[8.6] JOHNNY COULON 91-67(31)-11-12-1: Encyclopaedia Britannica online - Cyber Boxing Zone online -
Johnny Coulon (born February 12 1889 Toronto Ontario Canada; died October 29 1973 Chicago Illinois US), American professional boxer and world bantamweight champion.
Coulon began his boxing career in 1905. He won the American bantamweight title in 1908 and in a March 6 1910 match for the vacated world bantamweight championship knocked out Jim Kendrick in the 19th round. Coulon successfully defended his title three times and held the championship until June 9 1914 when he was knocked out by Kid Williams in the third round. He continued boxing until early in 1920 but interrupted his career to spend 1918 and 1919 in the US Army as a boxing instructor.
In addition to being a world champion, Coulon is remembered for another noteworthy feat, winning two 20-round title matches within a span of 15 days. He defeated Frankie Conley on February 3 1912 in Vernon, California, and Frankie Burns on February 18 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After retiring, Coulon performed in vaudeville and refereed amateur matches. Later he and his wife, Marie, opened a gymnasium on Chicago’s south side, where many outstanding amateur and professional boxers trained. Coulon was inducted into The Ring magazine’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 1965. Encyclopaedia Britannica online article
Coulon was very short but he was also very clever and quick and possessed fast hand. In nearly 95 bouts he lost but 5 official contests. During his career Johnny won the Bantamweight championship of the world, the Flyweight championship of the world, the 115 pound championship of the world and the Paperweight championship of the world.
After retiring from the ring, John toured in vaudeville and displayed a trick were no-one could lift him from the floor, Later, he ran a gym in Chicago for almost 50 years. In addition, he managed the boxer Eddie Perkins who became Junior Welterweight champion of the world.
Among these he defeated were Harry Forbes, Frankie Conley, ‘Jersey’ Frankie Burns, Kid Murphy and Jim Kenrick.
Nat Fleischer ranked Coulon as the #6 all-time bantamweight. Charley Rose ranked him as the #7 all-time bantamweight. Herb Goldman ranked him as the #8 all time bantamweight.
Coulon was elected to The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1965 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. Cyber Boxing Zone online
[8.5] LIONEL ROSE 53-42(12)-11: The Sweet Science online - Independent online -
Lionel Rose is a part of the royal bloodline at bantamweight that stretches from 1961 to 1970 and encompasses the title reign of Eder Jofre then Fighting Harada, who lost the crown to Rose, who lost it to Ruben Olivares. All four of these men appear in this Top Ten. I think it unlikely that four such talented fighters ever passed any title hand to hand in this way.
Perhaps a little unfairly I would identify Rose as the weak link among these four great champions; but this is a little like identifying Ringo as the weakest member of The Beatles. It’s better being the worst musician in the greatest band ever to have played than the best musician in your mother’s basement.
More, Rose did some damage in this clash of kings, traveling to Japan in 1968 to meet the man who had defeated Eder Jofre, Fighting Harada. The referee docked Rose for a non-existent foul and warned him repeatedly for hitting with the open part of the glove. It didn’t matter. Rose was as beautiful that night as any bantamweight pugilist ever has been. He won rounds on his toes, he threw uppercuts to the heart, he threw hooks to the ribs, he led with the right, he moved from a left-handed clinic to a booming overhand right which even flashed Harada to the canvas in the ninth.
I saw it wide and even though the judges had it desperately narrow they had it to the right man, new bantamweight champion of the world Lionel Rose.
I have never seen Rose quite as special as he was against Harada, which is one of the most complete performances in ring history for my money, but he was good enough to turn away numerous top contenders including Tukao Sukari and, in desperately close but justifiable distance fights, Chucho Castillo and Alan Rudkin.
It took a series of desperate struggles with the weight and a fighter as good as Ruben Olivares to separate him from the title. The Sweet Science online article Matt McGrain 30 April 2018, ‘The Fifty Greatest Bantamweights of All Time’
With his lightning speed, indomitable fighting spirit and punishing left hook, Lionel Rose was arguably the best boxer Australia has produced. He was also the first Aboriginal person to win a world boxing title – and he not only inspired other indigenous sportsmen and women, but helped bridge the gap between black and white Australia.
Months before Rose’s epic victory over Japan’s Masahiko ‘Fighting’ Harada in February 1968, which saw him crowned the bantamweight world champion, Australians had overwhelmingly approved a referendum for Aboriginal people to be included in the census – rather than, unbelievable as it might seem, be regarded as part of the flora and fauna. The landmark vote seemed to usher in a new era of optimism and confidence on the part of Australia’s original inhabitants. Rose’s win, at the age of 19, over a formidable opponent, captured that spirit. He returned from Tokyo a national hero; soon afterwards, he became the first Aborigine to be crowned Australian of the Year, and was also made an MBE.
In those days it was rare for an Aborigine to inspire such public affection; Rose was not admired not only for his exceptional talent, but for his personable and principled character. He was one of the first international sportsmen to take a stand against apartheid-era South Africa, refusing a lucrative offer to fight there in 1970.
Rose successfully defended his title three times, and also had a brief, successful career as a country music singer. But his later life was punctuated with setbacks, including a struggle with alcoholism, a gambling problem and a stint in jail for petty crime. Rehabilitated in recent years, he suffered a stroke in 2007 that left him partially paralysed.
Born in 1948, Rose was brought up in an Aboriginal shanty town, Jackson’s Track, near the Victorian town of Warragul, in a hut with a dirt floor and no electricity or running water. His father, Roy, an amateur boxer, introduced him to the sport when he was 14, and he won his first major fight, at the Festival Hall in Melbourne in 1963. But it was not until he challenged Harada that Australians sat up and took notice. Although the odds were against him, his compatriots huddled around their radios, transfixed by the crackling commentary. An estimated 250,000 people turned out to greet Rose when he returned to Melbourne. ‘There must be someone famous in town,’ he reportedly observed to his trainer, Jack Rennie.
Among his biggest fans was Elvis Presley, who insisted on meeting him when he defended his title in California later that year. But Rose never forgot his roots, and he inspired many fellow Aborigines, including Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who reached the pinnacle of women’s tennis. ‘He showed just far how an Aboriginal could go,’ the former world champion boxer Barry Michael said.
Rose did not campaign openly for Aboriginal rights – ‘We’re all Australians,’ he once said – but he lost no opportunity to badger politicians in private. His sporting success was not reflected in his private life: his wife, Jenny, the daughter of his first trainer, Frank Oakes, divorced him, and he spent his winnings on ‘wine, women and song’, he admitted.
After retiring in 1971, Rose made a comeback in 1975, finishing his career the following year with 42 wins, 12 by knock-out, in 53 fights. In the meantime he had embarked on his singing career, producing two Top Ten hits. His main legacy, though, is that of a man whose ‘inspiration went well beyond the ring’, as the Melbourne newspaper The Age put it. Independent online article 19 May 2011, ‘Lionel Rose: Boxer whose world title victory helped bring white and black Australia together’