Best Aussie fighters you have seen live

[Collins2000]

Whatever happened to Neil Pattell?

You never hear his name mentioned these days.

[patron]

Good one Collins2000. Love seeing those old Fighter mags

Ditto boys,

I love them and when a youngster, could not wait for the day when the latest fighter was in the newsagents, i used to read the print off the page, do you remember the one, Dec 69 or Jan 1970, where my cousin Harry Hayes was on the front cover, and it read "into the socking 70s"

Also, the very first edition of Fighter mag, the cover had a photo (head shot) of Lionel and said something along the lines of "Rose takes on the world" and you see Slim holding a globe, note on one of his fingers, thumb i think had a band aid, hows that for a memory, that's how much i was into Fighter magazine.

I remember meeting the Editor, Mike C Ryan for the first time at the Channel 9 studios in Bendigo st Richmond while there to fight on Golden Gloves, He went to his car and gave me a few copies, gees i cherished them like anything.

Call me strange and weird, i don't mind, but they were the best times, i was all of about 12 or 13 years old.

Cheers,

Brad

i,m also a weirdo, back in the 40,s and 50,s we couldn,t wait for nat fleischers American Ring magazine to hit the stalls, the Ring Digest and Merv Williams boxing reports and results in the Melbourne Sporting Globe,all great reading, at the moment i am reading an old [1934]Australian Ring ,had to read something decent after opening todays paper and see the pretender stating he wants to fight the best,can,t something be done about this man?all the best

[patron]

Good one Collins2000. Love seeing those old Fighter mags

Ditto boys,

I love them and when a youngster, could not wait for the day when the latest fighter was in the newsagents, i used to read the print off the page, do you remember the one, Dec 69 or Jan 1970, where my cousin Harry Hayes was on the front cover, and it read "into the socking 70s"

Also, the very first edition of Fighter mag, the cover had a photo (head shot) of Lionel and said something along the lines of "Rose takes on the world" and you see Slim holding a globe, note on one of his fingers, thumb i think had a band aid, hows that for a memory, that's how much i was into Fighter magazine.

I remember meeting the Editor, Mike C Ryan for the first time at the Channel 9 studios in Bendigo st Richmond while there to fight on Golden Gloves, He went to his car and gave me a few copies, gees i cherished them like anything.

Call me strange and weird, i don't mind, but they were the best times, i was all of about 12 or 13 years old.

Cheers,

Brad

i,m also a weirdo, back in the 40,s and 50,s we couldn,t wait for nat fleischers American Ring magazine to hit the stalls, the Ring Digest and Merv Williams boxing reports and results in the Melbourne Sporting Globe,all great reading, at the moment i am reading an old [1934]Australian Ring ,had to read something decent after opening todays paper and see the pretender stating he wants to fight the best,can,t something be done about this man?all the best

thanks for the info, but the murdock i was talking about was bob [jock] murdoch, he is up in the coalfields,all the best

[Grant]

I was at that miller fight also. The krakour brothers were ther and stood right in front of my dad and me, dad said I should ask them to move. I declined the offer:) Paul Ferrari would easly be in the top 1-5 Aussie fighters never to win a world title

Paul Ferreri must have been quite a fighter in his prime. I saw him at the end of his career in 1986 and you could see he was well past it but he still retained the little tricks of the trade of a once-very-good, experienced fighter. It's a pity he had no power

Bollox, you must have a good memory or were you around in them days?

Paul was an extremey skilled fighter, he was an awkward Southpaw who was hard to hit, extremely fit and while not a big puncher, he could hurt you if he landed flush, he defeated my cousin Harry Hayes twice and was the Australian Bantamweight, Featherweight and former Commonwealth bantamweight Champion who also challenged for the WBC World title.

I knew Paul really well and we boxed hundreds and hundreds of rounds together while he was with Ambrose, I was there when he defeated Alan Presnell for the Australian title at Festival hall, We then later trained together under Gilberto Biondi and were managed by former Fighter magazine Photographer Oscar Minari.

We both fought on the same card many times, including my last fight in 1971 in Briunswick, that night, Paul defeated Fernado Sotelo, who had previously beaten my cousins Baby Cassius and Lionel Rose. Also on this night, Rocky Mattiolli sustained his first loss to Queenslander Paul Moore, who was clearly the better of the Moore brothers.

I just checked his record and he had 96 fights for 78 wins, check his record here, its worth seeing, he also never fought too many fighter's with losing records:

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer

Paul fought in a very competitive era, his skill level was great, in 1976 he went 12 rounds with Mexican great Carlos Zarate at the Los Angeles forum, Zarate was undefeated in 43 fights and had only gone the distance once to 10 rounds, no-one at that stage had ever seen round 12 against Zarate.....so it was a terrific performance by Paul.

