By Chris Williams: If you can’t beat someone during your youth, bring them back in their old age and make it happen. This indeed is what a middle aged 44 year-old featherweight/super featherweight champion Jeff Fenech (29-3-1, 21 KOs) did with former WBC super featherweight champion Azumah Nelson (39-6-2, 28 KOs) on Tuesday night, beating him by a controversial 10-round majority decision. Forget for a second about Nelson’s age, 49 years-old, Fenech at least accomplished what he couldn’t do in his prime, even if it meant pulling Nelson out of his 10 year retirement, put him in front of a hostile Australian audience, and then rough him up by pushing him against the ropes for the entire fight, to make it happen. The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 96-94 and 95-95.
Even with all that going for Fenech, he still didn’t appear to win the fight, even though he got what appeared to be a home town decision. The two fighters had fought previously, with the first bout being a 12-round draw in 1991 and the second fight seeing Nelson stop Fenech in the 8th round a year later in 1992. I saw both fights, and there was no way the first fight was a draw, as Nelson appeared to win that fight by a comfortable margin of at least two to three rounds. I’m not precisely sure why Fenech suddenly decided after 16 years to try and avenge his one defeat to Nelson.