I know he was a crazy strong pressure fighter and I know his trilogy with Azumah Nelson. What were his best performances, what were his habits (outside of fighting inside) and which fight would ya'll most like an article on?
He beat a lot of very good fighters on his way to the title like Zaragoza,Martinez,Coffe, Zarate (Zarate was well past prime though) Gave Nelson hell the 1st fight, very aggressive pressure fighter, good puncher,good chin, but he burned out very quickly.
Marco's Villasana fight is a must see. One of the best fights I personally ever saw. Fenech was a great pressure fighter. Strong..great stamina. Punches for 3 min a round. Absolutely outstanding in cutting the ring off. A great fighter IMO. Very brittle hands though. Knuckles were very uneven which caused alot of breaking of bones. That style did cause a fairly early burnout. When he went he went fast similar to Matt Franklin.
He didnt really have a "trilogy" with Nelson. Both guys came outta retirement and were 400 years old in their third fight. It doesn't even count really. They had two fights, let's just leave it at that. Fenech was a beast from 118-126. Probably his best two career performances came in his title winning effort over Payakaroon at 122, and over the big hitting Callejas to win the title at 126. Those two fights display Fenech at his very best.
As Xplosive suggests he peaked early, well pre Nelson. He actually retired as his hands were destroyed smashing into the granite that was Marco Villasana's head. He was having big problems with pain control. But the money for the Nelson bout made him think again.
Fenech had all of the ingredients to be a modern Harry Greb or Mickey Walker...except for quality ligaments to keep him going. As others have detailed, Fenech dealt with some of the bad hands in boxing history. If you're familiar with Thomas Hearns' extended 'power outage' when his right hand was constantly damaged in the early/mid eighties, that was basically Fenech, only it was both hands and it was for his entire career. Other have said it was his style that burned Fenech out, but I actually think it had more to do with his hands. Working around bd hands in training is a lot of toil, and coping with weeks of agony after every 12 round bout sounds like the making of a love-hate relationship with the sport, if you ask me. Its a big part of Fenech's story that he was robbed in the Olympics, but I can't testify to the veracity of what went down. Fenech talked about what a pivotal moment that was in shaping him as a man. When he beat Steve McCrory, who had won Gold, Fenech viewed the win as serious catharsis for the frustration of his amateur dreams. The Villasana fight sums up Fenech, who was fighting with his hands even more mangled than usual, as well as a busted cheekbone apparently. He also took an amazing number of direct hits to the groin. I'm talking about something in the range of the Abner Mares vs. Joseph Agbeko fight. In terms of his habits: he was known to have some serious trouble making weight, which prompted his division hopping. I don't know if that was bad diet or just a guy with a big frame trying to boil down as low as he could.
One of his habits was that he was so physically strong that he could move a guy around the ring like a rag doll ...literally
Fenech was a featherweight. He definitely had to boil down to 118 and 122. Featherweight actually looked like his best division in the Callejas fight, but his hands started really falling apart after that fight. He was a beast at 122 though. I know one of the big questions on here is how does Fenech fare against Gomez at 122? I personally believe Gomez wins that one, but Fenech would be a formidable fight for probably every other super bantam weight in history.
Incidently, Fenech vs. Eusebio Pedroza has always been a huge fantasy match-up for me. Both guys were extremely skilled, each in his own way, while both were rough customers. It boils down to whether Fenech can cut off the ring, and whether Pedroza can force Fenech to slow down the pace.
I cant see Fenech beating the late 70s-early 80s Pedroza. Like the version of Pedroza that beat Olivares? I think Jeff gets outclassed and probably stopped late with uppercuts.
Big frame. He trained and fasted harder than just about anyone making weight in a lot of his fights at bantam and jr feather.
