Fenech vs Tszyu

[Eric t]

By sportsnut


Fenech vs Tszyu





greatest


JUST who is the greatest Australian fighter of all time?

The debate has sparked more Australian fights than there have been fighters from this country.

Since boxing gloves took off in Australia in 1884, we’ve had some cracking fighters from Peter Jackson through to Les Darcy, Jimmy Carruthers and more recently Vic Darchinyan.

Recently Australia's top boxing publisher Ray Wheatley decided to ask award winning journalist Grantlee Kieza to list his 50 greatest. Grantlee has covered boxing for Australia’s biggest newspaper group for 30 years, he wrote the definitive book on the history of Australian boxing, the definitive television documentary and has been involved in every major Australian boxing publication spanning the last four decades.

He was in the corner for many of Australia’s greats as Johnny Lewis’s right hand man and has interviewed world heavyweight champions from Max Schmeling in the 1930s to the current WBA champ Nikolai Valuev. He was even once smashed into a steel dressingroom locker by a playful Mike Tyson.

The list of the 50 best Aussie boxers has been compiled in the publication The Greatest in all good newsagents now.

Grantlee's top five are: Jeff Fenech, Kostya tszyu, Lionel Rose, Jimmy Carruthers and Les Darcy.

But just why did he rate Jeff Fenech above Kostya Tszyu for the No.1 spot?

``Jeff won three world titles while still undefeated and didn’t suffer a loss until he became disillusioned with the sport after the Azumah Nelson draw,’’ Grantlee said.

``While Kostya stayed at the one weight division Jeff climbed the weight ladder and should rightfully have won world titles at four different weights. Kostya had 300 amateur fights against the best in the world before he turned pro, Jeff had just 28, half of them in Police Boys Clubs but still became IBF world champ after a handful of pro bouts.’’

[Eric t]

Kostya by ko or fenech ud or tko late or mid rounds, if it went 12 and fenech wasn't intimidated by the power, fenech would win a ud cause the volume of his punches is more than tszyu's.
Fenech wasn't that hard to hit though, so would he have been able to take clean bombs from tszyu!

[bollox]

In a head to head Fenech was simply too small to compete with a 140 pounder. If he couldn't stand up to Holiday at 135 then what hope would he have against Tszyu at 140? (none)

As for rating Fenech over Tszyu, Kieza conveniently forgotten to mention that Shingaki was the weakest of the titleholders and a novice himself. Bill Mordey was a shrewd bugger and managed to secure Shingaki for his first title fight. Otherwise Fenech would more than likely have had a loss on his record earlier in his career. To a confidence fighter like Fenech that would have affected the rest of his career. In '85 I think the titleholders were Happy Lora and ????

p.s. Unlike Tszyu, Fenech never proved he could come back well from a loss

[bollox]

You need to look behind the pure statistics to gain a true picture of a fighter's standing historically

[toppity]

good big bloke beats good small bloke most times. I see no reason why this would be different.

[Brute]

Jeff was at his best at featherweight. He would never have made it as a super lightweight.

[perfect jet]

I asked respected journo/historian Cliff Rold (who has a vote on The Ring ratings) for his opinion on this list.

His reply was that Young Griffo was ahead of both of them.

[Adamj1987]

tszyu by stoppage too big, too powerfull and was great at cutting the ring off

[bollox]

I asked respected journo/historian Cliff Rold (who has a vote on The Ring ratings) for his opinion on this list.

His reply was that Young Griffo was ahead of both of them.

Maybe he was, in terms of ability. Most of his ring exploits have largely nearly forgotten these days

Would have loved to have seen the handkerchief incident

[JSA]

zoo .No question. On a pound for pound basis if they foughht-thhink it would of been similar to the Hatton fight(just no BLATANT low blow nedeed by fenech-perhaps thee odd elbow or headbutt thrown in). thhink feneech would of beeen a nightmare for Zoo if they were naturally the same size.

