Three-time world champ boxer Jeff Fenech hits out about mates, The Man and mouthing off
You’re looking fit, mate.
I still train pretty hard for an old guy. I try to do at least 10km every day. Most days under 40 minutes — not too bad for a 45-year-old.
Anyone you’d like to belt the crap out of in the ring these days?
If I were in my prime again, when I was in top condition and had a chin of granite, I’d love to step in the ring with Anthony Mundine.
Who’d win?
I’ve got no doubt I would’ve
beat him. I would’ve smashed him, no doubt whatsoever. Jeff Harding would’ve killed him.
You’ve traded a few verbal haymakers with him.
He talks a pretty good game, though.
Yeah, mate — he’s a better five-eighth than Brad Fittler, better than Laurie Daley. He probably thinks he’s a better batsman than
Bradman. He’s one of the greatest self-promoters in the history of the sport. In that sphere, he leaves Jeff Fenech and just about everybody else for dead.
So you still love us all?
Too right I do. I still love youse all. A million per cent. When you’re loved and admired by a crowd and they let you know it, mate, it’s an incredible feeling — better than
Sex.
You were pretty tough.
There probably hasn’t been a competitor in any other sport who’s had to deal with the pain I had competing across an entire career. I was born with my knuckles facing out and fought every fight with busted hands. Every fight, every training session, I had to get injected. Every fight, my hands were like
Balloons. I always kept punching through the pain — I don’t know if that’s toughness or madness.
Let’s talk about your recent bust-up with your mate Peter Mitrevski. Talking to each other yet?
I’ve tried, but no we’re not. I punched Peter, but not like the way he said it happened. I never king hit him from behind. We got into a grapple and my punch hit him on the chest and rebounded and caught him on a tooth — his false tooth, which fell out.
Were you disappointed he contacted the cops?
If he stabbed me in the back, if he chopped my arm off, I wouldn’t ring the
police. He’s like a brother to me.
The “watch-theft incident” on the Gold Coast a few years ago — is that something you still cringe about?
Of course it is. I hate it and I regret it badly. I will say this, though — to steal something, you’ve gotta walk out of the shop with it. I never walked out of the shop with anything. Yes, I knew what was going on and what the people I was with were doing, but I never stole anything.
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