Lionel Rose

Lionel Rose vs Vicente Garcia 1.11.1969

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• published: 31 Dec 2015
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Former World Bantamweight Champion, Lionel Rose, takes on Mexican Featherweight Champion, Vicente Garcia. Rose had lost his World Bantamweight titles to Ruben Olivares just 2 months earlier and was looking to start his career afresh in the featherweight division. More info below... Lionel Rose became an overnight national sensation when in 1968 he beat Japanese boxing icon Fighting Harada (50-3) over 15 close competitive rounds to win the WBC and WBA World Bantamweight belts becoming the first Aborigine in boxing history to win a world title. In that same year, he was also named Australian Of The Year, once again the first Aborigine to be so. Prior to winning the world title, Lionel Rose had been Australian Bantamweight Champion since 1966 and had successfully defended his title once by KO against former Australian Flyweight Champion, the tough Rocky Gattellari. The three World Title defenses that Lionel Rose made during his reign as world champion were less than convincing wins. In his first defense he won a majority decision over undefeated Takao Sakurai, won a split decision against Chucho Castillo in his second defense (which caused a riot among local fans) and earned another split decision against Alan Rudkin in the his third defense, which also bagged him the Commonwealth Bantamweight Title. His luck ran out however when in 1969 he was KO'd in 5 during a defense against hard hitting Ruben Olivares. It had been reported for months that Rose had struggled to make weight since winning the World Bantamweight title and by the time he stepped in the ring against Olivares, all his energy had gone on making the 118lb weight limit and was drained of stamina. Lionel had boxed at featherweight before at least three times so following the loss to Olivares he decided to make the permanent transition to the higher weight class. His record at this time was 34-3. Vicente Garcia was a very experienced boxer and had been Mexican Featherweight Champion since 1967. He held a record of 40-17-3 in a career which dated back to 1956. He originally started as a flyweight and in 1965 unsuccessfully challenged for the Mexican Bantamweight Title before making the permanent leap to featherweight in 1966. The fight was all Rose from beginning to brutal end. Rose out-paced the flat-footed Garcia and put him out of his misery in the 5th round with a perfectly timed counter punch. Rose had made the perfect start towards his new featherweight career... Unfortunately everything turned to custard for poor Lionel Rose following this fight. He was soundly beaten in his next fight by Fernando Sotelo (26-11-1) and in 1970 was knocked out by Raul Cruz (18-4). By this time Lionel was finding even the featherweight 126lb limit too hard to maintain so moved up to lightweight and in 1970 he pulled off an upset win over future world Lightweight Champion Itshimatsu Suzuki (17-6-4) in one of his best post-bantamweight performances. The following year in 1971 he challenged Jeff White (19-3-1) for the Australian Lightweight Title but lost a close 15 round decision. Rose had somehow positioned himself for a shot at the WBC World Super Featherweight title just 3 months later but once again lost a close 15 round decision, announcing his retirement shortly after. Four years later in 1975 and Rose would return to the ring, however ring rust and personal issues had already taken their toll on Lionel, as he only managed to win two of his six return fights... He retired again in 1976 with a professional record of 42-11. Vicente Garcia's career was already coming to an end by the time of the Lionel Rose fight. He lost his Mexican Featherweight Title in his very next fight to Fernando Sotelo (27-11-1) and failed to win another fight during the remainder of his career. He retired with a 40-24-4 record.