[patron]

In a head to head Fenech was simply too small to compete with a 140 pounder. If he couldn't stand up to Holiday at 135 then what hope would he have against Tszyu at 140? (none)

As for rating Fenech over Tszyu, Kieza conveniently forgotten to mention that Shingaki was the weakest of the titleholders and a novice himself. Bill Mordey was a shrewd bugger and managed to secure Shingaki for his first title fight. Otherwise Fenech would more than likely have had a loss on his record earlier in his career. To a confidence fighter like Fenech that would have affected the rest of his career. In '85 I think the titleholders were Happy Lora and ????

p.s. Unlike Tszyu, Fenech never proved he could come back well from a loss

you are spot on, you,ve done your homework, all the best

[bollox]

The homeword came from the memory banks. At the time I would never have heard a bad word about Fenech as he was a boxing god. It's only in hindsight (and with age) that you're able to be objective and less biased about the situation

[JSA]

I take it thenn bollox ,with the benefit of hindssight,you dont rate Fenech much at all?

[bollox]

I take it thenn bollox ,with the benefit of hindssight,you dont rate Fenech much at all?

I rate Fenech quite highly and especially in terms of achievement. But there were some disturbing things happen in his heyday which I and almost everyone else ignored. A top fighter but a frontrunner. eg I was at the Nelson II fight and from a mile away I saw him blatantly try to knee Nelson in the nuts

[toppity]

I take it thenn bollox ,with the benefit of hindssight,you dont rate Fenech much at all?

I rate Fenech quite highly and especially in terms of achievement. But there were some disturbing things happen in his heyday which I and almost everyone else ignored. A top fighter but a frontrunner. eg I was at the Nelson II fight and from a mile away I saw him blatantly try to knee Nelson in the nuts

you could never fully take the street fighter out of him.

[bollox]

Another way to look at it was that he was getting thrashed and acted like a bully

ANyoien remember his reaction at the end of the Zarate fight when for a moment he thought he'd lost due to the cut eye?

[JSA]

no arguments there. hee was a streeeetfighter(fARK I HATE THIS KEYBOARD) and a bully and a sook.Over thhe years i hhave lost much respeect for him as a person.His antics about Green followinng them splittinng waays was atrocious annd hhavee far more respect for green who p until now has been thaankfuul to him and made that publically voiced.
I will say i do so wish his hhands werent so fucked.i wonder at times how many of his dirty tricks he would hav needed if his hands were strong coz i honestly belieeve many fighhts would not of gone as long as they did with good hands.reckon once his hhands broke midfight a volume punching mauler like Jeff had to usee other tactics,albeit illeegaal ones.
seeing the genuine tears flow when hee made his first retiremeent speech wasa sad thing to see.
still reckon prime for prime/pound for pound he would of done zoo.
cheers for clarity on thee matter bollox.

[Grant]

I remember at the time I thought Jeff was putting too much emphasis on the number of titles. At Bantamweight I would rate Lionel as a better fighter. He beat a hall of famer in his home land. Also lost to a hall of famer. Bantams up until Lionel didn't even fly over Mexico in a plane.
I think Jeff should have stayed at Feather he could have unified that title, to me far more impressive than chasing a third of a title somewhere else. I would still have him on top though because he 'owned' Nelson in that first fight.

[unleash06]

i beleive jeff would have found it near impossible to throw a lot of punches whilst lying flat on his back.......

[bollox]

Flat on his back against who? I don't think any featherweight of the time would have beaten him. Esparagosa would have given him a good fight and i was hoping it's happen yet it never did. It was also a pity a Barry McGuigan fight at 126 didn't happen

Agreed that he should have unified both the 122 and 126 titles as he had it in him

[Brute]

I asked respected journo/historian Cliff Rold (who has a vote on The Ring ratings) for his opinion on this list.

His reply was that Young Griffo was ahead of both of them.

The trick with Griffo was keeping him off the piss. He was a great boxer but a terrible alcoholic.

[Brute]

In 1993 Calvin Grove KOed Fenech in 7 rounds. 5 years later Tszyu KOed Grove in one.

Fenech was on his way out when Grove beat him, Grove was on his way out when Tszyu beat him.
Make what you want out of it.

[bollox]

The same Grove that said some years earlier when asked if he was interested in a Fenech fight..."you wanna see me get killed?"

[AntonS]

Great thread

[AntonS]

I asked respected journo/historian Cliff Rold (who has a vote on The Ring ratings) for his opinion on this list.

His reply was that Young Griffo was ahead of both of them.