Episode #10_Jeff Fenech
[00:00:00] Jeff: I'm Wayne
[00:00:02] Wayne: Carey, and this is The Truth Hurts. Well, here we are in a place where I'd like to call my office, but unfortunately, it's probably more the guy I'm about to introduce, Jeff Fennec. Jeff, would you consider this place your office?
[00:00:17] Jeff: Uh, without doubt, um, I've spent more time in this place than, um, I've spent anywhere else, really, in my life.
[00:00:23] Jeff: So, um, yeah, I always call it the office because, um, If I got my work done here and I was happy in this place, then I was ready to do what I
[00:00:31] Wayne: had to do. Well, unlike any other podcast that you've probably done, and you've done plenty of interviews, but I don't want to necessarily talk, we all know how great a boxer you were.
[00:00:39] Wayne: 33 fights, 29 wins, we know, you know, four time world champion. Everybody knows that. But I don't think everyone knows your full story. Obviously a knock about young kid. Tell us a little bit about your upbringing and then how you got into boxing.
[00:00:55] Jeff: Yeah, well, I was the youngest of six. Um, I was the baby of the family.
[00:00:59] Jeff: [00:01:00] Um... Does that make you a bit tougher? Uh, now I'm the toughest. Back then I used to get beat up by my brothers, but um, I don't think they do it anymore. But nah, look, um, and like I said, I was brought up in a neighbourhood called St. Peter's. It was very close to Marigold. Everybody calls it Marigold Mall because I moved there when I was like 17.
[00:01:19] Jeff: But um, I lived in St. Peter's and it was a real rough area. Um, a lot of indigenous people, a lot of... Migrants, a lot of Yugoslav people, a lot of, um, all different nationalities and, um, we clashed a lot and, um, it was, um, everybody wanted to be the best and, um, I was pretty lucky. Like I said, I had three older brothers and, uh, other, uh, family there, so we were, um, kind of one of the, the, the, the tough groups there.
[00:01:46] Jeff: We had gangs there and I grew up in, in a gang and, um, Most people know, if they know my life story, that um, as a, as a juvenile I was, I was locked up in a detention centre, and my, my brother [00:02:00] and I, um, for um, just for common assault we were fighting, just in, in gangs, like. How old were you at that time? Like 13, yeah.
[00:02:06] Jeff: Because rugby,
[00:02:07] Wayne: rugby league was your first love though, wasn't it? Were you playing rugby league at the same time all this was going on? Oh, definitely so,
[00:02:12] Jeff: and, you know, as soon as I got home from school there was no homework, we ducked, went straight to the park, playing football against. My mates and, you know, we were giving each other the most we could.
[00:02:22] Jeff: I always tried to, because I was the smallest, I always tried to get over everybody and try to, uh, show them that I was tougher than everybody else. And that's how I grew up. Like I said, I was so much smaller. And people don't realise that, um, when I played, like I played, um, representative football, uh, from, um, 14 years old to 18 years old.
[00:02:42] Jeff: Think of me being 18, playing against 18 year olds. My takes are a little bit bigger, but I weighed 45, 46 kilos, and I played hooker. So I was in the middle of the, in the middle of the field where you had to do most tackling. And that's what I was renowned for. I used to be this little guy who did as many tackles as anybody else, if not more.
[00:02:57] Jeff: And, um, you know, I was one of these guys who hated to lose and [00:03:00] always pushing my mates. I was like, you know, either captain or vice captain of the team all the time. So I was, um, you know, I was. Somebody who just hated to lose.
[00:03:08] Wayne: Do you have any regrets that you didn't follow through with the rugby? Or do you think your race had been run in
[00:03:13] Jeff: terms of that?
[00:03:13] Jeff: Ah, without doubt. What was I going to do with 48 kilos? I mean, when, um, when I played my last year under 18s, um, all my friends were going to grade. Like I said, um, I was just too small. I still wanted to play. It was my dream. I was going to, um, keep giving it my all. And I went to a youth club one day. Again, instead of going to play rugby league or to do anything that you do at a youth club, I went there.
[00:03:34] Jeff: to try to find some guys that we wanted to beat up and, and we, we searched the, uh, downstairs, we searched upstairs and through the wrestling room, through the weightlifting room, through the judo room, and the last room was a boxing room. And, um, I looked through this little window and there was a kid that was in my class at school, Wayne, and, um, his name was Mark Cribb.
[00:03:53] Jeff: He was a very, very renowned boxer, but he also played football. And I thought I could beat him up. So I, not, that's not what I went there for, but I, I went and sat [00:04:00] down and watched him train. I heard the trainer say that he needed to spar somebody. So... Because I was so cocky and thought I could do that, I thought, yeah, I'll spar him.
