, Harding, Ellis, Waters, etc came along I, like most people at the time were fans?
I'm not that old (getting too close for comfort to 40) but have heard a lot of the stories about many of the great Aussie Boxers & was lucky to have become mates with Taffy Hancock (Australian Flyweight Champion in the 40's & 50's).
Birchy

Yeah Dave, I worked on the Port Kembla waterfront for 15 years with Taff. (He was a foreman there) He fought them all, Curruthers, Sinn, Mickey Hill.
He won the flyweight title off Mick & lost it to him. He said after the last fight with Mick, some nark in the crowd says "You 2 orta get married" Taff replied "Check the result, the engagement is off" He won the title back off Laffin. He truly was a great bloke.

Some other old fighters I sailed with (When I was at sea) Herb Bishop ("I love Frisco") Loved Herb, Thorough gentleman.
Newcastle fighters like Joe Armstrong, who fought Red Lobley about 5 times, were on the same ship. In those days. we used to "ring time" on watch. The bell was over the helm. 1 bell was rung at a quarter to the start of the watch hour (8-12-4 termed "calling the Watch")
When I joined the ship, Joe & Red were in the mess room. Joe was a fireman & Red was the crew attendant. I said "Shit, I hope you two are not in here when they call the watch" They were great mates.
Another funny about Joe. Snowy Webster, (later a Seamans Union official) was Joe's "manager",, tout, more like it.
Twice Snowy negotiated a "dive" for Joe, & they loaded up on the punt. Joe stopped both opponents. Snowy was livid. "You've sent us both broke. WTF was you doing"
Joe says "I wasn't gunna lose to him, he couldn't carry my kit" Both times. They went back to sea.
The Newcaslte Lobley's were well known. Red's brother "Anzac" was a Seamens Union official there for many years.

Stadiums LTD put on some great fights, but they also drove a fair few potentials away with their "Jewish contracts" I sailed with several that wouldn't sign & walked away. While Ronny Beekin never went to sea, he was probably the most noted that wouldn't sign & suffered because of it. Ronny had a ton of potential..

Cheers

taffy was a great little bloke and fighter, he came up to our reunions each year, your right about wally carr, hated training, j.mccoll got me to give wally a bit of work in the roofing game to keep him on the straight and narrow before he fought monty betham, i used to drop the ladder so he couldn,t dissappear, had a lot of potential, the Lobleys=Bill,keith[anzac],clarrie, jack[red]and michael, all had to to know how to hold their hands up as Carrington was not the quietest place to have a drink, especialy if you looked at someone with the wrong tone of voice, Red fought a couple of great fights with Mickey Tollis, all the best

[Matt Ropis]

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[Brute]

Hi, this is my first entry.
Great to see so much written about great Oz boxers of the past. The mention of Ron Richards brings back memories. In 1946-47 my Dad was Overseer on Foleyvale Aboriginal Settlement, he having established it out of virgin bush. He stayed on after floods (Mum and kids moved to Yeppoon) and Ron Richards was living at Woorabinda. Dad was asked if he would mind if Ron came to live with him for awhile until Ron was rehabilitated. Ron was down on his luck at the time. Dad welcomed the opportunity as he was a great boxing fan. Ron was around 34 at the time and Dad found him to be great company. Many a conversation they had about the boxing game. Dad asked Ron who was his hardest opponent and Ron said Fred Henneberry without a doubt. He said when Fred came out of his corner he seemed ready to kill you. Their many wild fights certainly attest to that. Ron said that Ambrose Palmer was a great fighter and very clever. Ron was never able to beat Palmer in their 4 bouts.
Ron went from there to Palm Island where he lived out his remaining years. Dad could not speak highly enough of him.
We moved to Brisbane in 1948 and there I had a wonderful time watching fights at the old Brisbane Stadium but I'll talk about that another time.

Ron Richards was living in the Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill when he died in 1967. I read a story about him in one of the afternoon papers not long before that. From memory he moved back to Sydney to help out a young relative. Spent far too much times in pubs though.

[bollox]

Who do you reckon the fighter on the right, is???. Clue....the pic was taken at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison and the fighter is from melbourne



November 1988: As a crowd looks on, an inmate spars with Australian boxing champion **** (right) during the Blunstone Challenge

[hofguy]

He wasn't a champion, but I'll say Mick Gatto.

