26 YEARS OF HURT
And Jeff Fenech’s still screaming, as Matt Christie discovers
THE veins in Jeff Fenech’s neck bulge like sandworms. He’s spitting angry, not with me, thankfully, but with the sport he loves, the sport he feels betrayed him. After a brief but successful amateur career, the “Marrickville Mauler” turned professional in 1984 and 196 days later, was IBF bantamweight champion. Fenech, who went on to become an unbeaten three-weight world champion, now admits the launch from obscurity was hard to cope with, but it was the infamous draw with WBC superfeatherweight champion Azumah Nelson in 1991 that remains intolerable. It was his American debut, but the Las Vegas expedition turned sour at the final bell; Fenech looked like the winner to virtually everyone, but it was called a draw. He had been denied a world title in a fourth division. He didn’t know it then, but Fenech – whose record reads 29-3-1 (21) – would never be the same again, losing the rematch as his form plummeted. Now a fit 52, and with all the fearless rage that made him an all-time great, the Aussie sits down with Boxing News. You were catapulted into fame quickly, which can bring its own problems.
Yes. When I think about the person that I was, coming from the street, I never thought anything could change me. But fame and fortune changes everybody and sometimes I didn’t like the person I became – I got everything for nothing and I could do everything I want to do. It’s great at the time but now I think about it, now I’ve got two daughters, I hate it – I would hate someone to treat my daughters badly. Having children really puts things into perspective. As great as it was, as wild as it was, there are a few things I would change. I’d like to think I could have stayed a little more humble, I could have stayed more grounded, but fame and fortune doesn’t let that happen. How did that fame and fortune affect your career? You suddenly looked like a different fighter when you faced Azumah Nelson in the rematch.
I thought I was going to win the fight, and I have no excuse because he came and beat me [in eight rounds]. I just thought it was going to be a continuation of the first fight; I’d never been hurt before. After the first Nelson fight I went back to the gym and I started sparring, and I was s**t. I was getting knocked a little bit, and I thought, ‘Is this normal?’ Also before that second Nelson fight I was sleeping with five different girls a day, even the day before the fight, doing [public] appearances, doing things I’d never done before in my life. I thought I was going to win but something had gone, something had left me – my toughness. My chin had gone and once that’s gone, there’s no repair. Suddenly I was getting hurt. My whole career I sparred bigger guys – [former WBC light-heavyweight champions] Jeff Harding and Matthew Saad Muhammad were my sparring partners. I think it all caught up with me, and that’s when I started to get hurt. I took a lot of punches from big guys when I was younger, none of them hurt but it all caught up with me. But Nelson was an amazing fighter, and an amazing human and he beat that version of me, but he didn’t beat Jeff Fenech. He would never have beaten the best of me. You were only in your 20s when you realised you were slipping, which must have been hard to deal with mentally. After Nelson, you lost to Calvin Grove…
[Interrupting] Very hard. When you’ve never been hurt in your life and then you can feel it you wonder if it’s real, if it’s really happening. But let me tell you about Calvin Grove. He hit me with a massive punch.
If he’d have hit anyone with the same ➤
it happens too much. You see some of these guys who are No.1 in the world and they couldn’t beat my mother. They’ve beaten 24 idiots to get their ranking. We’ve got to get it right, this can’t go on. The best guys have to fight the best guys, and it has to be fair. When the two best guys in the world fight each other, it’s the best sport in the world.
There have always been bad decisions and sheltered fighters. Will that ever change? How would you make the sport fair?
You need real men on the board of governors. I don’t believe they [officials] cheat, but they know who pays their bills, who sends them to get their c**k sucked. They’re brainwashed without even knowing it. They shouldn’t be put in a position to be brainwashed. We need people who are going to fight for our sport. Do you remember when Danny Green fought Marcus Beyer, the first fight [Green – trained by Fenech – was controversially disqualified in 2003]? Man, they wanted to do a p**s sample, so I threw the p**s all over them. I don’t like the people who represent our sport, and that’s why I’m not involved as much as I’d like to be.
You did have a distinguished career as a trainer, and you mention Mike Tyson, who you trained for his last fight. Describe your relationship with Mike.
I love Mike, and it was a major opportunity for me to train him. I travelled the whole world with him, and that part of my career I loved. I loved it more because it wasn’t just about me training him, it was about looking after him. I stopped the fight [vs Kevin Mcbride, who won when Tyson retired after six rounds] because I wasn’t going to let my friend get hurt, his time was up. The other guys were saying ‘Let him fight!’ Let him fight? Let him fight? Don’t tell me what to do, I’m the trainer. Shut the f**k up, I’ll stop the fight, you know? Send him out there to get punched and knocked down? For what? That’s another thing that’s wrong with the sport. You have to look at some of these idiots who let the kids get beat up. You’ve made a mistake, you’ve overmatched them, stop the fight.
What does make you happy when you look back?
When I won my third world title [WBC featherweight] against Victor Callejas. He was tough. I’d broke my hand prior, if you watch the fight you’ll see it was my right hand, and I used my left hand 85 per cent of the time – so to beat that quality of a fighter [w rsf 10] with one hand, I talk about that as my best fight. The first one [world title, vs Santoshi Shingaki] too, I got 20 grand for that. Man, that was a lot of money for me back then. I remember saying to my friend afterwards, ‘All I need to do is have one more fight, make another 20 grand and I’m out of this game forever.’ Oh s**t, I had no idea. But I look back with pride, even the losses made me a better person. Sometimes it takes that adversity to really find yourself, you know? bn
AFTER THE FIGHT THEY WANTED TO DO A P**S SAMPLE, SO I THREW THE P**S ALL OVER THEM”