Prizefighting: Up from the Outback

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It would be hard to find a tougher or more tenacious people than Australia's Aborigines. They have to be. Virtually Stone Age nomads, the Aborigine tribes roam naked through the desolate Australian outback, where temperatures in summer often hit 120°. They live off the arid land, eating grubs and roots and maybe, if they get lucky, an occasional lizard or kangaroo. Last week in Tokyo, Lionel Rose, 19, a leathery young Aborigine from Gippsland, Victoria, put his native toughness and tenacity to good use. By outboxing, outpunching and outpointing Japan's Masahiko ("Fighting") Harada over 15 furious rounds, Rose took away Harada's bantamweight boxing title, and thereby became the first world champion—of anything—his people have ever produced.

Rose is a "civilized" Aborigine—which means that he was born under a roof. But the family "humpy" in Gippsland had no floor, no electricity, no toilet, no running water. And Rose's father, an itinerant "tent fighter" who made the rounds of country fairs and carnivals, boxing local stalwarts, died when Lionel was 15. The eldest of nine children, Rose turned to boxing, too—as a means of supporting his family. He fought 19 amateur bouts before collecting his first pro purse in 1964: it came to $45. For last week's fight with Harada, Rose flew economy-class to Japan and stayed in a second-class Tokyo hotel because the third-class hotel he tried first was already full. His cut of the purse came to $7,500, while Loser Harada took home $70,000.

That willingness to fight for peanuts was what got Lionel his crack at the 118-lb. title. Winner of 27 out of 29 pro fights and the sixth-ranked bantamweight in the world, Rose was strictly a substitute challenger—for California's No. 1-ranked Jesús Pimentel, who had demanded a bigger share of the pot. Dancing and weaving, easily evading the champion's bull-like charges, Rose raked Harada with sharp jabs, floored him for an eight-count in the ninth round and outpointed him on the cards of the three ring officials, all of whom were Japanese.