Australias greatest

[Brunswick Assassin]

Fenech was a joke. He was great at beating up taxi drivers from Thailand. The only good thing he did was drew with Nelson in Las Vegas, only to get KOed by him 9 months later in Melbourne.

Sad thing is Jeff believes he's great too.

You seem to know what you're talking about Dude but I can't agree with you on this! You cannot call Victor Callejas a taxi driver! He was one tough dude with high grade dynamite in both fists! He hit Jeff with a ripper uppercut that Callejas used to break Stecca's jaw previously. Jeff made him quit with one hand. Calleja's also one of the dirtiest fighters ever! Payakarun was another animal who hit like a mule. You also can't call Satoshi Shingaki, Daniel Zaragoza, Steve McCrory and Marcos Villasana cabbies! Fenech also won first world title in 107 days since turning pro also! The thing I loved about Fenech the most was that he never knew how to quit and fought hard even when tired! I was devastated when Azumah TKO'd him in Melbourne. If only Fenech had hands like Roberto Duran! Should have been a four weight Champion. Got robbed against Azumah Nelson.

[mgkirkpatrick]

is anybody going to pay les darcy some credit?

[grayfist]

is anybody going to pay les darcy some credit?

Hello mg...

Tragic story, Darcy's...

Victim of politics, and not only boxing politics. Had to take a tanker as a stowaway to escape the mounting criticism for his failure to enlist in the Australian Army which was preparing for WWI. When he arrived in the States he got not much better threatment. The NY governor at the time refused to issue him a boxing license and other governors followed suit. If he fought at all on US soil, I haven't been able to find any mention of it.

Good thing they recognized him and inducted him to the Hall of Fame in the early 90's.

Some think of him as the Salvador Sanchez of the higher weights-- best remembered for what could have been. (Or, should I say, Salvador is the Les of the lower weights?)

Many consider him among the top ten middleweights of all time despite his comparatively "limited" number of engagements (some 50 recorded fights).

Yes, he deserves all the credit and I join you in giving it to him.

Edit: There are conflicting accounts on how he died: one report said he died of Pneumonia but another said he died of blood poisoning-- in Memphis, Tenn.-- resulting from a tooth infection (ala Pancho Villa of the Philippines). Anyhow, his remains travelled back to Australia where it was received with a heroe's welcome.

[mgkirkpatrick]

cheers for that post grayfist. that all matches what ive read.

ive heard the two different accounts of his death too. pnemonia.. and then another saying a tooth he had knocked out in a fight got infected..

i just love to wonder what would have been. 40 odd wins with only 4 losses at the age of 21..

his is a pretty fascinating story. wish more people were aware


grayfist you dont happen to know much about his actual boxing style etc?

[grayfist]

cheers for that post grayfist. that all matches what ive read.

ive heard the two different accounts of his death too. pnemonia.. and then another saying a tooth he had knocked out in a fight got infected..

i just love to wonder what would have been. 40 odd wins with only 4 losses at the age of 21..

his is a pretty fascinating story. wish more people were aware


grayfist you dont happen to know much about his actual boxing style etc?

Thanks mg

I'm sorry, but I know very little. I was told by my father that he was a pressure fighter, as my dad cited a Darcy fight against the fancy dan Fritz Holland, saying it was a classic match of a boxer and a slugger. My dad said one Darcy opponent had been heard saying, "Fighting Darcy is like fighting a gorilla. He's incredibly strong! He's made of iron!"

My dad said, Darcy was not at all the cleanest fighter there was. But then, he quickly added that there scarcely were truly clean fighters back then.

Darcy may have used some illegal means, but he did not come close to Fritzie Zivic in that department, my dad said. Darcy had always refuted charges of being a dirty fighter. He said he may have hit a number of opponents below the belt but those were not intentional. His supporters claimed that to be true, as they argued that because Darcy often swung wildly, sometimes those swings landed on illegal targets.

I got all these from my late father...But, my father was born in 1915, just about the time when Les was in his prime, so, while he certainly saw Zivic fight, he could not have watched any of Les' fights, up close and personal. Besides, Les never fought in the US. So, clearly, my father's few stories about him were ones that were told to him too. Perhaps, by his father.

I think two of Les' losses were DQ's...? These lend grist to speculations that if the refs DQ'd him in these two occassions despite his awesome popularity, how many other instances were there when the refs did not; fearing a riot.

I was told too that three Australian sports promoters have been accused by a number of historians as having been behind the Darcy tragedy because they had wanted to handle Darcy's US career but Les left without telling them. They were reportedly behind the media blitz that vilified Darcy. They reportedly even shamelessly cultivated religious bigotry among Australian protestants of the time. Darcy was a Catholic.