[bollox]

hehe good try but not quite. The fella was an Aus HW titleholder in the 80's

[Like a Boss]

hehe good try but not quite. The fella was an Aus HW titleholder in the 80's

Thinking Dave Russell by the cartoons.

Great picture too by the way

[bollox]

hehe good try but not quite. The fella was an Aus HW titleholder in the 80's

Thinking Dave Russell by the cartoons.

Great picture too by the way

Spot on, champ. Besides the tatts it looks not much like Dave. Apparently at the time a few boxers would go and have a spar with the boys. I suppose it broke the monotony and gave them something to look forward to

[Like a Boss]

hehe good try but not quite. The fella was an Aus HW titleholder in the 80's

Thinking Dave Russell by the cartoons.

Great picture too by the way

Spot on, champ. Besides the tatts it looks not much like Dave. Apparently at the time a few boxers would go and have a spar with the boys. I suppose it broke the monotony and gave them something to look forward to

You're right, it doesn't look much like Dave. But the 80's Aussie heavyweight champion tip helped, and the tats then made me think of Dave straight away.

I've also heard that fighters used to visit Pentridge and organise sparring. Where did you find that picture by the way? The guy in the dark singlet and tracksuit pants looks vaguely familiar. But I can't put a name to him.

[bollox]

I found the pic on a Melbourne newspaper site, the Herald Sun. They have a True Crime section and the other day published a bunch of photos of the now closed Pentridge prison...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/pictur ... 420?page=1

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/true-crime-scene

[Like a Boss]

I found the pic on a Melbourne newspaper site, the Herald Sun. They have a True Crime section and the other day published a bunch of photos of the now closed Pentridge prison...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/pictur ... 420?page=1

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/true-crime-scene

Did two tours through Pentridge when they conducted them just before all the residential accommodation opened up. Really glad I did. Very interesting.

[bollox]

Yeah well I almost ended up visiting too, several decades ago for errrrm entirely different reasons

In the very early days when they executed prisoners they buried them in the grounds and I don't think they kept records of where they were buried. As a result I think some bodies are still there. Same with the Vic Market, it was built on top of an old cemetery

[Like a Boss]

Any clues on who the guy in the dark singlet is? Looks vaguely familiar. But can't put a name to him :

[bollox]

Not sure. Dave's trainer at one time was Con? Russell (no relation). But I don't think that's him :??

[Like a Boss]

Not sure. Dave's trainer at one time was Con? Russell (no relation). But I don't think that's him :??

Did a web search for big Dave Russell and found he's got a book out :

[bollox]

He's still in Ferntree Gully by the looks of it? He used to train out that way years ago and also played footy down there

One of the posters here DBerry I think knows Dave. Need to ask him what he does with himself these days

[Brute]

Right tricep tattoo looks a match.

[Like a Boss]

Right tricep tattoo looks a match.

Nice work forensic

Now for the big prize. Who's the guy in the black singlet?

[Brute]

Looks familiar but I can't put a name to him.

[Like a Boss]

Who do you reckon the fighter on the right, is???. Clue....the pic was taken at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison and the fighter is from melbourne



November 1988: As a crowd looks on, an inmate spars with Australian boxing champion **** (right) during the Blunstone Challenge

No takers on who the guy in the black singlet is?

[Cap]

A lot of Canadian boxing fans have always harboured a deep suspicion that deserving Canadian boys were often kept at arms-length by the British Empire (Commonwealth) Boxing Commission in favour of English-born fighters. Do you guys feel the same about Australian and New Zealand boxers?

Cap

[Giancarlo]

A lot of Canadian boxing fans have always harboured a deep suspicion that deserving Canadian boys were often kept at arms-length by the British Empire (Commonwealth) Boxing Commission in favour of English-born fighters. Do you guys feel the same about Australian and New Zealand boxers?

Cap

Yeah, we're all bitter as heck too!

[birchy43]

grant manny santos was the real deal saw many of his great fights,live and a true gentleman , we also had another very handy champ,beaten by very few,and robbed by one "johnny famechon"""" cheers

[Like a Boss]

grant manny santos was the real deal saw many of his great fights,live and a true gentleman , we also had another very handy champ,beaten by very few,and robbed by one "johnny famechon"""" cheers

Dion Murphy beat Fammo and got the verdict as well. Not sure who you are referring to here?