Jeff Fenech: from a Newtown youth club to three world titles, and the Las Vegas draw | Ultimate Boxing Reunion

Why fans still care

JEFF FENECH won world titles at bantamweight, super-bantamweight and featherweight, and he did it inside his first 20 professional fights. That mark stood for about 30 years.

He won all 11 world title fights he had between 1985 and 1988, and only two of them went the distance. People called him the Marrickville Mauler, and you can see why in any of the old tapes: he walked forward and kept throwing.

And then there’s Las Vegas, 1991. Ask an Australian fight fan about Fenech and Azumah Nelson and you’ll still get an argument.

Early life

He was born in Sydney on 28 May 1964 and grew up in Marrickville. He learned to box at the Newtown Police Citizens Youth Club, where Johnny Lewis trained him and later became his manager.

By his own count he had 28 amateur fights. He boxed at the 1983 World Cup in Rome, and in 1984 he captained Australia’s boxing team at the Los Angeles Olympics, at flyweight.

His Olympics ended in the quarter-final. The judges gave him the fight three to two, and a jury overturned it.

Career chapters

1. 1984Captains the Olympic boxing team in Los Angeles; professional debut, 12 October
2. 1985IBF bantamweight champion in his seventh professional fight
3. 1986Stops Steve McCrory in round 14; Sport Australia Hall of Fame
4. 1987Gets up from a knockdown to stop Samart Payakaroon for the WBC super-bantamweight title
5. 1988Stops Victor Callejas for the WBC featherweight title, his third division in 20 fights
6. 1991Draws with Azumah Nelson in Las Vegas
7. 1992Loses to Nelson in Melbourne, his first defeat
8. 1993Loses to Calvin Grove
9. 1996Loses to Phillip Holiday for the IBF lightweight title and retires
10. 2002International Boxing Hall of Fame
11. 2008Beats Nelson on points in Melbourne
12. 2022The WBC awards him a belt for the 1991 fight
13. 2026Becomes Tim Tszyu’s trainer

The rise 1984 to 1985

He turned professional on 12 October 1984 in Marrickville and stopped Bobby Williams in the second round. Before the year was out he had the Australian super-flyweight title.

On 26 April 1985, in only his seventh professional fight and about six months after his debut, he stopped Satoshi Shingaki in round 9 for the IBF bantamweight title.

IBF champion 1985 to 1986

He beat Shingaki again in August 1985. In December he outpointed Jerome Coffee, who came in unbeaten at 26 and 0, over 15 rounds. On 18 July 1986 he stopped Steve McCrory in the 14th.

Payakaroon 1987

He moved up to super-bantamweight to challenge Samart Payakaroon for the WBC title, and in the first round he was knocked down. He got up and knocked Payakaroon out in round 4.

He defended that title against Greg Richardson and Carlos Zárate. The Zárate fight was stopped in round 4 because of a cut from a clash of heads.

Three divisions 7 March 1988

The vacant WBC featherweight title was next, against Victor Callejas at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Fenech put him down in round 4 and again in round 8, both times with a right cross, and the referee, Richard Steele, stopped it 81 seconds into round 10.

It was his 20th professional fight. He was 20 and 0, and UPI reported him as only the 11th boxer to win world titles in three divisions.

He also said afterwards that he’d broken his right hand a month earlier. “I beat him with one hand.”

He defended the featherweight title against Tyrone Downes, Georgie Navarro and Marcos Villasana, and outpointed Mario Martínez in November 1989.

Las Vegas 28 June 1991

He went up again, to super-featherweight, to challenge Azumah Nelson for the WBC title at the Mirage in Las Vegas. It was on the undercard of Mike Tyson, Who’s Who number 34 against Razor Ruddock, in front of about 15,000.

Nelson came out throwing hooks and rights in round 1. By the middle rounds he had slowed, and Fenech was working inside. In round 12 a run of right hands nearly put Nelson down.

The judges couldn’t agree. Jerry Roth had it 115 to 113 for Fenech, Miguel Donate 116 to 112 for Nelson, and Dave Moretti 114 to 114. It was a split draw, and the crowd booed it. ESPN later wrote that most observers gave Nelson three of the first four rounds and Fenech the other eight.

