As he prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his fight of the century with Barry Michael and help him launch his biography, Lester Ellis tells Cade Lucas about his great foe turned friend.
In 1985, Essendon won back to back flags under Kevin Sheedy, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix took place around an Adelaide park not Albert Park, the Australian Open tennis was still played on the grass courts of Kooyong in November and 15/1 shot What a Nuisance won the Melbourne Cup.
But arguably Melbourne’s biggest sporting event of that year occurred not on the grass of the MCG, Kooyong or Flemington, but under the bright lights of an old pavilion wedged beside the train tracks in west Melbourne.
Festival Hall might’ve hosted the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra, but it didn’t become known as the “House of Stoush’ by accident, and the fight held there 40 years ago between Lester Ellis and Barry Michael – two English born boxers from the western suburbs – for the IBF Super Flyweight World Title, is the biggest bout the venue, the city and arguably Australian boxing, has ever seen.
“It was a massive,” recalled Ellis in an interview with Star Weekly ahead of the 40th anniversary on July 12.
“All the judges got together and put it as the fight of the century in Australia. That’s a big rap innit? ” asks the now 60-year-old rhetorically from his home in Taylors Hill which is festooned with belts and trophies from his 22-year career in the ring.
That career brought him a world title and a record of 41 wins from 49 fights, including 28 by knock out, but it’s one of his only eight defeats that he’s most remembered for.
The same could be said for the man who defeated him, Barry Michael, who went onto defend his world title another three times in a distinguished career that included win 48 times from 60 fights, but which is often boiled down to those 15 gruelling rounds in what is now known as Australia’s ‘fight of the century’.
The reasons for this are many and varied. One is that, like all great sporting contests, the bout was a product of its time.
Having gone through the doldrums in the 1970’s, Australian boxing was experiencing a revival by the mid-1980’s with the likes of Jeff Fenech and Ellis at the forefront.
With most fights happening overseas, the prospect for an all Australian world title fight in sport-mad Melbourne was box-office dynamite.
But beyond that Ellis vs Michael was a classic case of friends turned foes.
Both were ten pound poms (Ellis was born in the northern seaside town of Blackpool, while Barry Michael was born Barry Swettenham in Watford, just outside London), both were from families that settled in Melbourne’s west (Ellis in Sunshine and Michael in Williamstown) and both displayed brilliance in the ring, rising quickly though the ranks at similar weights.
The only real difference was age, with Michael 10 years Ellis’s senior and already a seasoned pro by the time the younger man started to make his name.
“I loved him, I loved the ground he walked on mate,” said Ellis of his then hero, who he first shared a ring with as a kid.
“He [Michael] was a 24-year-old, Australian lightweight champion. I was a 14-year-old Australian flyweight amateur champion, and he used to come down and spar me.
“And I’m thinking what’s he wanna spar me for? I asked him one day, he goes, ‘oh, you’re fast, you’re clever, sharpen me up. You help me, you know.”
Given their profession, it’s unsurprising that these friends would eventually come to blows, but even by the low standards of the fight game, Ellis and Michael’s falling out was both fast and furious.
Like all good feuds, the exact reason for it is hard to decipher, but it seemed to begin when Ellis, then just 19, greatly offended Michael by winning a world title before him by beating South Korea’s Hwan-Kil Yuh in March 1985.
To add insult to injury, Michael’s American trainer, Dana Goodson, then walked out on him only to appear in Ellis’s corner soon after.
“I was filthy on him, which I was entitled to be,” said Michael of Goodson in an interview with Star Weekly earlier this year.
Seeking to settle the score Michael immediately demanded first crack at Ellis’s new world title, something the champ didn’t appreciate.
“I was a little bit disgusted when he challenged me for my world title,” said Ellis, hinting that jealousy on the older man’s part played a role too.
Ellis however, wasn’t so disgusted to turn Michael down and soon contracts were signed and Australia’s biggest boxing blockbuster was booked.
While he believes most of the bad blood in the lead up stemmed from his opponent, Ellis admitted to bearing plenty of ill-will towards Michael by the time they entered the ring.
“I hated him that bad on the night, I just wanted to knock his block off,” Ellis said of his approach which he believes cost him the fight.
“I wasn’t thinking about boxing him and trying to get the points.”
By contrast, the eventual winner credits Ellis and Goodson with giving him motivation he needed.
“When I got in the ring I said, ‘thanks for the title Lester,” said Michael.
He was good to his word.
After starting out behind the young champ, the raucous crowd of 7500 at Festival Hall slowly swung behind the old challenger, as Michael’s years of experience, guile and fitness took over.
“I’d never come across somebody that could talk for 15 rounds. He never shut up,” recalled Ellis of the fight in which Michael bashed his ears as well as his body.
After 15 gruelling rounds, Michael was announced the winner by unanimous decision, becoming world champion for the first time at 30 and ending Ellis’s reign after just four months.
The ex-champ spent the rest of the night peeing blood.
“Every time that I went for a wee [after the fight] it was just purple, red blood from the kidney shots.”
Fortunately, Ellis has been able to console himself in the years since with the knowledge that, contrary to reports, he didn’t actually lose.
“Watching the fight [back], up into the 10th round, I thought I was in front.
“In the last five rounds, I gave three to him and two to me, so with me being the champion, I should have got the result,” he said, adding that Michael’s father influenced the judges.
Michael scoffed incredulously when I relayed this to him, retorting that Ellis’s brother got to the judges too and that he’s since has admitted he wouldn’t have won a re-match.
There of course wasn’t a re-match, something which briefly extended the bad blood between the pair (and contributed to Michael’s bashing by notorious gangster Alphonse Gangitano) but which has been consigned to the past.
The pair have long since returned to being friends, something Ellis said began in the immediate aftermath of the fight.
“I was proud that he won the fight so instead of him waiting for the belt to come from America and getting it a couple of months later, I gave him my belt on the night so he could get photos with it,” he said of the arrangement which lasted a few months longer than expected.
“I wanted my belt back, so I rang him up, ‘Barry, where’s my fucking belt, mate?’ That was my belt, buddy.”
Just a few months after fighting at Festival Hall, the two men met at the Deer Park Hotel where Michael returned the belt and they buried the hatchet.
“I gave him a cuddle and said ‘you deserved it,” said Ellis.
On July 12 the two old foes will meet at another western suburbs establishment, Pelican Waters in Williamstown, to mark the 40th anniversary of their fight of the century and launch Michael’s biography for which Ellis wrote the forward.
‘Last Man Standing: The Barry Michael Story’ is published by New Holland.
To attend the launch and pre-order the book: https://shorturl.at/vZ7W0
