Name: Randall William (Ron) Richards
Born: 8 May 1910 Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.
Died: 14 January 1967 aged 56 Sydney, Australia.
Career: 1928 to 1945
Record: 133 fights, 96 wins (58 by KO/TKO), 26 losses (8 by KO/TKO), 10 draws, 1 ND ,***
Division: Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight
Stance: Orthodox
Titles: Queensland State, Australian and British Empire (Commonwealth) middleweight, Australian Light heavyweight, Queensland State and Australian Heavyweight,
Major Contests
Scored wins over: Fred Henneberry (6 times), Tommy Fielding, Jack O’Brien (twice), Ray Actis, Tommy Jones, Gus Lesnevich **, Alabama Kid, Leon Zorrita, Young Frisco,
Lost against: Fred Henneberry (Three times), Ambrose Palmer (Four times),Jack O’Brien (Three times) , Jack Carroll, Archie Moore(Twice)**, Young Frisco, Alabama Kid
Drew with: Fred Henneberry(twice), Bobby Delaney, Jack O’Brien,
No Decision- Alabama Kid
*** Some sources quote Richards as having had 142 “recorded” fights, some as 146 fights but Box Rec has 133 so I will go with that.
**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title
* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title
Ron Richards’ Story
Richards is considered by many as one of the best boxers produced in Australia and he held the Australian middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight titles at the same time. Richards was born to Aboriginal parents, Randal Richards and his wife Florence, at the Deebing Creek Aboriginal Presbyterian mission near Ipswich in Queensland State Australia. His father had been a bare knuckle fighter so both he and his younger brother Maxie took up boxing at a young age. They both gained experience through fighting in travelling boxing shows at local fairs. (Maxie also turned professional compiling a record of 110- fights, 52 wins , 41 losses, 15 draws 2 No Decisions)
The first traced fights as a professional for Richards are on 28 April 1928 when. as a 17-year-old, he had two four round fights on the same night drawing one and winning the other. His next recorded fight was in August 1928 in Brisbane when he was knocked out in the first round by Norm Johnson. Richards’ weight was recorded as 153 lbs.
There is no record of him fighting again until 1932 a year in which he had 21 fights going 19-2. During that year he moved up to ten and fifteen rounds fights (At that time in Queensland 10 and 15 round fights were over two minute rounds) and he won the Queensland heavyweight title in August although weighing just 159 lbs with his opponent weighing 168 lbs. In November he took the Queensland middleweight title but in December lost on points against Ambrose Palmer who would beat Richards four times, and go on to train World featherweight champion Johnny Famechon.
Richards went 6-3-2 in his eleven fights in 1932. In January he fought a draw with Fred Henneberry and in March beat Henneberry on a disqualification to win the Australian middleweight title. These two fights were the beginning of a series of 11 fights between them ending at 6-3-2 for Richards with Hannebery disqualified in three of their fights. He also lost for the second time against Palmer. The fighting pool in Australia was not deep at that time and so Richards often fought opponents more than once and in his 133 fights he was reported as having only fought 76 different opponents.
He was again busy in 1934 and 1935 with 37 fights in 24 months going a modest 26-8-3. In some of the fights Richards had a slight weight advantage but in other fights he took on much heavier opponents, An extreme example was his fight against Al Rex who weighed 188 lbs to 161 for Richards.
In 1936 he retained the Australian heavyweight title against a 25 lbs heavier Art Young Campbell and at the end of the year decisioned Henneberry to retain the Australian middle weight title.
He was involved in a scandal in 1936. He scored a second round win over Al Norwood who was supposedly an American with a very impressive record. Norwood did not exist and in fact Richards faced a Sydney prelim fighter billed as Norwood and stopped him in two rounds. Richards was supposed to carry his opponent for a few rounds but said it was harder to prop him up than knock him down!
He defended the Australian heavyweight belt in 1937 and also won the national light heavyweight title the same year. He lost the heavyweight title to Palmer in 1938 but retained the heavyweight title twice with two inside the distance wins over Claude Nichol. Their respective weights were 162 lbs and 185 lbs but in those days anything over 175 lbs was a heavyweight. In May 1938 Richards had scored an impressive 56 seconds kayo of Ray Actius then rated No 5 light heavyweight by Ring Magazine. After the Actius win Richards faced future world champion Gus Lesnivich and floored Lesnevich for a nine count in the third and going on to outpointed Lesnevizh.