It was said that the famous American journalist Damon Runyon was persuaded by one of the Australian promoters that Darcy was a "shirker" and did not deserve to be treated as a sports hero. Runyon reportedly took up the Australian promoters' chant and wrote ill of Darcy, thereby making the anti-Darcy sentiment in the US snowball. The politicians quickly got in the act. The New York Governor at the time aborted a fight that would have Darcy facing Jack Dillon at the Madison Square Garden. Then, he refused to grant Darcy a license. Many other governors took their cue from the NY gov. It may have been a popular political move at the time. American bleeding hearts were then campaigning noisily for the abolition of boxing in the whole of the USA.

The Darcy story was not told to me in one setting. It was sort of serialized...done over several conversations when I was a boy. I'm past half a century now so I'm sure I have forgotten a number of details. I'm sorry I cannot be of more help.

Edit: Good to see ya, mg!

Edit 2: I now remember a Darcy story that goes: while preparing for a fight, Les played the violin in his dressing room while his opponent played the cello in another dressing room. He was said to be an accomplished violinist. I can't verify this but it is part of the Darcy legend. As if the legend is not rich enough... Reckon: a touch of the Ali story, a touch of the Pancho Villa story and even a touch of the story of the race horse Phar Lap (which was brought to the US from Australia but died before it can compete) on top of details that are the Darcy legend's own!

I now also recall reading few years ago that he was memorialized in a mini-opera titled, "The Flight of Les Darcy," which was staged somewhere in Australia.

[BROOKLYN CESAR]

Fenech is the name on most peoples lips around here in oz but i like Kostya!!! Johnny Famechon, Lionel Rose, Barry Micheal, Lester Ellis, Joe Bugner, Jeff Harding, Kali Meehan, Tony Mundine, Paul Briggs, Anthony Mundine, Danny Green also Guy n Troy Waters where all good but Kostya is the best!!!

[BROOKLYN CESAR]

I forgot Micheal Katsidis The Great!!!

[mgkirkpatrick]

Thanks mg

I'm sorry, but I know very little. I was told by my father that he was a pressure fighter, as my dad cited a Darcy fight against the fancy dan Fritz Holland, saying it was a classic match of a boxer and a slugger. My dad said one Darcy opponent had been heard saying, "Fighting Darcy is like fighting a gorilla. He's incredibly strong! He's made of iron!"

My dad said, Darcy was not at all the cleanest fighter there was. But then, he quickly added that there scarcely were truly clean fighters back then.

Darcy may have used some illegal means, but he did not come close to Fritzie Zivic in that department, my dad said. Darcy had always refuted charges of being a dirty fighter. He said he may have hit a number of opponents below the belt but those were not intentional. His supporters claimed that to be true, as they argued that because Darcy often swung wildly, sometimes those swings landed on illegal targets.

I got all these from my late father...But, my father was born in 1915, just about the time when Les was in his prime, so, while he certainly saw Zivic fight, he could not have watched any of Les' fights, up close and personal. Besides, Les never fought in the US. So, clearly, my father's few stories about him were ones that were told to him too. Perhaps, by his father.

I think two of Les' losses were DQ's...? These lend grist to speculations that if the refs DQ'd him in these two occassions despite his awesome popularity, how many other instances were there when the refs did not; fearing a riot.

I was told too that three Australian sports promoters have been accused by a number of historians as having been behind the Darcy tragedy because they had wanted to handle Darcy's US career but Les left without telling them. They were reportedly behind the media blitz that vilified Darcy. They reportedly even shamelessly cultivated religious bigotry among Australian protestants of the time. Darcy was a Catholic.

It was said that the famous American journalist Damon Runyon was persuaded by one of the Australian promoters that Darcy was a "shirker" and did not deserve to be treated as a sports hero. Runyon reportedly took up the Australian promoters' chant and wrote ill of Darcy, thereby making the anti-Darcy sentiment in the US snowball. The politicians quickly got in the act. The New York Governor at the time aborted a fight that would have Darcy facing Jack Dillon at the Madison Square Garden. Then, he refused to grant Darcy a license. Many other governors took their cue from the NY gov. It may have been a popular political move at the time. American bleeding hearts were then campaigning noisily for the abolition of boxing in the whole of the USA.

The Darcy story was not told to me in one setting. It was sort of serialized...done over several conversations when I was a boy. I'm past half a century now so I'm sure I have forgotten a number of details. I'm sorry I cannot be of more help.

