By Boxing Bob Newman
At the opening banquet of the 60th annual WBC convention, Jeff Fenech, the “Thunder From Down Under,” was presented with a WBC belt for the super featherweight championship that many felt he should have won 31 years ago.
And his American debut, Fenech challenged then-champion Azumah Nelson for what would have been a world title in his fourth weight class. Most observers around the world, including the Showtime commentary team, felt a Fenech victory was a foregone conclusion. The official judges, however, had it a three-way split draw. Fenech was never the same fighter after that, losing to Nelson via TKO8 in the much anticipated rematch, as well as to former featherweight champion Calvin Grove and raining lightweight champion Philip Holiday, all via stoppage.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman called a special judging panel together. The fight was watched and re-scored, unanimously for Fenech. On hand to present the belt were legendary champions Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez and Miguel Cotto.
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Oh, come on! Yes, Fenech deserved the decision at the time. But this sets a dangerous precedent, not just for boxing but for all athletics. Now the way has been paved for record books to be changed on the whims of interested parties. In boxing, the verdict of the judges should be final–popular or not.
Well said! Here is another thing I am wondering. Did he have to pay for the championship belt that he was prized with after this re-scoring? I think a large amount of the revenue that these sanctioning bodies collect is through the selling of the belts. I met boxer Mikey Garcia once when he came down. At the time, he won the Diamond Belt (I think he just beat Adrien Broner) and I remember hearing from his team that he had to pay a sum of money for the actual belt. I don’t think it was a sanctioning fee only. I think it was for the belt itself, as well. That is why I see the business side of things so clearly when I hear about belts for the Interims, Regular, Super, Continental, Silver, Gold, Azetec, Franchise, etc. If there is any sanctioning body that is reading this and my thinking is inaccurate and the belt is awarded to the fighter for free. Please feel free to correct me. I would love to be schooled in this area of the sport. I think many of us would appreciate the insight.
That’s an excellent point, James, and yes–fighters typically have to pay a “belt fee” when fighting for a world title (on top of the sanctioning fee). It’s a total scam from top to bottom. My only question is: do fighters have to pay Ring Magazine to be awarded the Ring’s championship belt?
@Cubanitovich Last I checked there were no sanctioning fees when fighting for The Ring belt. I don’t know for sure, but I’d be VERY surprised if there was a belt fee. Truthfully, I’d never heard of a belt fee for any of the sanctioning bodies either, so shows you what I know. That’s absolute nonsense if true, but considering who we’re talking about, I would expect it is true.
Not everyone has Fenech’s money for that
You’ve got to be joking. Boxing is woke trash. Just give everyone a belt. What about me don’t I deserve a belt for Floyd Mayweather’s decade of ducking ??
Absolutely ridiculous.
Pernell is flip flopping in his grave…He beat both Chavez and DeLaHoya easy and was robbed in both..Fenech was a cheeter who kneed Azumah . F him..
oh i agree so yea now Pacquiao will want his bouts against Bradley and Horn reversed and and both Castillo and De La Hoya will want their victories over Floyd Mayweather, Hagler will want his belt back from Ray Leonard and the Late Johnny Tapia will want both his fights against Paulie Ayala to be rightfully reversed
Horn vs Pacman was already re-scored.
What about Dave Tiberi???!!!
Justice in the end. Say wot u want about Fenech he loved his country and its people and got ripped off by Don King. Plus he once tried to crack onto my mum true story.
Azumah does not care. He didnt need any rescoring for the rematch. And Fenech Kneed him in the rematch. What about that? Will they re-watch and disqualify him?
Pathetic, but typical for these self-appointed clowns. Rumor is that the WBC is trying to locate relatives of Luis Firpo and award them a belt since Dempsey was assisted back into the ring in their bout. Boxing will never grow up and has deteriorated into an irrelevant laughingstock.
I’m a fan of Jeff Fenech, but imo this is wrong. What about every other fighter who got robbed out of their championship?
What a crock of shit! Is this a real thing or an honorary thing? Are the boxers records now officially changed and does Nelson go down in the books as having lost the title that night? I sure as hell hope not. I’m assuming Fenech recognizes this is total bullshit. Boxing has always been a sport where the sanctioning body heads do whatever they want and make their own rules. Another example of erasing history.
We seem to be living in a world where rewriting history has become the norm. I will not expand much on that, however in terms of boxing…imagine if someone held a convention and overturned Ali’s third fight with Ken Norton? All of a sudden Ali is no longer the 3 time champ. A lot of wrongs happen in this world and always will. However at some point it becomes too late to fix. Rewriting history is not the answer. Learn from it yes…rewrite it? No!
