The SP Sports Awards for this year will be happening on Saturday Night May 27th at the Crown Hotel and the event will feature an important icon in the boxing arena, Australian former world champion boxer Jeff Fenech, who will officiate as a guest speaker for the event.
Jeff Fenech who is also known as “Marrickville Mauler” Fenech won titles in three weight divisions in the span of 20 fights in just 3 1/2 years. Fenech in his seventh fight captured the IBF bantamweight title on April 26, 1985, with a one-sided ninth-round TKO over champion Satoshi Shingaki of Thailand.
He defended the bantamweight crown three times, including a rematch win over Shingaki (TKO 4) and a 14th -round TKO over 1984 Olympic champion Steve McCrory of the United States.
Fenech went on to win his second title on May 8, 1987, when he attacked WBC super bantamweight champion Samart Payakaroon from the opening bell and turned in another signature performance where he steadily wore down the champion before the referee stepped in and stopped the contest in the fourth round. And in 1988 he was forced to move up to featherweight and did not disappoint when he is captured his third world title via 10th – round TKO on March 7, 1988, defeated Puerto Rico’s Victor Callejas, who was a former champion.
Fenech made history when he defeated Callejas for the vacant WBC featherweight crown, because the win made him the first undefeated fighter to win titles in three divisions.
Despite a successful career in boxing, Fenech had brittle hands which caused him so much pain that had him hang up his gloves after defeating Marcos Villasana in his third defense of the featherweight belt, on April 8, 1988. After surgery to his hands, his retirement was short-lived and he returnrd to the ring that November with a 12-round decision over Mario Martinez.
He then went to the United States, the scene of his last defeat, for his challenge of WBC super featherweight champion against Azumah Nelson of Ghana, a well-schooled boxer who himself was a two-division champion.
On June 28, 1991, in Las Vegas, Fenech attacked Nelson, from the opening bell, Fenech seemed to dominate the fight and often had Nelson pinned against the ropes and in Round 12, Fenech exhausted the champion but was unable to finish him off. The Australian was shocked and heartbroken when the fight was declared a draw.
He attempted two more comebacks after this controversial bout, but both ended inside the distance. He retired in 1996. More than 30 years later after being controversially denied the super-featherweight belt, Fenech was awarded the strap retrospectively at a World Boxing Council convention in Acapulco, Mexico last year.
Jeff Fenech now sits among an elite group of boxers to have won world titles in four weight divisions and he was also inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame Moderns category in 2003, and he became the 4th person to be elevated to Legend status in 2013.
This year’s SP Sports Award night will be a sit-down event and it will be live streamed to the people of Papua New Guinea on the SP Sports Awards Face book page where everyone can witness the award ceremony as well as see and hear Jeff Fenech.