OZ boxers of the past - Discussion

[Brute]

For sheer durability it would be hard to go past Jeff "Flash" Malcolm. Jeff had 138 fights over a period of thirty one years beginning when he was 15. In this time he won the Commonwealth Light Welterweight title and several regional titles and beat men like Lawrence Austin and Barry Michael as well as both Frank and Matt Ropis. He also went the distance in challenging WBO Welterweight champ Manning Galloway.

He was also a WBF champion, but let's not hold that against him.

[Beltane]

Joey Santos was a much heavier hitter than his older brother Manny with a walk up style. Joey was featured more on the Sydney televised events. He had a KO win over Jeff White and then stepped up against Joe Tetteh in New Zealand. Joe was a visitor downunder previously having mixed it up with: Hector Thompson; brother Manny and Leo and Jeff White.

Some felt that Joey was a bit over matched going in against the crafty, big hitting Tetteh and Joey copped a beating and the bout was stopped in 10. Joey never fought again.

[Beltane]

Thats Manny on the right and joey on the left, taken recently in New Zealand:

[Brute]

Thats Manny on the right and joey on the left, taken recently in New Zealand:

Doesn't it make you feel old!

[Beltane]

Another fighter who twice fought Manny Santos and won both times was Leo Young.

Leo was one to divide the fans, some considered him a show-off and others a no hoper. He had snappy fists and a clever evasive style backed up by the ability to throw combinations. During his era he wasn't served up cream puffs and faced plenty of tough cookies and promotors booked him as a colourful boxer who would turn on a good fight. He lost all of his last 8 fights when he faced the best locals and imports such was his value to promotors.

He suffered from cut eyes and fought with his gloves held high protecting his eyes. One would admire his control and cleverness then he would change into a clown by dropping his gloves, shuffling, swaying his head, giving cheek to his opposition. Thats why Leo ran hot and cold with the fans but put bums on seats.

[Brute]

I remember watching Leo on TV Ringside. He seemed to have a cheer squad at all his fights. They would chant his name through the whole fight, win, lose or draw.

His son, Leo Young jnr, had a short career but won the Commonwealth Light Middleweight title.

[Brute]

You meet some funny men in boxing gyms. I remember Norm "Kid" Langford at Bernie Hall's. Norm, who won the Australian light welterweight title from Gary Cowburn in 1966, was going through a lean spot. His philosophy was "Well, If you lose eight 8 rounders, you drop back to 6 rounders, don't you?"

He never stopped smiling. Nothing got him down.

[Tinnie]

Here's a tribute to Dave Sands that has just been put on youtube for anyone interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO_ZX4W- ... eature=sub

My appreciation goes out to the person who put this up there, this is the first time i've seen any Sands footage, its good to know that video of the great man exists

[Brute]

Should have been World Champion.

Badly managed fighter.

[Beltane]

Well done to the creator of the Dave Sands tribute. Dave sadly became another example of what could have been!

Before TV, fights at the Sydney Stadium were called over the radio by Frank Hyde, who was sponsored by a tyre dealer at Strathfield who listened in to ensure that Frank gave them plenty of plugs. Commonly, the main event would fall through and Harry Miller the crafty promoter would create a double bill, which invariably included a couple of Aboriginal boxers, who were related.

The boxers would circle each other, glare and hardly throw a decent punch. With no TV to keep Frank on the level but conscious of a listening sponsor, Frank would call the pair fighting the fight of their lives. One night, during break between rounds, referee Vic Patrick leant through the ropes and said: "Hey, Frank. Are we at the same fight?"

[patron]

Should have been World Champion.

Badly managed fighter.

which manager are you referring too? all the best

[Brute]

There was a bloke who sold boxing boots at a shop next to the old Tivoli back in the 1960s. When I bought my boots he told me about how Dave should never have been driving that truck he was killed in if he had been managed properly. I have read of the meagre payouts Dave got for his fights after the "percentages" were taken out.

[Brute]

An old bloke by the name of Roy Rattenbury I knew in the 1970s through football used to tell me he fought as Tiger Donnelly.

I looked his record up and he was a busy flyweight, fighting 97 times between 1931 and 1941 for a 40-41-15 record He fought Rollo Hinton about a dozen times, probably winning about 3 of those fights, including winning the New South Wales and Australian titles from Hinton at different times.

Hinton himself won 81 of 177 fights between 1932 and 1943 (81-78-16). I have heard stories of Depression era fighters who fought once a week for their bread and twice if they wanted butter.

[Beltane]

A comprehenive note on Dave Sand's life can be found in his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography below:

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160204b.htm

[Beltane]

As Brute said:

I have heard stories of Depression era fighters who fought once a week for their bread and twice if they wanted butter.

This was so true as boxing was one way to earn a quid and support a family due to the lack of jobs and social services at that time. Boxers fought at multiple stadiums, sometimes under non-deplumes to grab more fight money, not knowing that the timebomb of regular beatings was ticking away. I can remember seeing old "punch drunk" boxers around the old pubs of inner Sydney asking for a handout decades later.

[Tinnie]

The old man's always telling me that at sydney stadium the crowd use to throw shillings into the ring for the boxers at the end of a good fight and many of the fighters relied on these earnings just to survive

[Tinnie]

A comprehenive note on Dave Sand's life can be found in his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography below:

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160204b.htm

Thank you. That was a good read.

