RON RICHARDS TELLS HIS OWN STORY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 159, 8 July 1939, Page 4

RON RICHARDS TELLS HIS OWN STORY

METEORIC RISE TO FAME

MIDDLE-WEIGHT CHAMPION OF AUSTRALIA IN 1936

HAS NO INTENTION

OF GOING ABROAD

> Acceptance ol a ’tent challenge in > ■ j3l .... first real fight, a few months Mter .... middle-weight champion of ’Australia in 1936 .... and triple i champion Jess than two years later by 'securing the light-heavy and heavy titles. Such was the metoric progress of Ron Richards, .popular Australian boxer. His is a romantic story, which ha 3 no parallel in the fight game in the Commonwealth. If I may begin my story at the end , I should like first of all to make my position clear. As everybody know.-, I have had offers up to £3OOO to meet Lon Harvey in England and Solly Krieger in America. I appreciate both (states Richards in his reminiscences in the Melbourne Sporting Globe). But. I want it clearly understood that while I can get a reasonable number of contests in Australia 1 have no intention of going abroad. That is definite. Now to the gloves and resin. A.s a beginning, let me tell you that for everything 1 have done in the i light game, and for what I have de- • rived from it, most of the credit goes i to my dad. He taught me and put me in :i game I am sure I would never thave tackled on my own. There were three of us kids in th' family -one girl, Maxie, who is also i lighter, and myself, the eldest. I was born at Ipswich, Queensland, on M.-.y 6, 1913, and went, to the local State school there until I was 15. Before ind during my schoolboy ' days I don’t nk I was like the ■ I average run of k as. seeing that I was I never in a scrap of any sort. Became FigTL-ni.nUed. 1 had plenty of opportunities, but was the kind who would walk a mile around trouble rather than take a short cut through it. Even after leaving school and working around the bush I was just the same, in spite of the fc/'t that I must ' have had the fighting instinct in me, , as you will learn later. My first job on leaving school wa-> will- my dad, falling scruc on a farm near Boonah. It was tough work, but f never regret having taken it on. For swinging the axe from daylight fill dark built muscles and stamina which I am sure has helped me through many a hard fight. Out in the bush with no form of entertainment on tap, reading occupied all my spare time. Dad, who was a good all-round sport, always had a budget, of sporting papers, which I read inside and out. Strange to .say. the boxing pages had a magnetic attraction for me. I would read them over and ovei until I felt I really knew the champions of that time. How well I can remember reading of Ambrose Palmer and Fred Henneberry, conjuring up mental pictures of their great fights, but never dreaming I that I would ever co those champion;-. If you had told me that some I would be in the ring with these men I would have suggested you were hopelessly insane. But Fjjch a fairy tale actually came true, for I fought them both. The constant reading of all this t'ght must have made me fightminded, for at the Boonah show I scared the life out of n.y dad by taking a glove with a member of a travelling boxing show. To this day I can fc-el the thrill I got out of that roug.) and tumblethat’s all it could be calied. Little did the felloe' 1 was fighting dream t. at he was swapping punchewith the future tri.) 1 champion of the country, who would some day bo sought after by promoters in England iaud America. 1 am certain no such crazy thought ever entered my head, i Indeed, I had no idea that I would light again. | My dad was the o< one in the I tent who could see anything in me. ■ Right away he bought a set of gloves and started in to teacn me as soon as we got back to th? farm. As I told you earlie). dad was •. good all-round sport, and boxing was his best.Right from the start things came easy to me under ai- tuition, and those boxing sessions iculd not come around too soon for me. even though I would be dog tired after swinging the axe all day. Bitten by Fight Bug. In no time I was properly bitten by the fight bug, adds Richards. I saved my pocket money, and went to Brisbane to see all Hhe important fights about that time. Now 1 am going to hand a surprise when T tell you that the first big fight I saw was the r\ r ht Merv Williams fought Sunny Jim William:-;, the coloured boy from America, who had just put Billy Edwards, the Newcastle boy, out of the game. My dad was working hard to teach me and get me into shape during this time, and eventually he fixed a rounder against Jerr;, Simmons, a ; the Bohemia Stadium, n! isbane. [ This was my first rea'. fight, and was 1 nervous. | The crowd had me scared stiff. ; Those first couple of rounds will aljways rema: - a blank «n my memory, il could think of nothing.

