Lionel Rose, warrior of the ring, dies at 62

FORMER world boxing champion Barry Michael has a photo of Elvis Presley and Lionel Rose shaping up to each other.
''That's how good Lionel was. Elvis wanted to meet him,'' Michael said of Rose, who died yesterday at his Warragul home, aged 62.
Rose's goddaughter, TV host Ruby Rose, called for a state funeral. Ms Rose recalled her godfather teaching her how to box when she was a child. ''He just has an incredible energy and light that shined beyond anyone I have ever met,'' she said. ''I am Ruby Rose because he was Lionel Rose.''
Ms Rose said at 17 she had a boxing glove tattooed on her back in his honour. She hoped Rose would be remembered as ''the king'' and for all he did for the indigenous community.
Fellow boxer Jeff Fenech led tributes to his close friend. ''Lionel was not only a great fighter but a wonderful human being,'' Fenech told News Limited. ''He was an absolute legend and I was honoured to know him as a friend.
News of Rose’s death came hours after Tasmanian Daniel Geale became only the fourth Australian to win a world title overseas when he defeated German Sebastian Sylvester for the IBF middleweight title. Geale joins Rose, Jeff Harding and Jimmy Carruthers as the only Australians to achieve the feat.
‘‘My deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Lionel Rose,’’ Geale said via his Twitter account.‘‘An absolute boxing legend. You will be missed mate but never forgotten.’’
The first Aboriginal boxer to win a world title, Rose was a pioneer and role model in the sport for all Australians.
After beating Japan's Fighting Harada in Tokyo in 1968 to win the world bantamweight title, a tickertape parade in his honour through the streets of Melbourne was attended by more than 100,000 people.
Rose landed at Essendon Airport to find a convertible waiting for him, and the road to the city lined with fans.
Traffic in Swanston Street was stopped and when Rose appeared on the Town Hall balcony, the crowd roared. ''I didn't think so many people cared,'' he said.
That year he became the first Aborigine named as Australian of the Year and was also made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
The welcome and the awards were all remarkable for the era.
Just months before his title fight, in 1967, Australia passed a referendum that included Aboriginal people in the census for the first time. If Rose had won his fight the year before, he wouldn't have even counted as an Australian.
Raised in a dirt-floor shack in Jackson's Track, near Warragul in Gippsland, Rose went on to inspire people around the world, including by taking an early stand on apartheid.
World Boxing Council chairman Frank Quill said Rose had refused a big money fight in South Africa in 1970 because he would have had to go to South Africa as an honorary ''white''.
''To my knowledge he was the first sportsman to refuse to go to South Africa because of apartheid,'' he said.
His win over Harada was considered one of the greatest triumphs in Australian sporting history. Rose's achievement was underlined yesterday when Daniel Geale became only Australia's fourth boxer to win a world title on foreign soil when he beat German champion Sebastian Sylvester for the IBF middleweight title. ''It's very sad news,'' Geale said from Neubrandenburg. ''He was a great champion and a great bloke.''
''It seems incredible that on the same day Lionel Rose leaves us, Daniel Geale becomes world champion,'' legendary Australian boxing trainer Johnny Lewis said.
''Daniel is very proud of his indigenous background and the way was opened for Daniel by Lionel Rose and Tony Mundine.
''People just warmed to him,'' Lewis said. ''I don't think there has ever been another boxer who has captured the imagination of the Australian public the way he did. I still remember that tickertape parade in Melbourne - it was beyond belief.''
In 1970, Rose had a couple of small hits with the songs I Thank You and Please Remember Me.
One last big moment in the ring would come in 1975, when Rose fought on the same card as the Muhammad Ali-Joe Bugner fight in Kuala Lumpur. Rose scored a 10-round victory over Bomber Uchida.
Rose had 53 fights for 42 wins, 12 of them by knockout, in a professional career that spanned 1964 to 1976 and included fights in Japan, Malaysia, the United States and New Caledonia. Four of those losses came after his 1975 comeback.
Over the years, Rose had some brushes with the law, and the 2008 documentary Lionel revealed he had spent his winnings on family, gambling and drugs.
He suffered a stroke in 2007, and his health had deteriorated since.
Last year a bronze statue of Rose was unveiled in a Warragul park, where as a boy he would wait for his father before hitching back to the family humpy at Jackson's Track.
''There was no support for Aborigines whatsoever, they weren't even counted in the census or given a vote, and here he is on the world stage,'' said his wife, Jenny, at the unveiling.
The wife of Rose’s former trainer Jack Rennie said she received a phone call about 6pm (AEST) from the boxer’s cousin, Graham Brooks, who told her Rose had died.
Nita Rennie said Rose had been suffering from heart problems in recent months. She said the last time her husband and Rose got together was last year for Rennie’s 80th birthday.
Last night the Rose family issued a statement: ''Lionel passed at his Warragul home earlier this evening after a long battle with illness and his fighting spirit and determination did not waver during this time.
''This great community leader will be missed.