[Brute]

Poor Dave. Made 30,000 pounds and got to keep hardly any of it.

If Anthony Mundine thinks he is hard done by, he should see how Aboriginal fighters were treated back then.

[patron]

Poor Dave. Made 30,000 pounds and got to keep hardly any of it.

If Anthony Mundine thinks he is hard done by, he should see how Aboriginal fighters were treated back then.

dave sands earned 36000pounds under tom maguire[96 fights]tom took his 25%9000 pounds over ten years, his last fight with mr. mac as he was known was with yolande pompey, a fight that should not have been taken, that was the only bad management on maguire part, in his handling of dave. maguires books were kept at the newcastle tatts club for all to see, dave had a lot of relatives and hangers on ,he looked after a lot of people. bede kerr, he had dave for his last four fights was offered a fight with randolph turpin in london ,solomons had heard that sugar ray was going to retire and he wanted to get in before the yanks;kerr took too long to get back to solomons.we all know what happened and a real title was lost,daves last fight in wagga wagga against jim woods earned him 160 pounds, that was under a new manager that didn,t want him to go overseas, and kerr was out of his depth with the promoters here ,they could handle him, there was the bad management. maguire had knockedback a return with pompey even though a lot thought dave would beat him this time , and in chicago after the olsen fight he knocked back$10000 to fight archie moore,peter corris ,in his book the lord of the ring said maguire could not train defensive boxers, tom had 26 australian champions, not bad for blokes that couldn,tdefend theirselves, daves job was timbercutting as were all the sands boys, he owned the truck, it was an accident that could happen to anyone, by the way ,is danny green kept in cotton wool.don,t believe every thing you hear or read.all the best

[Brute]

25% to the manager, income tax plus provisional tax, no wonder he had to keep cutting timber.

[Beltane]

Below is a link newspaper cutting about a tragic Tiger Donnelly fight, where Tiger's opponent: Bobby Clements later died:

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2410102

Life was tough in those times as mentioned in earlier postings as Bobby Clements fought 29 times in the previous year, earning an extra quid through boxing, but with the accumulation of punches received leaving him vulnerable everytime he entered the ring.

[Brute]

That may have had something to do with Roy (Tiger) becoming the drunk he was in later life.

His son is still a friend of mine. Believe it or not his son is over six feet tall and massively built. He is also one of the most gentle people you would meet.

The acorn fell a fair distance from the tree there.

[Beltane]

Although not Australian boxers, a notable fight at the Old Barn was the stoush between Sandro Mazzinghi of Italy and American Ralph Dupas. Dupas had thrilled locals with his boxing skills against George Barnes and fellow Americans: Rudell Stitch and Charlie Scott. He won the world crown from Denny Moyer in 1963 and then lost it to Mazzinghi.

In the Sydney title rematch, Mazzinghi's brother Guido lept onto the ring's apron, at the end of the 6th round and abused referee: Vic Patrick. Stadium manager: Harry Miller was having none of this nonsence and dragged Guido down, who was complaining about a head clash cutting Sandro, just as he was getting on top of Ralph and didn't want the fight stopped and awarded to Ralph.

The sight of their hero's blood enraged the Italian fans, who battled with the police before Dupas was KO'd in round 13. Then they stampeded the ring. Mazzinghi had a distrust of the local promoters and demanded his purse in cash and he rushed back to the dressing rooms to grab the suitcase of cash. When he got there he found that taxation officers had been tipped off and had impounded his purse.

[Grant]

Another fighter who twice fought Manny Santos and won both times was Leo Young.

Leo was one to divide the fans, some considered him a show-off and others a no hoper. He had snappy fists and a clever evasive style backed up by the ability to throw combinations. During his era he wasn't served up cream puffs and faced plenty of tough cookies and promotors booked him as a colourful boxer who would turn on a good fight. He lost all of his last 8 fights when he faced the best locals and imports such was his value to promotors.

He suffered from cut eyes and fought with his gloves held high protecting his eyes. One would admire his control and cleverness then he would change into a clown by dropping his gloves, shuffling, swaying his head, giving cheek to his opposition. Thats why Leo ran hot and cold with the fans but put bums on seats.

Tell me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember an interview with i think Bev Will, in Fighter magazine where Leo talked about his efforts to stay at Lightweight. He seemed to be quite open with saying he took tablets to help him make the weight. If not him someone said it about him. I think it was because he thought lightweight was the premier division. I'm sure they weren't performance enhancing things just diet type pills. I just had a look at his record again. Geeze he had some good fights. I would pay to see the Hector Thompson and Hillary Connolly fights on Disk if Channel 7 still had them

[Beltane]

Leo had this thing about fighting at Lightweight, calling it the blue ribbon division (it was at the time) but he was beset with weight problems so he took to the weight reducing urine tablets that jockeys commonly use (Lasix). This worked for a while but it also weakened him. The combination of weight reducing pills and his body demanding food (Leo loved the takeaways) made a dangerous combination, with Leo bingeing then taking the pills later.

Eventually, lightweight became a memory and Leo became a 10 stone fighter. Sometimes he tried to fight under this weight but his condition faded. Leo always had fighting spirit with a touch of theatre and when faced with tough opposition always turned in a good performance.