That lifted Richards to No 3 in the Ring ratings but the hoped for title shot never came. He continued to fight with some good and some not so good results. He lost a few fights he was expected to win but made a successful defence of the Australian middleweight title in 1939 and won the vacant (Empire) Commonwealth middleweight title in 1940. That was yet another busy year for Richards. Archie Moore visited Australia in 1940 and Richards floored Moore in the first round of their fight in April but was eventually stopped in the tenth round and then lost on points against Moore in July. He made a defence of the Australian heavyweight title in September and retained the Commonwealth and Australian middleweight titles in December.
He repeated that feat in 1941 again retaining the Australian heavyweight title and in another fight retaining both the Commonwealth and Australian middleweight titles.
Outside of the ring Richards’ life was falling apart. He had been hit hard by the death of his wife in 1937 and was drinking heavily and training rarely. In January 1942 he was stopped in eight rounds by Alabama Kid (Real name Clarence Reeves who fought from 1928 to 1950 with a record reading 297 fights 208 wins (118 by KO/TKO), 59 ,losses, 23 draws and 7 No Decisions). He fought Alabama Kid again three months later and both were thrown out for “not trying”. Four of the No Decisions on Alabama Kid’s record were also for not trying. Richards had only one fight in 1943, was inactive in 1944 and lost two and drew one of his fights in 1945 with the last a loss in April.
He had used his ring earning to buy houses for his family but he had no real control over his finances and quickly went through what money he did have. He was arrested and charged with vagrancy in 1947 leading to his confinement by Queensland State in an Aboriginal settlement for three years. After his release he lived briefly in Sydney and was arrested for vagrancy and drunkenness and sent to Palm Island Aboriginal reserve for 17 years where he worked as a gardener and carpenter’s labourer.
He returned to Sydney when his daughter advised him of the ill health of his second wife and died of a heart attack in Dulwich Hill, a suburb of Sydney, on 14 January 1967 at the age of 56. His funeral was attended by many of the most famous names in Australian boxing.
Richards was inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.
Addendum
Alabama Kid Real name Clarence Reeves-born in Georgia on 1st January 1914. His career lasted from 1928 to 1950 having his first recorded fight at the age of 14 and a 22-year career with a record reading 297 fights 208 wins (118 by KO/TKO), 59, losses, 23 draws and 7 No Decisions). The record is probably incomplete as in his first recorded fight in June 1928 it said this is the third fight against Mickey Iler with them being 1-1 and a month later after a draw with Iler the editor’s note said Kid had scored 17 wins in his last 19 fights. It seems he had over 300 fights and not too many fighters had over 100 inside the distance wins. The first recorded weight for Alabama Kid was 114 lbs and the highest 190 lbs.
Weights
Today a difference of just a few pounds can lead to a fight being cancelled but the subject of weight was not viewed the same way in the days when anyone over 175 lbs was a heavyweight.
The lowest Richards weighed was 151 lbs and the highest 168 lbs. In the eight division days up to 160 lbs was a middleweight over 160 lbs was light heavyweight and over 175 lbs a heavyweight. Some differences in weight in Richards fight are:
1933
- Johnny Freeman 162-181 Richards conceding 19 lbs
- Ambrose Palmer 155-172 conceding 17 lbs
1934
- Al Rex 161-188 conceding 27 lbs
1935
- Son Tealey 154-193 conceding 39 lbs+
- Young Aguinaldo 163-188 conceding 25 lbs
1936
- Art Young Campbell 160-185 conceding 25 lbs*
1938
- Claude Nichol 163-185 conceding 22 lbs*
Vs. Claude Nichol 163-186 conceding 23 lbs*
1940
- Max Raynor 162-180 conceding 18 lbs*
1941
- Billy Britt 166 -183 conceding 17 lbs*
*Australian heavyweight title fights
+ Tealey had weighed as high as 188 lbs but not sure if the 193 is a misprint