[00:04:07] Jeff: So this man who turned out to be Johnny Lewis said, be here tomorrow at a certain time. And, um, I got there an hour early. I was sitting there all excited. I'm going to go out there and hopefully beat this Australian champion boxer up. But, um, it didn't happen like that. Um, it was, it was the reverse, but as I, and it was the craziest thing ever, Wayne, because as I left, or as it was over, This old man, the trainer by the name of Johnny Lewis, well he wasn't old then, but this man came over, he was older than me, he said to me, is that the first time you've boxed?
[00:04:36] Jeff: Ah, that was really, really good, and he was giving me all these compliments, and I'm thinking, shit, I've just got the shit beat out of me, like I was winded four or five times, I had to, like, pull the opponent up, the guy was beating him up, and I wasn't, um, I wasn't impressed with what I'd done, but he was superbly impressed, and then he says to me, um, would you like to come back tomorrow?
[00:04:54] Jeff: And all my friends around, I said, yeah, of course I want to come back to, I'm in my head, I'm saying, there's no way I'm going back there, I'm not getting beat up again. [00:05:00] Wayne, you wouldn't believe it, I went back. Three months later, I was the Australian Champion. Wow. New South Wales Champion, State Champion, and Australian Champion, and um, Things happened really quick, because Johnny said it'll take months and months to um, To get me ready, but um, he let me fight early, because he believed in um, what he's seen, and um, It just happened so, so quick, Wayne, you think of that, that was in the middle of um, And when I was 17 and a half, so
[00:05:22] Wayne: yeah.
[00:05:23] Wayne: I like, I like to talk about the fake bravado that we as sports people have. Now I assume, I'm talking as a footballer, so team sport. And you put on this mask, you put on this armour that, you know, when you go into battle. And some of it is fake, you put it on, fake it until you make it, so they say. But boxing's very different.
[00:05:40] Wayne: You're in a ring, there's no escaping, it's one on one, there's nowhere to go. Obviously, you've got your training, as you said, it all happened really quickly, and I can understand how you can go from, you know, running away from home or leaving home, and then all of a sudden, you know, being the captain of an AFL club.
[00:05:55] Wayne: You talk about, you know, boxing for the first time, and then coming back, [00:06:00] not thinking you're going to come back, but then coming back. How quickly, and then, and is there a mask that boxers wear as well? Is there a fake bravado that you have?
[00:06:09] Jeff: And well, lemme tell you the reason why I went back as well, Wayne, was because I, I'd sit in front of my friends and I'd go back and I didn't want them to think that I was a coward.
[00:06:16] Jeff: And thank God that's who I was, that I was this guy who, you know, believed in myself. But again, I, I still never thought anything was gonna happen when I went up there cuz I just thought what happened to me that first day? Well, it, it didn't feel good, but, um, yeah, of course, um, there, there's a lot of fakeness in, in boxing as well, but, In boxing, the fake ones always get caught out because it's one on one.
[00:06:36] Jeff: So you can't hide for too long or you can't have that mask on for too long because yeah, it's one on one and you'll be found
[00:06:43] Wayne: out. Because of your size, do you think that you got in more fights because of that? People actually looked at your physique and sheer size and just thought, you know what, I reckon I can take this kid.
[00:06:52] Jeff: Oh, Wayne, listen, when I, even when I became, when I was a boxer, I was world champion. You'd hear people in clubs saying, Ah, that [00:07:00] little guy. So yeah, I loved, I loved hewing them, especially in the toilets. If I was in the cubicle and they were out the front, I would walk out and just, yeah, they would really quickly change your mind.
[00:07:10] Jeff: I mean, like I said, um, um, Size doesn't mean anything to me. Um, it's, uh, yeah, it's... Just a guy with two arms and two legs, that's how I look at it. I mean,
[00:07:22] Wayne: society has changed a lot, and for the better, in terms of how you grew up, how I grew up. Um, and, you know, not even, you know, even 15, 20 years ago. I mean, I, you know, being in Wagga Wagga and being in a country town, that's, that's what you did.
[00:07:35] Wayne: You went out on a Saturday night, you got, you ended up in a scuffle outside the front of the pub. That doesn't happen as often these days. If it does, there's something pulled out. We're not advocating, obviously, violence. You know, when you were growing up, that was just simply how it was. And, and, but back then it was just simply one on one, wasn't it?
[00:07:53] Wayne: It was, no one was pulling weapons or anything like that. It was, no, you, you stood in front of one another and you had a fight.
[00:07:58] Jeff: Yeah, it was a fist fight. And, and, think [00:08:00] of this, if you kick somebody, Hey, you kick, you're a girl, you're a girl. So, and now, now we have MMA where they kick, they choke, they strangle you, they, you know, Yeah, but I'm telling you, it's, um, the world's changed.