f Eventually. I came good, and stopped him in t»ie fifth round. My pay I off was 30s. A bit of i contract io | the i 200 1 got recently for my fight ’th Ov.ie Str wart. After that, my first fight, I went buck' to the axe and my boxing lessons wit.) dad, until he fixed another fight at the Bohem.a, wheic I later had several more. That place was only a small joint, but it proved a palace to me. and one I shall never forget. None of my fights there went over eight, rounds, which built up my reputation so that before long 1 was booked for the Brisbane Stadium, and the start of the real money*era. My first match under the Stadium banner was with Tony Gora. What a fight, and what, a n?u;e. Because I was a local, with a good record, the place was packed to see us punch I-.olcs in one anolhi r for :he 15 rounds, •«’! the finish ot which I landed the Ccc.sion. My next was i i easy one. I met. j Jimmy Pearce, and after shaking | ii’.nd.s we went, to our cGineis to wait i fur the bell. It had hardly stopped ringing by the time wc came together. 1 threw a rigr.i to the chin and th? figl’t. was over. Jim iy w.is down for th? count. After a long list of wins at Br.sbanc, I was brought to Sydney, and made debut al Rushcutters Bay Stadium. I fought Ambros Palmer, one of the follows 1 had made an idol in those days when I was in the bush. Ambrose was .still the good fighter ; I had pictured. He licked me on points. Right after this they tossed me in against. Fred Henneberry, in a noniitle fight, which ended in a draw. Then, after a couple of matches with le.cer lights, I fought Fred again. This time his title was on the lino, and I won on a foul in the 13th round. Travelling back to Brisbane with the middle-weight title of Australia in my bag, 1 was the proudest boy in the | world. 'This was the greatest thrill of my whole life. I was an undisputed champion, and looked all *t in a position where I could adequately repay my folks for what they had done Io make mo what 1 was. This was an ambition I had cherished right through the piece. I was not destined to hold that title very long, for after one fight with Dealer Wells, I gave Henneberry a chance to win it back -and he did. I injured my hand, and retired in the 10th round. This was in 1933. This .setback did not Injure my drawing power, for I went on fighting and drawing big gates. I met all the imported lighters, and the best of the locals during the next three years, a.x! though I fought Fred Henneberry four times over that period, it was not until our last meeting, at th'' end of 1936, that I was able to win the title back from him. This made the seventh time Fred and I had fought. I had signed articles for Ihe eighth, giving him another chance to go the title when he left for England. This fellow was always a tough match. A regular bulldog, he was never licked. Looking back over all the men I have met in the ring, Ambrose Palmer stands out as the best of the bunch. He knew all the answers on defence, and was by far the hardest of the lot to land a decent punch on. Always fit and well, fie would fight back hardest just when you thought he was done. Game Gus Lesnevich. The hardest puncher I met was “Deacon’’ Loo Kelly. He raised lumps on me everywhere he landed, and at times I thought the Stadium roof had collapsed on my head. The American. Gus Lesnevich, will always remain in my memory as the toughest opponent. I fought. On three occasions I lifted him inches off the floor with a right uppercut, expecting to see him crumple up, but instead he put his head down and tore into it like an enraged bull. He kept this up all through the light in defiance of everything I landed. Gus had a heart so big he would need to turn sideways walking through a door. Although I have been in the game nearly eight years, I am fighting better than ever before, because since joining forces with manager Jack Munro and trainer Tommy Kelly I am more contented than at any previous lime, and definitely in better condition. I l his story would not be complete without a mention of the wonderful :;ssistance my good wife has been In helping me to handle the financial end of my fighting. Mainly through her careful manipulation I have folks happily settled in b nice home at Brisbane, and, provided I can hold my present form for a while longer, 1 should be sitting pretty in the sunset of my life.