Graeme “Porky” Brooke still hurts – but not physically.
The first cousin of Australian boxing great Lionel Rose gets emotional when he talks about how his boxing dream ended.
His story has been immortalised in Stolen Glory: The Tale of Porky Brooke, a film from Welcome Stranger Productions directed by Altona Meadows’ Aaron Ellis and produced by Lester Ellis jnr.
Aaron interviewed boxing royalty from Melbourne’s west for the film, including his uncle, Lester “Master Blaster” Ellis, and Williamstown’s Barry “Boy” Michael, who broke Porky’s unbeaten record.
Porky, now 54 and living in Keilor Downs, is described in the film as a prodigy.
He worshipped Rose and left school at 16 to follow him in to the ring.
Porky had 18 straight wins before winning the Commonwealth lightweight title at Melbourne’s Festival Hall in 1984 aged 21.
His battler parents, Graeme snr and Gwen, had put their Flemington house on the line to finance his bid for the Commonwealth title.
Porky had a shot at becoming world champion when he was made to undergo non-compulsory medical tests that detected an irregularity.
Speaking to Star Weekly at the Team Ellis Gym on a gritty Keilor East estate where he mentors young boxers, Porky said he believed he was targeted for testing because of a falling out with management.
“It hurt – it hurt a lot, the way I went out of boxing,” he said.
“I didn’t want to go out that way, and the boxing board doing this to me – Commonwealth champion – it really hurt, them taking my licence off me.
“The boxing board made me go for a head scan, memory test and an EEG. Well, the head scans were good, memory perfect, but something small was showing on the EEG.”
Porky went to court to fight to get his licence back. But he was delivered a knockout blow, barred from boxing at age 22.
“There’s a lot of politics in boxing,” Porky said.
“It eats at me and it hurts, just what the boxing board did to me … I don’t want to swear.”
Stolen Glory: The Tale of Porky Brooke will premiere at Yarraville’s Sun Theatre in May.