He is a good bloke Paul, we were mates and along with Rocky Mattioli, we all trained together on and off for few years.

It's great to see someone remember this tough sicilian born little Aussie who i think still resides in or around the Maribynong area of Melbourne, not 100% sure of that, but i have seen Paul recenty at Charlie Liparota's shows in Coburg.

gee it's great to relive some of these times, that threads like this often bring back.

Cheers,

Brad Vocale

I was around in those days, having taken an interest in boxing in the early 80's. The long term memory is very good, it's the 'what I did yesterday' part of the memory that's slightly wonky

I was there at the Tony Miller - Paul Ferreri fight. A mate and I had decided to go as it was at the Preston Town Hall, just a short drive from where I lived. We bought the tickets through an ad the Ferreris had placed somewhere and picked them up from Paul's place in Avondale Heights (yep, near the Maribyrnong river). He was asleep so we spoke to his wife. She seemed a very nice lady

I know Ferreri tried to get Fenech into the ring but I'm glad it didn't happen. The result would have been an easy win for Fenech and especially around that time. Barry also tried to get a fight with Fenech

Around 82/83 I worked for Telecom. There used to be a room in a city building where the money from payphones was counted up and taken away. Paul Ferreri was sometimes one of the guards that would come along to collect the coins

You're related to Lionel Rose???? In the 70's and early 80's about 90% of the Aboriginal kids from Melbourne claimed Lionel as their cousin. I know Aborigines have extended familes but.......

Any idea what became of Tony Miller? He was a good scrapper who always had a go. I know he came to Melbourne from WA as the fight scene here was pretty red hot and hung around for a few years

[Brute]

I saw Johnny Famechon make a monkey out of American featherweight Bobby Valdez at Sydney Stadium in 1968. Valdez kept trying to tie Famechon up in a corner but kept finding himself looking at the turnbuckle with Johnny behind him waiting for him to turn around and fight. Valdez was disqualified in the 13th for constantly fouling, mostly headbutting, but he was never going to win. Famechon was incredibly fast on his feet and with his hands and he could hit hard enough when he had to.

[Brute]

Paul Ferreri also didn't mind fighting away from home and always put up a great effort.

A credit to the Aussie fight game.

Ferreri beat Arnold Taylor in a non title match in South Africa when Arnold was World Bantamweight Champion. The fight was at featherweight but still an impressive effort by Paul.

[bollox]

I was at that miller fight also. The krakour brothers were ther and stood right in front of my dad and me, dad said I should ask them to move. I declined the offer:) Paul Ferrari would easly be in the top 1-5 Aussie fighters never to win a world title

Bollox, you must have a good memory or were you around in them days?

Paul was an extremey skilled fighter, he was an awkward Southpaw who was hard to hit, extremely fit and while not a big puncher, he could hurt you if he landed flush, he defeated my cousin Harry Hayes twice and was the Australian Bantamweight, Featherweight and former Commonwealth bantamweight Champion who also challenged for the WBC World title.

I knew Paul really well and we boxed hundreds and hundreds of rounds together while he was with Ambrose, I was there when he defeated Alan Presnell for the Australian title at Festival hall, We then later trained together under Gilberto Biondi and were managed by former Fighter magazine Photographer Oscar Minari.

We both fought on the same card many times, including my last fight in 1971 in Briunswick, that night, Paul defeated Fernado Sotelo, who had previously beaten my cousins Baby Cassius and Lionel Rose. Also on this night, Rocky Mattiolli sustained his first loss to Queenslander Paul Moore, who was clearly the better of the Moore brothers.

I just checked his record and he had 96 fights for 78 wins, check his record here, its worth seeing, he also never fought too many fighter's with losing records:

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer

Paul fought in a very competitive era, his skill level was great, in 1976 he went 12 rounds with Mexican great Carlos Zarate at the Los Angeles forum, Zarate was undefeated in 43 fights and had only gone the distance once to 10 rounds, no-one at that stage had ever seen round 12 against Zarate.....so it was a terrific performance by Paul.

He is a good bloke Paul, we were mates and along with Rocky Mattioli, we all trained together on and off for few years.

It's great to see someone remember this tough sicilian born little Aussie who i think still resides in or around the Maribynong area of Melbourne, not 100% sure of that, but i have seen Paul recenty at Charlie Liparota's shows in Coburg.

gee it's great to relive some of these times, that threads like this often bring back.

