Jeff Fenech and Matthew Saad Muhammad
Posted: 27 Dec 2021, 21:08
Does anyone here know anything about the sparring sessions between Fenech and Saad Muhammad ?
How did that fame and fortune affect your career? You suddenly looked like a different fighter when you faced Azumah Nelson in the rematch.
I thought I was going to win the fight, and I have no excuse because he came and beat me [in eight rounds]. I just thought it was going to be a continuation of the first fight; I’d never been hurt before. After the first Nelson fight I went back to the gym and I started sparring, and I was s**t. I was getting knocked a little bit, and I thought, ‘Is this normal?’ Also before that second Nelson fight I was sleeping with five different girls a day, even the day before the fight, doing [public] appearances, doing things I’d never done before in my life. I thought I was going to win but something had gone, something had left me – my toughness. My chin had gone and once that’s gone, there’s no repair. Suddenly I was getting hurt. My whole career I sparred bigger guys – [former WBC light-heavyweight champions] Jeff Harding and Matthew Saad Muhammad were my sparring partners. I think it all caught up with me, and that’s when I started to get hurt. I took a lot of punches from big guys when I was younger, none of them hurt but it all caught up with me. But Nelson was an amazing fighter, and an amazing human and he beat that version of me, but he didn’t beat Jeff Fenech. He would never have beaten the best of me