We featured Lionel Rose in Zestz Jazz – I Thank You last month. We are proud to announce that Lionel was recently honoured, on June 2, 2010, with a 3.6 metre, larger-than-life bronze statue at his hometown and birthplace Warragul.
CLICK HERE to follow the event.
Rose became a national celebrity at 19 when he travelled to Tokyo and won the bantamweight world championship from Japan's formidable Fighting Harada in 1968.
But since the last of his 64 fights in 1976 - 53 wins, 11 defeats - he has lived a chequered existence, struggling with alcoholism and brief forays into petty crime.
That, though, has never outweighed the esteem in which he is held in boxing, and as a figure of social significance for native and immigrant Australians - two reasons he has an MBE.
"Lionel showed us how to use the day, to use your life - he showed us how we can fight." Frank Quill, the World Boxing Council's Australian representative.
Picture: Craig Borrow of the Herald-Sun
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