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Lionel Rose vs Takao Sakurai 2.7.1968 - WBC & WBA World Bantamweight Championship

3,694 views · Published 11 November 2016 · 57:03 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: Classic Boxing Matches · 2016 · Sports

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Lionel Rose makes his first defense of the World Bantamweight title which he won from Fighting Harada earlier in the year.  The challenger would be undefeated Takao Sakurai. As the footage is old, the video quality is not the best.  More info below...

Takao Sakurai won the Bantamweight Gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.  He turned pro the following year and by 1968 he was undefeated with 22 wins.  Sakurai had fought solely in Japan and had only faced 1 non-Asian opponent before however he did own wins over former 2 x OPBF Bantamweight Champion Katsutoshi Aoki and former Japanese Bantamweight Champion Tetsuya Yamagami.  

Lionel Rose became an overnight Australian hero in Feb of 1968 when he beat one of Japan's best boxers, Fighting Harada, to win the World Bantamweight title.  Rose became the first Aborigine in boxing history to win a world title and the first indigenous Australian to be named "Australian of the Year" in 1968.  After winning the World title Rose returned to Australia for a non-title fight against former European Bantamweight champion, Tommaso Galli, earning a 10 round decision before travelling back to Japan to meet Sakurai.  Rose had a 29-2 record which also included wins over Canada Bantamweight champion Jackie Burke, former North American Bantamweight champion Ray Perez (twice), former Italian Bantamweight champion Nevio Carbi, USA California State Bantamweight champion Rudy Corona, Phillipines Bantamweight champion Tiny Palacio, France Bantamweight champion Kamara Diop and former Australian flyweight champion, Rocky Gattellari.  

It was a close fight between Rose and Sakurai, with Sakurai's southpaw stance proving a real challenge for Rose.  Both men were similar in weight, height and reach (with a slight advantage to Rose) but Rose was also 7 years younger...  Both men landed good punches throughout and fought a very technical fight with Rose prevailing after 15 rounds to win a majority decision.

Lionel Rose would successfully defend his World titles twice more both via split decisions before losing them to the hard punching and undefeated Mexican fighter, Ruben Olivares.  Lionel's career would go up and down over the next 2 years before retiring in for the first time in 1971 following a loss to WBC World Super Featherweight Champion, Yoshiaki Numata.  Rose returned to the ring in 1975 due to financial issues and although he started off strongly with a win over Bomber Uchida, Rose lost 4 of his next 5 fights before retiring again in 1976.  His final record was 42-11.  

The loss to Rose didn't slow Takao Sakurai down too much as he won his next 3 fights which included decision wins over Japanese Bantamweight Champion, Ushiwakamaru Harada, and OPBF Bantamweight Champion Won-Suk Lee, although neither title was on the line.  In 1969 Sakurai travelled to the States and took part in a World Bantamweight Title Elimination bout against Ruben Olivares but was stopped in the 6th round.  Sakurai got a rematch with Won-Suk Lee before the year was out but this time the OPBF title was on the line with Sakurai prevailing after 12 rounds.  Sakurai successfully defended his OPBF Bantamweight title twice before retiring as the champion in 1970 with a 30-2 record.

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