Australia’s greatest ever boxer Jeff Fenech says he is thrilled to be attending the WBC Convention which officially opens on Monday in Manilla.
Fenech said it was a great chance to catch up with his many friends in the fight game including his one-time arch-rival Azumah Nelson.
Fenech and Neslon engaged in two ferocious battles for the WBC junior-lightweight title with the rematch setting an Australian record crowd of 37,000 in Melbourne. Five years after the fight they starred together in a popular beer commercial.
Nelson, 49, from Ghana, now regarded as perhaps the greatest fighter to come out of Africa, was WBC featherweight champion from 1984-1988 and WBC junior-lightweight champion from 1988-1994 and then from 1995-1997.
Fenech, 43, held the IBF bantamweight and WBC super-bantam and featherweight titles. He was denied a fourth crown when Nelson retained his WBC junior-lightweight by a controversial decision in Las Vegas in 1992.
Fenech, who has made a second career training such stars as Vic Darchinyan, Danny Green and Sakio Bika, said he was thrilled about the visit.
“I’ve got great respect for the Philippines and for its fighters,” Fenech said. “Manny Pacquiao is one of the most exciting fighters in the world but I do think Juan Manuel Marquez and Chris John could outbox him.
“But guys like Manny are the ones who make boxing such an exciting sport.”
Fenech will head from the Philippines to Los Angeles to give moral support to Mike Tyson ahead of the former heavyweight champ’s court appearance on drug charges in Arizona.