[00:08:09] Jeff: Yeah, everything's changed. Times have changed and you've got to move with them. So, um, yeah, I mean, like for me, I'm I was just blessed that, yeah, because I'd never thought of boxing in my life. I never dreamt of being in a boxing life. I never thought, you know, like I said, I had fights, and a lot of times in fights you got your mates with you, you feel vindicated, or you feel like you got some, yeah, you got some ammunition with you, so yeah, so I never ever dreamt of, yeah, look, like, being a one on one fighter, I mean, I'm not, I'm not scared, I'm saying I've fought people, but I'm saying, um, I never I never dreamt of being a boxer.
[00:08:45] Jeff: I never watched any fights. Of course I heard of Muhammad Ali back in the day, but that was the only thing I ever knew about boxing. It just happened so quick for me, Wayne, like I said, um, three months, six months and the thing was, and this is the great thing, cause, and I know that you met the great Mike Tyson with me and [00:09:00] um, I always used to remember sitting down with Mike and he'd be telling these little stories about him and Cuss Tomato, how Cuss would tell him that he could do these things, like he'd put these little, set these goals and, Let Mike know that he could do them.
[00:09:10] Jeff: And then Mike would achieve them. And she'd think, wow, I've done that. And that was exactly the same as Johnny Lewis. Johnny Lewis would say to me, if you've done the right thing over these next few months, a state title's on you. You have the ability to win. I'd think, do I really? So I'd done what he said, and I won.
[00:09:23] Jeff: And then all of a sudden, he would tell me that I could be Australian champion. All of a sudden, I won. Then all of a sudden, to
[00:09:34] Jeff: Manly. That was the only time I thought I'd be going overseas. It, these things just start happening and, um, the more he told me and the more I achieved, the more I believed, the more I believed in him and if he told me to jump off the Harbour Bridge, something great was going to happen to me, I would have done that as well, Wayne.
[00:09:48] Jeff: So I'm just, like, when I narrow this down, you know, so just think of this, I start when I'm, you know, 17 and a half, um, I'm Australian champion, I've travelled the world, I'm [00:10:00] fighting guys. in the World Cup in Rome that are the best fighters in the world from every nation and I was chosen as Australian but I had 24 fights.
[00:10:08] Jeff: These guys had 200, 300 fights and I'm fighting these guys and not winning the whole tournament but competing with these guys and doing great and winning medals. So I won a bronze medal in the World Cup and after that was the Olympics. Here's this kid, like I said, that was in a juvenile detention centre, had a My dad was sick all his life.
[00:10:30] Jeff: My dad, um, was in hospital more during every year that I can remember than being at home. I had my mum, who was an amazing mum, but worked three jobs. So, um, my mum was only there to really cook for us and then, um, you know, clean for us. And then she was out working, trying to, you know, provide for a family of six children.
[00:10:47] Jeff: And all of a sudden, um, in 84, I get selected to go to the Olympics. My neighborhood was, it was crazy. They were all raising money for me to make sure that I had enough money to enjoy myself and stuff. So, um, [00:11:00] my life went from being this kid who was totally undisciplined because I did a lot of things wrong to, to change it completely around to being the most disciplined 17, 18, 19 year old in the history of sport because I, I never went out again.
[00:11:15] Jeff: I never went out with my friends. And I never wiped them, they were always my friends, but they were very, very disappointing because I never went and did things that we used to do with them. I was going to say,
[00:11:23] Wayne: how do you think you handled fame? Like you said, it happened pretty quickly. You went from obscurity to, to uh, not only Australian famous, but uh, world
[00:11:33] Jeff: famous.
[00:11:33] Jeff: To be honest, shit house. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's, there's, there's no um, well there was no, there was no script to handling fame and fortune, and I, I don't care who you are. What do you want to tell me? Fame or fortune changes everyone. I'm talking to somebody who would be nodding his head saying, Jeff, you're 100% right.
[00:11:48] Jeff: And I mean, like I said, here is me. In Melbourne, people patting me on the back, talking to me and stuff. And, you know, I can go to a restaurant, eat for free. I can go to a bar and drink for free. And [00:12:00] there are people that can't even afford it. And we don't give it to them. They give it to people who can buy their restaurant.
[00:12:05] Jeff: I still
[00:12:05] Wayne: can't work that out. Why, why, so, so called famous people, sports people, has beens, whatever it may be, you go to a restaurant, you get given everything for free, you get given a car to drive around, you get all of this and then you've got these people that actually need it. When you don't need it, you obviously get it for free.
[00:12:23] Wayne: It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah,
[00:12:24] Jeff: so, my thing is, just to get back to that question, did I handle it? Yes and no. I'd like to think that I did all the time, but every time I'd say I'm still hungry, I'll never forget where I came from. Yeah, I'll never forget where I came from. But, you just change automatically. All of a sudden, you can have what you want, you can do what you want, you can be where you want.
