Jeff Fenech

Known as the “Marrickville Mauler” after the area of Sydney where he was raised Jeff Fenech had a brief but meteoric amateur career in which he was twice Oceania flyweight champion and won medals at both World and Commonwealth championships in 1983. After winning his first two Olympic bouts he lost a close decision in the quarter-final.

Eight weeks later he made his debut in the professional ranks and within six months was a top-ranked contender for the International Boxing Federation version of the world bantamweight title. In only his seventh fight he was matched against Satoshi Shiungaki for the world title and dominated en route to a ninth round technical knockout. Over the next four years Fenech proved himself to be one of the stars of world boxing and added world crowns at super-bantamweight and featherweight to his collections. One of his victims during this time was Steve McCrory of the USA who took the Olympic title that Fenech had aspired to in L.A. After 24 successive wins Fenech retired at the start of 1990 due in the main part to a series of hand injuries. He briefly played semi-professional rugby but returned to the ring in 1991 and lost his perfect record via a draw with veteran Ghanaian Azumah Nelson. His first defeat came in a rematch against Nelson in 1992 and after another stoppage defeat he again retired. A second comeback attempt was short-lived and he then launched an eponymous range of sports clothing which became successful in Australia. Fenech also promoted professional boxing and trained a host of fighters including, briefly, Mike Tyson.

In 2008 at the age of 43 he again returned to the ring and met his old nemesis Azumah Nelson, who was by now 49, and finally beat him albeit by majority decision. Fenech is an inductee of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and considered by many experts to be the finest native-born Australian boxer since Les Darcy eighty years previously.