Melbourne 1 March 1992

The rematch was at Princes Park in Melbourne, in the rain, in front of about 40,000. Nelson stopped him in round 8. It was the first loss of his professional career, and The Ring named it its Upset of the Year.

The last fights 1993 to 1996

He lost to Calvin Grove in June 1993 and retired. He came back with two wins in 1995 and 1996, then in May 1996 Phillip Holiday stopped him in round 2 for the IBF lightweight title. He retired with a record of 28 wins, 3 losses and a draw.

Nelson again 24 June 2008

Twelve years later he fought Nelson a third time, in Melbourne. Fenech was 44 and Nelson 49. Fenech won a majority decision over 10 rounds, 96 to 94, 96 to 94 and 95 to 95. That made his record 29 wins, 3 losses and a draw.

The 2022 belt

In November 2022 the WBC reviewed the 1991 fight and awarded Fenech its super-featherweight belt, a fourth world title by the WBC’s count. The fight itself still stands as a draw on his record. “It would’ve meant more to me back when I really won the fight,” he said.

Nelson wasn’t happy about it. He called it a dangerous precedent.

Trainer 2003 to now

He trained Mike Tyson, Who’s Who number 34 for the 2003 Etienne fight and the 2005 McBride fight, and worked with him again in 2020 before Tyson’s, Who’s Who number 34 exhibition with Roy Jones Jr, Who’s Who number 4 (story coming soon). He has said training Tyson was “as good as winning a world title.”

He guided Vic Darchinyan to a flyweight world title, and Danny Green, Who’s Who number 11 (story coming soon) is among the fighters he has trained.

In September 2025 he joined Tim Tszyu’s, Who’s Who number 3 team as an adviser and mentor, and in April 2026 he took over as Tim’s, Who’s Who number 3 trainer. In late July 2026 he was in the corner for the first time as Tim, Who’s Who number 3 beat Errol Spence Jr on a unanimous decision in Sydney.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fought

He was a pressure fighter. The Sweet Science called him a “seek-and-destroy” fighter, in the same breath as Tyson, Who’s Who number 34. Against Nelson in 1991 you can see it change during the fight: hands low early, then working his way inside and staying there.

The punches

The right cross put Callejas down twice in 1988. The right hand inside, thrown again and again, is what nearly finished Nelson in the 12th round in Las Vegas.

The hands

His hands were a problem for most of his career. He has said he broke them “nearly every time I fought.” He won the featherweight title on a right hand he’d broken a month earlier, and the Canberra Times reported that he went to hospital for injections after fights to manage the pain.

The corner: Johnny Lewis

Johnny Lewis found him at the Newtown youth club, trained him and managed him. Lewis also took Kostya Tszyu, Who’s Who number 2 and Jeff Harding to world titles, and The Age counted Fenech as his first world champion.

Lewis never accepted the Las Vegas result either. “I still think that at his best, Jeff Fenech would have beat Azumah Nelson any day,” he told The Age in 2003.

Weight

He went from flyweight at the Olympics up through super-flyweight, bantamweight, super-bantamweight and featherweight, then to super-featherweight for Nelson and lightweight for Holiday.

Stories people still tell

1. One hand.

   “I beat him with one hand,” he said after Callejas, and not even Johnny Lewis had known about the broken right hand.

2. The night in Vegas.

   In 2015 he said he was never the same fighter after the 1991 draw. Lewis put it another way: “I don’t think we ever saw the real Jeff Fenech again after that fight.”

3. Nerves.

   His line on nerves, told to Boxing News in 2025: “if you’re not nervous, you’re not ready.”

Legacy

He’s in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame, and he’s still regularly named among the best fighters Australia has produced. Lewis picked the Payakaroon and Callejas fights as two of the five best performances by any fighter he trained.

He’s also a link between generations here. He came through the same Sydney corner as Kostya Tszyu, Who’s Who number 2, and now he trains Kostya’s son, Tim, Who’s Who number 3.