Cheers,

Brad Vocale

I was around in those days, having taken an interest in boxing in the early 80's. The long term memory is very good, it's the 'what I did yesterday' part of the memory that's slightly wonky

I was there at the Tony Miller - Paul Ferreri fight. A mate and I had decided to go as it was at the Preston Town Hall, just a short drive from where I lived. We bought the tickets through an ad the Ferreris had placed somewhere and picked them up from Paul's place in Avondale Heights (yep, near the Maribyrnong river). He was asleep so we spoke to his wife. She seemed a very nice lady

I know Ferreri tried to get Fenech into the ring but I'm glad it didn't happen. The result would have been an easy win for Fenech and especially around that time. Barry also tried to get a fight with Fenech

Around 82/83 I worked for Telecom. There used to be a room in a city building where the money from payphones was counted up and taken away. Paul Ferreri was sometimes one of the guards that would come along to collect the coins

You're related to Lionel Rose???? In the 70's and early 80's about 90% of the Aboriginal kids from Melbourne claimed Lionel as their cousin. I know Aborigines have extended familes but.......

Any idea what became of Tony Miller? He was a good scrapper who always had a go. I know he came to Melbourne from WA as the fight scene here was pretty red hot and hung around for a few years

Small world really, isn't it? I think a guy named 'Flash'Chisango fought that night as well. Came and went (back to Africa) pretty quickly

Jimmy Krakouer is one fella than I reckon could have done well in boxing. Whenever he got into any fisticuffs on the field you could see he could take pretty good care of himself. I think Mark Harvey found this out one afternoon

[unleash06]

seen jimmy krakouer put 4-5 punches on collingwoods shane kerrison's chin one saturday after kerrison called him a black c...

[Brute]

I wasn't born here either, but am a proud Aussie

Yes a fair call too, Many boxers proudly representing Australia weren't born here, but the thread asked for Aussie born boxers, seen live, or did you miss those qualifiers?

Rocky Gattelari was born in Italy but was proud to represent Australia in the 1960 Olympics in the country he was born in.

[Brute]

seen jimmy krakouer put 4-5 punches on collingwoods shane kerrison's chin one saturday after kerrison called him a black c...

Seems young Shane made the mistake of not making sure his brain was in gear before he operated his mouth.

[Brute]

Pat lived in Fairfield when I was stationed there. He was a good bloke but his sister landed all of her problems on him and did not care if he was training for a title fight when she did it. You can pick your friends but you can't pick your relatives.

[Grant]

Good one Collins2000. Love seeing those old Fighter mags

Ditto boys,

I love them and when a youngster, could not wait for the day when the latest fighter was in the newsagents, i used to read the print off the page, do you remember the one, Dec 69 or Jan 1970, where my cousin Harry Hayes was on the front cover, and it read "into the socking 70s"

Also, the very first edition of Fighter mag, the cover had a photo (head shot) of Lionel and said something along the lines of "Rose takes on the world" and you see Slim holding a globe, note on one of his fingers, thumb i think had a band aid, hows that for a memory, that's how much i was into Fighter magazine
I loved fighter too, I used to make up my own world rankings. I rember the Harry Hayes cover and stories by the great Eddie cool. I also remeber the Ali Fraser cover Ali on the front page and Joe on the back. I remeber being frustrated every time the magazine wa late inthe shelf, which was often. I was hooked onboxing then, and still am. Bev will has a blog on the web which I tracked down a year or so ago. Mostly about her grand kids and issues around toorak area. Wish I had of kept my collection.

I remember meeting the Editor, Mike C Ryan for the first time at the Channel 9 studios in Bendigo st Richmond while there to fight on Golden Gloves, He went to his car and gave me a few copies, gees i cherished them like anything.

Call me strange and weird, i don't mind, but they were the best times, i was all of about 12 or 13 years old.

Cheers,

Brad

[Brute]

A good fighter to watch live was Disco George I don't think he was Australian but he had the crowd in stitches talk about entertainment.

Gheorghe Dirlosan, who fought as Disco George, was a Romanian refugee who came out here about 1980. There were a lot of Romanians who came out here about then, a wild bunch of them lived in the Fairfield / Cabramatta area.

[davidk59]

Thanks Brute

[lulupattel]

Dear Members,

Just an update on one of the best Aussie fighters you have seen live, Neil Pattel. He is currently doing his masters degree in Criminology and is still working out daily. He is turning 60 y.o. this year and I would appreciate any material you may have on him so I can make a hall of fame for him for his birthday. I am his sister. He still coaches boxers at home as a hobby.

[ClivePatrickLyons]

Dear Members,

Just an update on one of the best Aussie fighters you have seen live, Neil Pattel. He is currently doing his masters degree in Criminology and is still working out daily. He is turning 60 y.o. this year and I would appreciate any material you may have on him so I can make a hall of fame for him for his birthday. I am his sister. He still coaches boxers at home as a hobby.

I have some old boxing magazine's with Neil in them I think he is even on the cover or it might be the inside cover i'll check it