Best Aussie fighters you have seen live

[Sweet P]

I was just thinking to myself who is the best Australian Born Fighter ive seen live.

I thought id put it up on here, as there a lot of guys that have seen far more boxing over the years than I have. And im interested to know who the best they have seen would be.

Mine would have to be Mundine id say, Followed by the Hussien boys and Green.
Im trying to think about fighters ive seen live, I may have forgotten someone.

[dberry]

Best Aussie born fighters I've seen live? Troy Waters and Cliff Samarden strait of the bat, I'll come back with some more.

[Da Voice]

The above, plus (to name a few)
Garth Cussion, John Marceta, Justin Rowsell, Stuart Patterson, Darren Miller, Danny McGrail, Tony Miller, Guy Waters, Darren Obah

None of the above dodged anyone. In those days boxing was BOXING & not farkin CIRCUS
McGrail/Patterson were great fights (3). They were at each other (punch for punch) from Go to O...Neither giving as much as an inch

[Da Voice]

BTW, IMO Stu Patterson was robbed in OZ lightweight title challenge on Oct 23, 1998 against Tony Miller, which most likely caused loss of heart.

[bollox]

Fenech and Tszyu by a mile. Unless you include 'dashing Dave' Ramsden

[Da Voice]

Fenech and Tszyu by a mile. Unless you include 'dashing Dave' Ramsden

Tszyu wasn't OZ born

[Da Voice]

Ben, does televised constitute 'Live' ??

[Sweet P]

I was trying to say live in attendance.

[bollox]

In that case, Tszyu applies

[Sweet P]

I said Aussie Born, But if you like add Aussie fighters, Then id have to add Darchinyan and also Ben Rabah.

[Sweet P]

Ben Rabah in my opinion, is one of the most underrated fighters in Aus at the moment. The guys skills are awesome. He is World Class its a shame that he got a crooked decision in the US.

[Da Voice]

I was trying to say live in attendance.

In that case Justin Rowsell is the only one I hadn't seen live out of this lot.
Garth Cussion, John Marceta, Justin Rowsell, Stuart Patterson, Darren Miller, Danny McGrail, Tony Miller, Guy Waters, Darren Obah

[Mark pawsey]

Kelly brothers Paul Briggs Edgar wymara mundine Peter manesis vs Jason delisle Australian title fight best fight I've seen live in Australia

[Hounddawg]

Big call I know,But Lenny Zappavigna.

[Collins2000]

Paul Ferreri

Barry Michael

[bollox]

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

[dberry]

Kelly brothers Paul Briggs Edgar wymara mundine Peter manesis vs Jason delisle Australian title fight best fight I've seen live in Australia

Good shout for the Kelly Brothers, Particularly Kevin after he one the Commonwealth title from Leo Young Jr. Paul Briggs should have been on my list, seen him live many a time and was always impressed, but he was borne in New Zealand I believe.

[dberry]

Paul Ferreri

Barry Michael

Barry Micheal is a pom I believe.

[Collins2000]

Paul Ferreri

Barry Michael

Barry Micheal is a pom I believe.

Correct. As is Troy Waters.

[kylamy]

Hey Guys, I know i'll cop it for this, because I am a bit biased cos we're family, but the best Aussie i have seen live has to be "Slim" yes our very own Lionel Rose, even in his pre world title fight days at Festival hall Melbourne where he beat some terrific fighters, he was spectacular to watch and i'm sure if anyone in here is old enough to have seen him live, you would agree?

Who can forget on Dec 11, 1967 in Sydney when he just demolished the Rock, for the Australian 118 pound (8st-6lb) title, this was a fight that everyone said was a 50/50 fight.

Just a little side story, Gattellari a couple of years prior, really ripped into Lional & Jack at Leo Berry's gym in Richmond after Lionel had the better of him in a spar, Lionel at that stage could still make Flyweight, so they challenged the Rock for his Australian Flyweight title, but the following tirade of abuse and threat he will never be in the same league as him etc etc, meant the fight would not happen, well for another couple years at anyway, but this time it was for Lionel's bantamweight title, and Gattellari was the Challenger, the rest is history.

Johnny Lewis, who was in Lionel's corner that night, tells some terrific stories about the lead-up to the fight, at weigh-in etc etc and what went on and where he thinks the fight was won and lost etc, if you ever get the chance to ask Johnny about it, do so, cos it's really interesting stuff.

Lionel was spectacular to watch live, his hand & foot skills were something else, and then on February 27, 1968, he lost his best kept secret tag by travelling to Tokyo and doing what many thought was the impossible, by defeating the human thrashing machine in Masahiko "Fighting" Harada.

