By Boxing Bob Newman
Aussie boxing legend and Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech took the time to speak with Fightnews.com® about his recent coronation to 4-division champion at the WBC convention in Acapulco, Mexico. Fenech was unceremoniously denied the WBC super featherweight title 31 years ago after his fight with fellow legend Azumah Nelson was judged a draw. The WBC decided to form a panel, rescored the fight, and unanimously found Fenech as the winner. Hear his thoughts on the decision, as well as how life is treating him.
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Maybe I’m blind, but Azumah Kept it close. Everybody says that fight was a wipeout, but it was far from that. Seen way worse scoring since.
Fenech being given the belt 31 years after the fact reminds me: back in 2000, I was lucky enough to have bartended at a banquet in Puerto Rico where they were bestowing Felix Trinidad with an honorary Olympic gold medal! He had just defeated David Reid, along with wins over Pernell Whataker and Oscar DeLaHoya- all Olympic gold medalists. In the mind of the Puerto Rican boxing commission, or whoever made the decision, that meant Felix Trinidad deserved an Olympic Gold Medal as well. I fail to see the reasoning, but hey, I was just the bartender! Felix Trinidad had an amazing career: a 3 division world champion with victories over some of the finest fighters of that era, but an Olympic gold medalist he was not. You can’t hand him over one, especially when he never even fought in The Olympics.
I enjoyed hearing your story. Yes, I have the same feeling that you have, about the gold medal. Felix Trinidad = Great, Olympic Gold Medal = Great…. it doesn’t mean they both go together. To earn a Olympic gold medal would mean that you earned the right to represent a specific country and beat the best fighters under the Olympic judging system. It not more then what he did in his pro career, its just a different thing all together.
What in the name of Louis vs Jersey Joe 1 is going on here? So are we going down this road? It’s crazy! So why not revisit every close or bad decision. This is crazy.
The wbc has stolen the clown car and hit the freeway. Dropping fighters on Nationality. Ranking others who have never fought in division. Offering to rank youtubers. And now arbitrarily and literally rewriting history.
Well that’s what I say the wbc are the gods of boxing and Jose sulaiman is the king god of them all.
Just more silliness and corruption from Mauricio Sulaimán and the WBC. Now he forms an unofficial panel made up of who knows and has them decide to change results. Not to mention it’s incredibly disrespectful to Azumah Nelson, his family, his team and his supporters.
This is just dumb
“Cowboy” Bill Eaton was clearly robbed against Butterbean in their first fight. They need to cough up that “King of the 4-Rounders” belt to Eaton while they’re at it…
Any fighter with integrity would not accept this award. It was a close fight but Fenech didn’t win the fight,
having entered the ring for the first fight having lost a good deal of his strength due to a recent battle with malaria, proved to be way too clever, way too powerful and way too masterful for Fenech; stopping him in the eighth-round of another sizzling fight.
WTF, I got robbed once too, can I get it reversed?
Bad Headaches Are Made Of These:
Stonehouse, Plymouth, 1987.
In a room full of cigarette smoke,
Men with flat noses and thickened eye brows,
Painted ladies,
And lots of alcohol.
I step through the ropes for my 5th time,
Shitting myself inside.
I’m the away guy,
fighting a local lad.
The bell rings.
A right hook detonates on the side of my jaw.
Violently spinning my head
Wrenching my neck.
As a flashbulb goes off behind temporarily blinded eyes.
But I can see.
See a grey haze slowly fall from the ceiling
Paining the walls as it descends down to the floor.
Out on my feet,
but still on my feet.
Surviving the first few seconds.
A voice inside me screams,
Pleads,
‘Move! jab, move! don’t get hit again! .. yet! ‘
Not yet, clear your brain.
Wait for the grey haze in the room to lift.
The crowd yell encouragement to my punisher.
Fuckers.
They want blood
To see me bludgeoned,
Starched on the canvas.
Maybe I do too,
I’m stationary.
Taking more punishment
As the gloved pistons hit my face
Pummeling my nose and lips,
I suck in huge lung fulls of blood infused air.
The blows don’t hurt anymore
They thud,
Thud,
Thud,
Painless dull jolts.
I’m numb.
This guy can’t hurt me.
I fight back
Trading blows
Taking and giving in equal measure
Balancing it out.
His punch rate drops
Yeah, he can dish it out
But can he take it?
How much can he take?
How much can I give?
The bell rings before I find out.
Round 1 over,
Thank fuck.
60 seconds to get my breath back,
To listen to my corner.
Round 2.
I avoid the wide, wild hooks
No more grey walls.
But the thuds continue,
Flush in the face,
A bang in the ear,
Ringing.
Firing back,
Landing plenty,
I think.
Trying to keep the balance in my favour
But how?
Follow a game plan?
How do you remember a plan when you’re getting your brain mashed?
Fuck the theory,
This is war.
I fight on instinct,
That’s it,
Have faith in my ability to absorb pain,
Have faith in my fitness.
The bell rings.
Round 2 done.
A better round.
A victory.
60 seconds respite.
60 second to suck in the hugest gulps of air.
Round 3.
We touch gloves
A gentlemanly gesture
But we’re not gentlemen now.
I want to finish him, he wants to finish me.
The adrenaline keeps me punching,
Absorbing.
Drenched in sweat,
Continuing this brutal dance.
A slower pace,
Still connecting,
Racking up an advantage.
He fires back,
But the thuds have less impact
Still,
Thud,
Thud,
Advantage gone.
Digging deep.
It must be almost over.
Rallying with a final sustained attack,
I’ve got the fastest pistons now.
But this guy will not be denied,
We trade,
Blow for blow.
Brain cell for brain cell,
Slowly destroying each other.
The final bell and its over.
Dazed and relived,
Awaiting the decision.
The ref brings us to the centre
Beaming from ear to ear
Jovially complementing us.
‘We’ve got a pair of tough nuts here’.
The crowd are cheering.
They know they got their moneys worth.
The winner… Isn’t me.
A guy in the crowd tells me,
like it’s a well known fact,
‘You won that fight!’.
I’ll take that, it’s as good as it’ll get tonight.
I saw this fight . Classy Freddie blassy vs some pencil neck geek.
Do those m………s have a time machine to go back in time and right the wrong . Money can buy everything in boxing nowadays .
Like a said
I wonder if Sulaimán and the WBC we do the same thing for the Chavez-Whitaker fight. lol.
I remember Jeff for his many great fights! Especially against Payakarun…..That fight right there is what made me a Fenech fan! It was many moons ago I the 80’s, but I feel many of those older fighters had more Will to fight than most, not all, but most fighters now. They fought each other and the best amongst themselves! Now you can’t even get two great fighters to face each other in the same division…..
WBC: the gods of boxing.
This is a travesty in my view. The WBC is a joke.
Jeff definatley won that by 2 or 3 points, sad to see and its good jeff praises Azumah nelson and I do think hes the best boxer to come out of his nation, Don king will be always known as a grub and people will psss on his grave for sure, we love jeff and we love azumah, very sad story indeed that it even happened, case closed
Everything WBC and belched up by it’s leader gets published here.
turn2stone, makes you wonder.
They should do the same in the Holyfield v Ruiz fight, in which Holy was penalized for a low blow, that was a legit knockdown, and for the Valuev loss, which would have made him 5th and 6th time HW champ, plus give him the record of oldest to ever win a world title.