BoxRec

While looking at numerous records of Australian-based boxers, I noticed that many of them don't list the birth or real names of such boxers. I have been able to find the birth or real names for a number of the boxers while looking on Ancestry.com or at Australian newspaper archives.

- Chuck Johnston

Chuck1052 wrote:While looking at numerous records of Australian-based boxers, I noticed that many of them don't list the birth or real names of such boxers. I have been able to find the birth or real names for a number of the boxers while looking on Ancestry.com or at Australian newspaper archives.

- Chuck Johnston

The practice of fighting under a boxing alias isn't as common as it once was. But some fighters still seem to prefer it. Perhaps we should get a list going here?

I'll kick things off with Barry "Boy" Michael. His birth name was Barry Swettenham.

Interestingly Barry's son recently made his pro debut and fought under the name Swettenham, not Michael.

His ring name is now Zac Michael

AntonS wrote:His ring name is now Zac Michael

That didn't take him long. Perhaps it was dependent on him winning his first fight or two?

Like a Boss wrote:

AntonS wrote:His ring name is now Zac Michael

That didn't take him long. Perhaps it was dependent on him winning his first fight or two?

Possibly

Brad Fredericks (boxer) = Brad Griffiths (ref/judge)

Vic Patrick's real name was Victor Patrick Lucca.

Vic took the same approach as Barry Michael Swettenham, remove the surname.

Tommy Burns' real name was Geoffrey Mostyn Murphy.

Murphy Murphy apparently chose his boxing name in honour of former Canadian world champion, Tommy Burns, who lost his title to Jack Johnson in Australia in 1908.

I may have not made myself clear in my previous post on this thread. By the strictest definition, a full birth name doesn't include a nickname. For instance, it appears that the ill-fated Archie Kemp's full birth name was Archibald Kemp and Herb McKell's full birth name was Charles Herbert McKell.

- Chuck Johnston

Jack Carroll's real name was Arthur Ernest Hardwick.

Jack Carroll was the real name of a friend, who instead fought under the name Charlie Ring, and Hardwick used the Jack Carroll boxing alias so as his father wouldn't find out he was fighting.

Charkey Ramon's real name was Dave Bruce Ballard.

I think I read somewhere his trainer Bernie Hall gave him the fight name alias.

The Alabama Kid fought in Australia and NZ for about a decade from 1938 onward.

His real name was Clarence Reeves, a name he apparently hated.

Reeves wasn't born in Australia. Nor was he born in or did he in fact ever fight in Alabama.

Bernie Hall was notorious for changing his boxer's monikers as mentioned previously. Many fought with variations made to their names, and other were named in jest, viz:

Aki Puncher
Rappy Score
Rigger Mortise.

Bernie Hall also came up with the name, Bricky Squire, for Charkey's brother, John Ballard.

Beltane wrote:Bernie Hall was notorious for changing his boxer's monikers as mentioned previously. Many fought with variations made to their names, and other were named in jest, viz:

Aki Puncher
Rappy Score
Rigger Mortise.

I thought you had to be having a laugh until I looked them up and found they were true. For the record here's what I found:

Rappy Score - real name Garry Richardson.

Rigger Mortise - real name Don McDonald.

Aki Puncher - wasn't quite as straight forward as the other two. I read somewhere that he was a Tongan by the name of Feleti Leone. But it doesn't seem to stack up in Boxrec:

Feleti Leone - http://boxrec.com/boxer/27519

Aki Puncher - http://boxrec.com/boxer/95103