**Lionel Edmund Rose** MBE (21 June 1948 – 8 May 2011) was an Australian boxer. He was the first indigenous Australian to win a world title. Rose was ranked as a bantamweight boxer. This is a class for boxers who weigh between 115 and 118 pounds (52 and 54 kg).

Childhood
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Rose was born and raised in Victoria. He was born at Jacksons Track, and lived in the town of Warragul. Rose had a difficult childhood. He learned to box from his father, Roy. Roy was a skilled fighter who competed in local house shows. At the age of 10, Rose was given a pair of gloves by his teacher, Ian Hawkins. When he was about 15, he began to be taught by Frank Oakes, a trainer in Warragul. Rose later married Frank's daughter, Jenny Oakes.

In 1970, at the age of 15, Rose won the Australian amateur flyweight title.

Career
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### Australian title

Rose competed in his first professional boxing match on 9 September 1964. He won against Mario Magriss over eight rounds. This fight was in Warragul, but most of Rose's fights were held in Melbourne. Along the way he was helped by Jack and Shirley Rennie. He stayed in their home in Melbourne, training each day in their backyard.

Rose won his first five matches. After this, he was rematched with Singtong Por Tor, whom he had previously beaten in a 12-round decision. They fought this rematch on 23 July 1965. Por Tor won in six rounds by earning more points than Rose. This was Rose's first defeat. On 14 October 1965, he had his first fight outside Australia. He fought Laurie Ny in Christchurch, New Zealand. Rose beat Ny in 10 rounds.

Of his next nine fights, Rose won eight. He scored one knockout. The one match he lost in those nine fights was to Ray Perez. On 28 October 1966, he fought for the Australian bantamweight title against Noel Kunde in Melbourne. He won the title by defeating Kunde in a 15-round decision. By winning in this match, Rose became the Australian bantamweight champion.

### World title

Rose won one more belt in 1966 and eight in 1967. He defended his Australian championship against Rocky Gattellari, winning by knockout in the 13th round of the match. After this, Rose challenged Fighting Harada for the world bantamweight championship on 26 February 1968 in Tokyo. He beat Harada in a 15-round decision. This win made him the first Aboriginal Australian to be a world-champion boxer. It made Rose a national hero in Australia, particularly among Aboriginal Australians. He was awarded Australian of the Year for 1968.

On 2 July of that year, Rose returned to Tokyo to defend his title against Takao Sakurai. He beat Sakurai with a 15-round decision. On 6 December, he fought against Chucho Castillo in Inglewood, California. Rose beat Castillo by decision, but the verdicts in favour of him made many in the crowd angry, as they supported Castillo. A riot began, the referee and 14 fans were injured.

On 8 March 1969, Rose fought against Alan Rudkin. Rose won in a 15-round decision, and kept the championship. Five months later, he returned to Inglewood, where he faced Rubén Olivares on 22 August. Olivares knocked out Rose in the fifth round, and so Rose lost the world bantamweight title.

### Later career

Rose continued boxing after his defeat against Olivares. However, after he lost several fights against boxers who were not very well known, many believed his career as a prime fighter was over. On 10 October 1970, he beat future world lightweight champion Itshimatsu Suzuki in a 10-round decision. Once again, he became a world title challenger, but in the lightweight division.

Rose lost to Jeff White for the Australian lightweight championship. He then fought against world junior lightweight champion Yoshiaki Numata, on 30 May 1971 in Hiroshima. Numata beat Rose by a 15-round decision. Rose announced his retirement soon after.

During his break from boxing in the 1970s, Rose begun a modest career as a singer. He had a few songs that were successful in Australia, such as "I Thank You" and "Please Remember Me" in 1970. The song "I Thank You" was one of the most successful singles in Australia in 1970. It was played instead of the Australian National Anthem during radio broadcasts of the Rugby League State of Origin.

Rose came back to boxing in 1975. However, after losing four of his six matches, including one against Rafael Limón, he decided to retire forever. As a professional boxer, Rose had a record of 42 wins and 11 losses, with 12 wins by knockout.