Did they hit him for a sanctioning fee for this nonsense?
This sets a very bad precedent, Yeah he should have won back then, BUT HE DIDN’T. So are we or rather they the WBC gonna go back and review EVERY fight that was scored incorrectly?? What makes this one more special then lets say Floyd vs Castillo #1?? I’m a Mayweather fan, But I’m a boxing fan 1st, & know Floyd lost that 1st fight. So why isn’t that revisited, scored and decided? If it is then that just further makes the sport look shady.
Now that they have a division for almost every pound, this is an example of the creativity needed for additional belts.
Watch the WBC charge him a sanctioning fee for the ‘honorary belt’ LOL!!
for the record everybody this does NOT change the outcomes on their pro record
Love Jeff Fenech but not a fan of this. Opening up a can of worms. There have been many fights that we’re wrongly judged, you can’t give them all belts.
WHAT??? Is this one of those “Don’t worry, Johnny, you are important too….here’s you a medal for trying hard” moments? Winning a championship 31 years after the fact? Then why have judges? Or referees? Should we go back and award Meldrick Taylor a win that was stolen from him in the first Chavez fight? Should we overturn the Erislandy Lara horrible decision loss to Paul Williams? Should Erik Morales get his rightful victory over Marco Antonio Barrera in fight 2? Can we finally allow Jose Luis Castillo to retain his WBC lightweight title over Floyd Mayweather in fight 1 and obliterate the 50-0 myth? Please, let’s not go down that road. Judges and referees blow it but that’s part of the game. If results were to start getting overturned, it would severely alter the history (and future) of the sport. By the way, I saw Nelson vs French 1 live on PPV back on 6/28/91. I did not think a draw was out of the question. Much of what Nelson did was overlooked by the commentators while every little thing Fenech did was hyped up. I don’t have any issues with someone saying Fenech won; I just don’t know that it could be called a robbery. We know what happened in the rematch. And then, incredibly, Fenech actually got an official win over Nelson nearly 15 years later in a long overdue third fight. So they are 1-1-1. Let’s leave it that way. No fourth title for Fenech.
Wait, something dawned on me. Are they going to officially remove the draw from Fenech’s record and are they going to put a loss on Nelson’s record? And if they don’t, then how does this whole “present Fenech with a WBC belt” thing work? I guess the WBC, in their ever-imaginative ways of splintering titles, could come-up with the “Co-champion Belt” (Years Past The Fact) which would result not from overturning an official decision but by declaring both a winner and a tie in the same contest. Hey, why not? Yesterday was November 7 and was 34 years to the day that Sugar Ray Leonard won TWO titles in ONE night in ONE fight by stopping Donny Lalonde for the WBC 168 and 175 championships.
Agree with you 100%, DeRon. Floyd lost that first fight with JL Castillo and this thing with Fenech sets a bad precedent. What makes the bad Nelson-Fenech 1 decision more important than so many others that were worse? I’m sure Dave Tiberi would like his IBF middle weight belt he should’ve gotten after his fight with James Toney, or Dan Schommer the WBO super middleweight belt after getting screwed vs Chris Eubank, . And will Pernell Whitaker finally be oficially be given his decision vs JC Chavez? How about not screw Jack Catterall from his win over Josh Taylor…but wait, the WBC and the promoters did already; never mind. Boxing…I’ve loved this sport for over thirty years and it’s the hardest sport to defend oftentimes.
Cannot make this ish up!!! Just damn!!!!
At the time Azumah Nelson told the SHOWTIME broadcast team ” if you think he won,.. give him the belt.” It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this fight but I do remember Fenech giving Azumah Nelson a lot of problems that night and seemed to come out the better of many of the exchanges. Azumah looked a little flat to me during that performance. I did have it close. Not sure what good this move does 31 years latter. With that maybe they can rescore Dloyd Patterson vs Joey Maxim, Chavez vs Whitaker and Ali vs Jimmy Young.
Where was the WBC at 30 years ago when this took place? Papa Jose was getting paid off by Don King, who has Nelson’s contract.
I felt Horn beat PacMan , Pacman won 1 round absolutely conclusively and coudlnt finish it. but that only counts as a 1 round on the points. But yer, this is silly going back to rescoring boxing matches with a so called new expert panel and re awarding a belt.. absolutely nonsense. Whats happened has happened. They have to get rid of Soulimain on a recount. His father had the job before him didnt he, Was there fair judgement there for the job?