Then his defence against Alan Rudkin at Kooyong was pretty special, I am sure that many would agree with me, also many would not, and as i said, I know im a little bias, but for those who did see Lionel live, I'm sure you would agree, he was something special.

I am not saying Lionel was the best fighter, (even tho i think he was) I'm saying he was the best to watch live, also he fought some damn good fighters like Olivares who was 51-0 with 50 ko's, he also went to Olivares backyard to fight him, that's courage.

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

Now as i said, whether Lionel was the best to watch live? is debatable and who amongst us really is qualified enough to know, but in my eyes he was.

Also, In the same era, I think Fammo was maybe even more skilled than Lionel, I boxed Fammo hundred of rounds at Ambrose Palmer's gym underneath Festival Hall, and his skill level was something special as well, He was just so hard to hit and his immaculate fitness mean't that he could fight at that pace all night, whether it be 10 or 15 rounds back then, but sadly, his fighting style was not as popular as Lionel's because of his defensive style of "hit and not be hit" but he was one of the most skillful boxer's i have ever seen.

Another two who come to mind were Tony Mundine and Graeme "Porky" Brooke, Porky is also family and again, I may be showing some favoritism, but his skills and style were really good to watch.

While Tony Mundine was explosive and spectacular to watch, i know someone in here said that Anthony was the best they'd seen, and this maybe so for this day and age, but he was not as spectacular as his Father, nor did he ever fight the level of fighter's his dad did, but to be fair,we are in different era's.

We also need to remember the level of comeptition between these guys, back in the 70's the level of opposition (in my opinion) was far greater then than it is today, there were more registered fighter's and no shortage of anyone to fight.

Tony Mundine fought some really good fighters and while he was beaten a few times, he had a go and avoided no-one, unlike some of the fighters today where, they will not fight anyone who's in their way, on the way up, they will often wait until they are not in their way and on their way down, Tony only fought 9 or 10 blokes with a losing record, out of 96 fights, that's not too bad, and shows the level of competition wa stronger with more fighters available.

Tony's record of 96 fights, 80 wins, 15 losses was over a 15 year span in probably one of the hardest and best era's of the sport in Australia, and Choc's is presently at 10 years, Will he get to 15 years? I doubt it, but he helped create another very good era for our sport, whether it was as competitive, i dont know, one thing i do know, Choc was marketed better and made huge more dollars than Tony ever did.

This is just an opinion, i'm not saying i'm right, but check the records of Tony and Choc, and make your own conclusion

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

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

I'm not taking anything away from Choc, because it's in a different era, also there was no grubby little manager who controlled Tony and everything he said and did.

Tony just did the fighting and left the other stuff to Ernie, huge difference between the two.

Just my two bobs worth guys.

Brad

[j kanofski]

Hey all, I would have to say katsidis and doug sam for mine. doug just oozed class even at heavy weight when i watched him you could see the class he had, just with some little things that he did. And mick is just all action and great to watch.

cheers

[dberry]

I would have loved to have seen Lionel, Fammo and Paul Ferrari live, I was fortunate enough to see a few of Tony Miller's later fights live, but to have seen these boys live at the height of there career would have been electric.

[kylamy]

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

[Collins2000]

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

A credit to the Aussie fight game.

[kylamy]

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

A credit to the Aussie fight game.

Yes mate, I agree 100%, when you look at his record, he even had a couple fights back in Italy, I think that was the result of his conjnections with Umberto Branchini who took over Rocky Mattiolli after he left Australia, i recall something like that happeneing then, but i do stand to be corrected.

Paul really never dodged anyone either, His fight with Tony Miller was a real war and while i beleive he was past his best then, he was still a formidable fighter, and that's taking nothing away from the tough as teak never say die Tony Miller, Do you recall his epic battle with Danny McGrail for the Oz Lightweight title in Tweed Heads, what an absolute war, I Refereed this fight and could not beleive how tough these two were, they just went at it like two pitbulls, in the end, Tony came out on top when i stopped it in the last round or round 11, not sure, what a fight, I almost had to pull apart both Trainer's Ray Giles and Keefy Ellis in the pre fight chat in centre ring...ha-ha.

Funny thing is about Paul Ferrari, today he is still looking really fit and is not much over his fighting weight, not like me who has blown up like a baloon, when i walk past a maccas, i put on a pound, when i go in, i put on three pounds Haha.


Collins, I agree with you, Ferrari was a credit to the sport, I'm told he dislikes Jeff Fenech, because Jeff supposedly would not fight him, but Fenech was another that was great to watch live, he was so busy, hungry, never went backwards and was unpredictable,he had that aura and air of confidence about him, most times he could back himself up as well.

Cheers,
Brad