Lionel Rose, what an absolute legend of boxing he was. Born on the 21st of June 1948 to Rory, his father and his mother, Regina who was less mentioned throughout his life. Rose had 8 siblings, Ray, Lynette, Leonard, Michael, Graham, Herbert and Deidre. The parents parenting style was relaxed and the control over the children was very little, as they would run about in the paddocks of grass they owned Rose was the Aboriginal to win the World Bantamweight Boxing Title and also the first Aboriginal to win Australian of the year. At the time he won these awards, aboriginals where still classified as second class citizens, getting treated like they deserved nothing. Growing up as an Aboriginal was very hard on his boxing career as he was given no support by anyone except …show more content…
“I think of myself as an Australian, I don’t go in for all this black and white thing. To me, we’re all Australians.” Lionel was also most well-known for his boxing, which he achieved greatness in.”I think of him as an inspiration to me” Anthony Mundine once said. Lionel had an amazing record of 53 fights, 42 fights, 12 by K.O and 11 losses. He once said before his world title win in 1968 “I 'm going to win it for my country. I 'm the first Aboriginal to win this. Isn 't that something? I wish my Dad was alive to see it. He 'd be as proud as I am”. The Australian flyweight title was his first title fight, and he won it quite convincingly. Sadly Lionel passed away 4 years ago, on the 18th of June, 2011. He passed of a heart disease he had been battling for a few year. In 2007 he had a stroke, leaving him partially paralysed and with speech disabilities. He was rewarded a state funeral for all his boxing achievements and all of the fighting he put in for aboriginal rights. R.I.P