How a notorious Underbelly gangster beat Aussie boxing legend Barry Michael so badly he thought he would die in vicious nightclub attack witnessed by Chopper Read

• Boxing world champion was attacked by well-known crime boss
• Barry Michael says the brutal beating put an end to his career

By JAMES COONEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 00:05 BST, 6 April 2025 | Updated: 00:05 BST, 6 April 2025

Aussie boxing champion Barry Michael has opened up on a harrowing encounter in a Melbourne nightclub which left him with a career-ending injury at the hands of an infamous underworld figure.

The former IBF World Junior Lightweight title holder has revisited a chilling incident that occurred at Melbourne’s Lazars nightclub in 1987.

Michael, then 32, entered the King Street establishment with his first wife Sandy and a friend and was quickly spotted by notorious crime boss Alphonse Gangitano – known as the Black Prince of Lygon Street.

Michael had defeated Aussie boxer Lester Ellis two years previous in an epic domestic grudge match – and Gangitano was involved with the promotion of Ellis’ fights.

‘We sort of waved to each other,’ Michael told The Little Fish podcast.

‘I hadn’t seen him in years… and all of a sudden a bottle of champagne came over and the waiter said “This is from Mr Gangitano and he’d like to talk” and to cut a long story short we went and talked.

Boxing champion Barry Michael (pictured) was attacked in a Melbourne nightclub by crime boss Alphonse Gangitano and his henchmen in 1987

The crime boss wanted Michael to give Ellis a rematch, which the champion pug says he was open to.

‘I’m telling Alphonse that I’ll fight him (Ellis) anytime, let’s get together with the other guys, my team, which was some colourful waterfront identities, and we’ll sort this fight out, when all of a sudden my first wife started screaming,’ Michael explained.

‘I’ve turned around and my mate Simon is unconscious and being carried out by the bouncers. One of Alphonse’s friends had just king-hit him coming off the dancefloor.

‘I was just surrounded by quite a few guys with death in their eyes and the first thing I thought was “I’m probably dead” because I know they carried pistols and whatever.

‘I turned to Alphonse and said “You f***ing so-and-so, you’ve set me up” and he’s jumped me and I went back on a couch – and I never got off it…

‘They just beat the crap out of me. Chopper Read reckons he was there – I didn’t recall seeing him – it was all a bit of a blur.

‘That night I was concussed… my nose was smashed right under my left eye. He (Chopper Read) reckons they smashed me with one of those glass ashtrays.

‘Alphonse latched onto my right cheek – he tried to bite my right cheek off.’

The boxing champion says Gangitano (pictured) – known as the Black Prince of Lygon Street – tried to bite his right cheek off

Australian hitman Mark ‘Chopper’ Read (pictured) said he witnessed the whole attack and that Michael had been struck with a glass ashtray during the beating

Actor Vince Colosimo would later play the role of Gangitano in the Underbelly TV series

The world champion stumbled out of the club a mess and went straight to hospital to treat his injuries.

He chose not to press charges against Gangitano and his henchmen because ‘there would have been repercussions’ for his family.

Michael also believes the brutal beating heavily impacted his defense of the world title four months later against Rocky Lockridge.

‘After the beating in Lazars, that was the end of me,’ he said.

‘Motivation wise, I lost the desire, I wasn’t the same…

‘Take nothing from Lockridge because he was a great fighter, but at my very best I could have beaten him. And my nose broke in the first minute of the first round against Lockridge – which was after having being reconstructed.’

On January 16, 1998. Alphonse Gangitano was shot dead, wearing only his underwear, as he stood in the laundry of his Melbourne home.

His death is widely regarded as one of the early events in Melbourne’s gangland killings that spanned from 1998 to 2010. 

Vince Colosimo would later play the role of Gangitano in the first Underbelly TV series.

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How a notorious Underbelly gangster beat Aussie boxing legend Barry Michael so badly he thought he would die in vicious nightclub attack witnessed by Chopper Read

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