Tributes for Lionel Rose - first Aboriginal world boxing champion

[Stacey King]

Updated May 9, 2011 08:15:29

Tributes are flowing for Australian legend Lionel Rose - the first Aboriginal world boxing champion.

At just nineteen, Rose won a World Bantamweight Championship when he beat Japan's Masahiko "Fighting" Harada over fifteen rounds in Tokyo.

Lionel Rose, has died - he was 62 and had been having heart problems and recently suffered a serious stroke.

Another former Aboriginal world boxing champion, Anthony Mundine, says Lionel Rose, was the best Australian fighter ever and an inspiration to Aboriginal people.


Presenter:David Mark
Speaker:Anthony Mundine, former world boxing champion

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