Bill Lang (born William Lanfranchi;[1] 6 July 1882 – 3 September 1952) was an Australian professional boxer who held the national heavyweight title.

[19] Lang began his professional boxing career in 1905 — when he fought Edward "Starlight" Rollins, at Melbourne's Queen's Hall in Bourke Street, on 9 January 1905,[22][23] — the same year that he was centre half-back in the Richmond VFA premiership team.

[24] He fought future world champion Jack Johnson at Richmond Race Course on 4 March 1907 for a purse of £500,[25] and lost on a TKO.

[26][27][28] On 3 October 1907 — six bouts later (all of which Lang won) — he defeated Peter Felix at the Broken Hill Hippodrome to claim the vacant Australian heavyweight title when Felix, whose leg was badly injured, was unable to rise from the ring before the count of ten.

[30] Lang won; with a seventh-round TKO (Felix's corner threw in the towel before the eighth round started).

Moving to the United Kingdom,[37] he fought three times at the Olympia, West Kensington, London: On his return to Australia he defended his national title on two occasions, before losing it to Jack Lester, on 9 September 1911, in a points decision.

[57] In the mid-1930s, he wrote an extensive series of autobiographical reminiscences, that were published in sixteen weekly instalments by The Adelaide Chronicle (between 21 November 1935 and 13 February 1936) under the generic title Old Fights Fought Again.