Retirement
----------

After boxing, Rose became a successful businessman. A television miniseries called *Rose Against the Odds* (1991) was made about Rose's life story. It starred Paul Williams and Telly Savalas. It was released as a full-length movie in 1995. Melbourne filmmaker Eddie Martin premiered his feature-length documentary *Lionel* at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2008.

Rose was one of the original boxers to be inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2007, Rose suffered a stroke. It left him unable to speak and move very well. He died on 8 May 2011, after an illness which lasted for several months.

More reading
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* Rod Humphries (1969). *Lionel Rose Australian : the life story of a champion*. ISBN 0-207-95146-2.
* Andrew Rule (1991). *Rose against the odds: the Lionel Rose story*. ISBN 0-646-03390-5.
* Stoddart, Brian & Vamplew, Wray (1994). *Sport in Australia: A Social History*. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43513-7.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
* Kieza, Grantlee (1990). *Australian Boxing: An Illustrated History*. Paddington, NSW: Gary Allen Pty. Ltd. ISBN 1-875169-10-5.

Other websites
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to ***Lionel Rose***.

* Bill Long presents Lionel Rose in his first featherweight bout against Vicente Garcia featherweight champion of Mexico (1969)
* Professional boxing record for Lionel Rose from BoxRec Edit this at Wikidata

| Sporting positions |
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| Preceded byFighting Harada |  **WBA Bantamweight Champion**27 Feb 1968 – 22 Aug 1969 | Succeeded byRubén Olivares |

| * v
* t
* e
Winners of the Australian of the Year Award |
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* 1960 Frank Macfarlane Burnet
* 1961 Joan Sutherland
* 1962 Jock Sturrock
* 1963 John Eccles
* 1964 Dawn Fraser
* 1965 Robert Helpmann
* 1966 Jack Brabham
* 1967 The Seekers
* 1968 Lionel Rose
* 1969 Lord Casey
* 1970 Norman Gilroy
* 1971 Evonne Goolagong
* 1972 Shane Gould
* 1973 Patrick White
* 1974 Bernard Heinze
* 1975 John Cornforth/Alan Stretton
* 1976 Edward Dunlop
* 1977 Raigh Roe/Murray Tyrrell
* 1978 Alan Bond/Galarrwuy Yunupingu
* 1979 Neville Bonner/Harry Butler
* 1980 Manning Clark
* 1981 John Crawford
* 1982 Edward Williams
* 1983 Robert de Castella
* 1984 Lowitja O'Donoghue
* 1985 Paul Hogan
* 1986 Dick Smith
* 1987 John Farnham
* 1988 Kay Cottee
* 1989 Allan Border
* 1990 Fred Hollows
* 1991 Peter Hollingworth
* 1992 Mandawuy Yunupingu
* 1993 *no award*
* 1994 Ian Kiernan
* 1995 Arthur Boyd
* 1996 John Yu
* 1997 Peter Doherty
* 1998 Cathy Freeman
* 1999 Mark Taylor
* 2000 Gustav Nossal
* 2001 Peter Cosgrove
* 2002 Patrick Rafter
* 2003 Fiona Stanley
* 2004 Steve Waugh
* 2005 Fiona Wood
* 2006 Ian Frazer
* 2007 Tim Flannery
* 2008 Lee Kernaghan
* 2009 Mick Dodson
* 2010 Patrick McGorry
* 2011 Simon McKeon
* 2012 Geoffrey Rush
* 2013 Ita Buttrose
* 2014 Adam Goodes
* 2015 Rosie Batty
* 2016 David Morrison
* 2017 Alan Mackay-Sim
* 2018 Michelle Simmons
* 2019 Craig Challen/Richard Harris (joint)
* 2020 James Muecke
* 2021 Grace Tame
* 2022 Dylan Alcott

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| Authority control Edit this at Wikidata |
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| International | 
* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat Identities

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| National | 
* Australia

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| Artists | 
* MusicBrainz artist

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| People | 
* Trove

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