Edit: Good to see ya, mg!

Edit 2: I now remember a Darcy story that goes: while preparing for a fight, Les played the violin in his dressing room while his opponent played the cello in another dressing room. He was said to be an accomplished violinist. I can't verify this but it is part of the Darcy legend. As if the legend is not rich enough... Reckon: a touch of the Ali story, a touch of the Pancho Villa story and even a touch of the story of the race horse Phar Lap (which was brought to the US from Australia but died before it can compete) on top of details that are the Darcy legend's own!

I now also recall reading few years ago that he was memorialized in a mini-opera titled, "The Flight of Les Darcy," which was staged somewhere in Australia.

christ grayfist you're an encyclopedia.

yeah everything i read about darcy shirkin miliary duty sounds like a beat up.. at the end of the day he was under 21 and his mum refused to sign the forms despite les publicly stating his desire to join.

both dqs were against the same opponent from memory?

he must have been a strong bastard.. he was the australian heavy champ at teh same time as middle..

would be awesome to have been brought up on stories of the old days of boxing

did you recognise him in my classic sig grayfist?

[grayfist]

christ grayfist you're an encyclopedia.

yeah everything i read about darcy shirkin miliary duty sounds like a beat up.. at the end of the day he was under 21 and his mum refused to sign the forms despite les publicly stating his desire to join.

both dqs were against the same opponent from memory?

he must have been a strong bastard.. he was the australian heavy champ at teh same time as middle..

would be awesome to have been brought up on stories of the old days of boxing

did you recognise him in my classic sig grayfist?

Your much too kind, mg!

The two DQ's against Darcy were against separate opponents, I recall. One of them was named Smith--that's an easy name to remember. But there were two DQ's involving Smith and Darcy. The first was when Darcy first challenged Smith for the what is called the "Australian Version" of the World Middleweight title. Darcy was the one who was DQ'd in that meeting. Then they faced each other again some time later. In that second meeting, Darcy wrested the title from Smith by DQ.

I can't remember the name of Darcy's opponent in the other fight when Darcy was DQ'd. Something Scandinavian sounding...? Or, it may have been Fritz Holland whom I mentioned in the previous post... I dunno...
I remember though having been told that it was the second meeting with that opponent. Darcy had lost on points in the previous bout, I think...

Yes, Darcy was also the Heavyweight Champ of Australia. I think he won that title some three, four of five fights prior to departing for the US.

In my eyes, holding both the Heavyweight and Middleweight titles simultaneously is made more impressive by Darcy's having started his career at Featherweight a mere three years--more or less-- before winning the Middleweight crown! I think he had two or three bouts at Featherweight, then a couple at Lightweight, then half a dozen at what is now called Jr. Weleterweight...

Now that you pointed it out, why, yes! That's the Maitland Wonder, alright!

Yeah, those conversations with my dad about boxing was something. My father died back in 1977. Those conversations are part of the treasures he left me.

Edit: Sorry for the delayed reply, mg. Didn't spot your post earlier...

[McGoorty]

Name australias greates boxers...

Lionel Rose
Jeff Fenech
Kostya Tyzyu ( We stole him from russia )
Hector Thompson ( My grandad)
Anthony Mundine (Two time world champ he will go down in aussie boxing)

What a pleasure to hear you are HECTORS grand child, I grew up in Ivanhoe and Moree and I heard many tell me that "he was DEADLY BUD", I rank him high with other deadlies like Mundine Sr.,.. Jerry Jerome,.. Dave Sands,.. Ron Richards,.. George Bracken and Jack Hassen. ,.......... Now an all-time Aussie Top 10,... NO. 1, LES DARCY,.. NO. 2,.. Dave SANDS,... No. 3 Kostya TSZYU (yep we Stole him, Lucky us),.. NO. 4 JEFF FENECH,.......... NO. 5 LIONEL ROSE,... 6. Jimmy CARRUTHERS,... 7. Young GRIFFO,.. 8. JOHNNY FAMECHON,... 9. VIC DARCHINYAN,.... 10. TONY MUNDINE Sr (1970's) . IT is a very formidable line-up, I think DAVE SANDS is highly underrated today, he is the second biggest IF in Aussie Boxing and I think he was the No. Contender for the Middleweight belt held by SUGARMAN, NOTE, KATSIDES is still very active but he's Top 20 for sure along with all those I mentioned earlier, round out with long forgotten notables as TOMMY UREN and PADDY SLAVIN. Obviously if Peter Jackson is considered as an Aussie and not West Indian he would be Top 12. Thanks