Ron Beekin Hard luck guy of Australian boxing “A really good bloke to have onside was Ronnie.” declared Paul Hogan in his 2020 autobiography, The Tap-Dancing Knife Thrower. Hogan was recalling a particular incident from the early 1960s when he was about to be on the receiving end of a fearful beating from a Granville thug and standover man imaginatively nicknamed Horsehead. Fortunately his mate Ron Beekin stepped in and felled Horsehead with one perfectly placed punch. At the time, Beekin was an accomplished amateur boxer not far from turning professional. Some ten years later, he would be remembered as one of the more enigmatic figures in Australian boxing throughout the 1960s and, quite possibly, one of the unluckiest. Ron Beekin made his professional debut at Sydney Stadium in November 1962 and outpointed Jim Prior over four rounds. Short route wins over Dennis Trindall, Donn Casey and Warren Ritchie followed as Beekin’s profile began to rise. However, some gym watchers and insiders already had advance knowledge of his ring prowess. In 1960, future World Light Middleweight Champion Ralph Dupas visited Australia and engaged in four winning fights at Sydney Stadium. During a routine training session at an inner city gym, jaws began to drop when it became apparent that Dupas’ sparring partner, an unheralded local fighter, was doing far more than holding his own. One excited spectator ran into a nearby boys club shouting: “I’ve just been watching an amateur putting it over Dupas!” The amateur in question was teenage Welterweight Ron Beekin. Momentum stalled when Beekin moved to Canberra, a city not noted as a boxing hub, in late 1964. However, he managed to snare one bout in the capital city. Elevated to his first ten round main event, Beekin held the well credentialed Alan Roberts to a draw. By September the following year, Beekin was back living in Sydney and promptly picked up the tempo – he thumped out two comprehensive wins over hard nut Sonny Bathis and then travelled down to Melbourne to meet body punching southpaw Gary Ford after Ford’s original opponent Charley Leo withdrew due to a rib injury. An unknown quantity to most Melburnians, Beekin pulled a surprise by knocking out Ford in the sixth round. Three years later Ford briefly held the Australian Welterweight Title. Back in Sydney, Beekin brushed aside fading journeymen Kevin Rose and Arthur Larrigo and, in a one-off winner-
takes-all match at Tom Laming’s Sporting Club in Glebe, he saw off an overmatched Don Clarke in two rounds. Then the freeze-out kicked in. Beekin’s trainer and manager, Bernie Hall, was a 24 carat maverick who refused to run with the pack and had little tolerance for yes-men. Soon enough, Hall’s brash persona started to rub Sydney’s El Supremo of boxing, Ern McQuillan, up the wrong way. For years, McQuillan had dominated Sydney boxing as a trainer, manager, promoter and matchmaker and regarded Hall as a noisy usurper who had to be put back in his box. Protective of his power base, McQuillan used his authority with the NSW Professional Boxing Association to suspend Hall, branding him as a disruptive troublemaker. McQuillan’s actions had a ripple effect and, more or less, disqualified any Hall trained fighter from appearing in Sydney venues. A free thinker, Hall looked outside of Australia for opportunities to keep his marquee Middleweight active. In September 1967, Hall brought Beekin across the ditch to Wellington New Zealand where he was matched with unbeaten Maori big hitter Kahu Mahanga at the city’s Town Hall. Most of the Kiwi fight followers, who knew next to nothing of the Sydney visitor, assumed Beekin would be another pushover for the power punching Mahanga. Instead, Beekin stunned the Wellington crowd by turning on a craftsman-like performance to completely outclass the local fighter. Round after round Beekin’s purposeful jab continually found its target and by round eight a bloodied and dazed Mahanga, who had survived a knockdown, looked every inch a beaten fighter. Referee Tom Fox’s intervention spared Mahanga from further punishment and suddenly Beekin was talk of the town. Now aware that circumstances out of the ordinary had dropped a potential drawcard into their own backyard, New Zealand fight promoters were quick to capitalise and matched Beekin with tough Samoan Fred Taupola. Based in Auckland, Taupola was a granite-jawed puncher who had only lost two fights in a professional career that stretched back to 1962. At Auckland’s YMCA Stadium, Beekin gave a masterful display of a fighter destined for bigger things. For six and a half rounds he outboxed and outfoxed Taupola until a flicking right hand from the Samoan opened a cut over his brow. As blood began
90 THE LAST POST – 2021 ANZAC DAY EDITION
Ron Beekin throwing a left hook at Fred Etuati in Festival Hall Melbourne 1971.
to trickle, the referee stepped in and awarded the fight to Taupola on a TKO. Demands for a rematch were met and a month later Beekin and Taupola were again squaring off at the YMCA Stadium. Beekin had Taupola’s measure from the outset but, this time, far more demonstratively. The Auckland crowd watched on open mouthed as Beekin handed out a terrible beating for four and a half rounds. In the fifth round Taupola, who’d never been knocked off his feet, was crashed to the canvas. He beat the count but was stumbling and defenseless. Post-fight, Auckland’s sportswriters were working overtime on the superlatives. Most agreed on Beekin being the best Middleweight to visit New Zealand since Clive Stewart completed his eight fight tours of duty between 1960 and 1962. Other scribes, who saw bankability in the Sydney fighter, felt the time was right to up the level of opposition. Fate Davis, an African American Middleweight from Akron Ohio, arrived in Auckland in October 1967 and had already disposed of Australian Welterweight Champion Carmen Rotolo and Fijian puncher Inia Cataroga. A stylish fighter with over thirty fights behind him, Davis had only four losses on his record and two were to A-listers Stanley “Kitten” Hayward and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. The Ohio fighter had all the right credentials as a worthy opponent and, furthermore, was easily available. A win over Davis, who was bracketed in the top twenty World Middles, would certainly put Beekin on the international map and, surely, send smoke signals across to Sydney. On 27 November 1967, Beekin and Davis touched gloves in centre ring at
