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Rose began his professional boxing career on September 9, 1964, outpointing Mario Magriss over eight rounds. This fight was in Warragul, but the majority of Rose's fights would be held in Melbourne. Along the way he was helped by Jack and Shirley Rennie, in whose Melbourne home he stayed, training every day in their backyard gym.
After five wins in a row, on July 23, 1965, he was rematched with Singtong Por Tor, whom Rose had beaten by a 12-round decision. Por Tor inflicted Rose's first defeat, beating him on points in six rounds. On October 14 of the same year, he had his first fight abroad, beating Laurie Ny by a decision in 10 rounds at Christchurch, New Zealand.
Over his next nine fights, he had a record of eight wins and one loss, with one knockout. The lone loss in those nine fights was to Ray Perez, against whom Rose split a pair of bouts. Then, on October 28, 1966, Rose met Noel Kunde at Melbourne, for the Australian bantamweight title. Rose won the title by defeating Kunde by a fifteen round decision.
He won one more bout in 1966, and eight in 1967 (including a thirteenth round knockout win against Rocky Gattelari to defend his Australian championship) before challenging Fighting Harada for the world's bantamweight title on February 26 of 1968, in Tokyo. Rose made history by becoming the first Aborigine to be a world champion boxer when he defeated Harada in a 15-round decision. This win made Rose an instant national hero in Australia, and an icon among Aborigines. A public reception at Melbourne Town Hall was witnessed by a crowd of more than 100,000. On July 2 of that year, he returned to Tokyo to retain his title with a 15 round decision win over Takao Sakurai. Then, on December 6, he met Chucho Castillo at the Inglewood Forum in Inglewood, California. Rose beat Castillo by decision, but the points verdict in favour of him infuriated many in the pro-Castillo crowd, and a riot began: 14 fans and fight referee Dick Young were hospitalised for injuries received.
Rose was Australian of the Year in 1968, the first Aborigine to be awarded the honour.
On March 8, 1969, Rose retained the title with a 15-round decision over Alan Rudkin, but five months later he returned to Inglewood, where he faced Ruben Olivares on August 22. Rose lost the world bantamweight title to Olivares via a fifth-round knockout.
Rose continued boxing after his defeat against Olivares, but, after defeats against practically unknown fighters, many believed he was done as a prime fighter. However, he was far from finished: he upset future world lightweight champion Itshimatsu Suzuki on October 10, 1970 in a 10-round decision, and once again, he positioned himself as a world title challenger, albeit in the lightweight division, 17 pounds over the division where he crowned himself world champion.
Despite having lost to Jeff White for the Australian lightweight title, Rose got another world title try when he faced WBC world junior lightweight champion Yoshiaki Numata, on May 30, 1971, at Hiroshima. Numata beat Rose by a fifteen round decision, and Rose announced his retirement soon after.
In 1975, he came back, but after losing four of his next six bouts, including one against Rafael Limon, Rose decided to retire for good. Rose compiled a record of 42 wins and 11 losses as a professional boxer, with 12 wins by knockout
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