[00:12:45] Jeff: So, um, it's really, really hard to stay the same. So, yeah, if you ask me how I handle it, yeah. I'll tell you the first time that I went back to my gym, um, after I became world champion, I'll never forget Johnny Lewis, exact words were, I don't like to swear, because [00:13:00] I, I don't, but Johnny Lewis said, did you see the door you walked in there, son?
[00:13:04] Jeff: He said, yeah, he said, a couple of years ago? He said, turn around and get the F U C K out of here. And I said, what? And when I walked out, because I, he kind of, through his voice. So he
[00:13:14] Wayne: saw something as you walked through the door?
[00:13:16] Jeff: Yeah, he, yeah, well he, He had heard these stories about what I was doing when I became world champion and I walked outside ducking and I was crying, I really, I was crying, I thought, wow, I've broken this guy's heart without this guy, I'm nobody, you know, so of course I went back in weeping and whatever and we spoke and he told me that he heard some stories about me doing, you know, X, Y and Z and they were true, I tried to deny them, but it was true and then, again.
[00:13:43] Jeff: I hit rock bottom. I, I thought about it, but you know, you relapse all the time. The more fame I had, the more fights I won, the more belts I won, the worse it got. It's a part of
[00:13:54] Wayne: that, it's a part of that fakeness that we, and that facade that we put up. And even people that we respect [00:14:00] the most, and we love the most, whether it might be a wife, partner, it might be our children, we still somehow...
[00:14:06] Wayne: We're able to, you're still able to put this mask up and continue to do what you're doing, but then what people can't understand is you're able to perform. When you got in here or you went into the, uh, that's almost your sanctuary to escape what you were doing outside of what you shouldn't
[00:14:23] Jeff: be doing.
[00:14:23] Jeff: Yeah, definitely. So it's a crazy thing that you always think once I get back in the office, everything's going to be okay. And look, but like for me, um, when I think about what we just spoke about, um, how, how, how it changed you. And then you think about when you do get in trouble and then we still think that we're going to get back out there and we're going to be able to correct everything by being great fighters.
[00:14:46] Jeff: But what we don't realise, and that's the thing that, that resonates with me the most is I didn't realise what I'd done to my parents, how, how much damage mentally and Stuff I've done to the people around me as, as a father, when I [00:15:00] became a father. And people say, Ah, that's how Jeff Fenechie's done this.
[00:15:02] Jeff: You don't realise, and then all of a sudden you, you grow older and you think, Well, is there anything I'd like to change? You can't change anything, but I would have changed a lot of things. But like I said, you can't. So what my outlook on life 3 is wanting is to just try and be a much better person than I was then.
[00:15:16] Jeff: And try to, um, let people know that I've made mistakes. Be honest, be out there with it. And, um, yeah, just be a better person for it. And I, I think I've done that. Without doubt. I think my life today is, um, uh, much, much better. I, I, I'm much more relaxed and happy with the person I am than I look in the mirror today than I, than I was when I boxed.
[00:15:35] Jeff: Because like I said, if I'm, I go back and think of the guy that was three Tom World champion. I don't even like the person. I don't like him one bit. That's, that's, that's amazing
[00:15:42] Wayne: you say that because that, that's exactly how I feel. Yeah. I don't
[00:15:44] Jeff: like you. Well, I know Wayne, I like, I, I've known you for a long time and although I haven't been close to you, I, I can imagine what you went through.
[00:15:52] Jeff: Like I said, you're tough, I'm tough, but um, I'm not worried about nobody, but then you sit down and you think, you see what it does to your mum and dad, your [00:16:00] brothers and sisters, your children when you go home, and shit, it's terrible, it's a terrible, terrible feeling. And nothing can replace it except, like I said, us trying to be better and be better people today and trying to help people.
[00:16:11] Jeff: So your family and your friends and your children say, that's my dad today and we all make mistakes and that's me, I've made mistakes and I put my hand up and, you know, like I said, I can't go back and correct them, but I can be a better person today. What people
[00:16:24] Wayne: don't understand is, and because of your upbringing, it's being that, it's being emotionally mature.
[00:16:31] Wayne: And I'm more emotionally mature now. And that's exactly what you're talking about. Just on that, to go back to 91, I reckon it was, where you first met. Mike Tyson, because you're on, or you might have met him before, but you're on the undercard to Mike Tyson. I'd met him, man. I'd met him. You've met him prior to that.
[00:16:47] Wayne: Yeah. But, um, I mean that, that, and some of the people you've met, obviously, Mike, who you introduced me to, which we spoke about on this podcast a while ago, I had the photo. I don't know whether you remember how nervous I was when [00:17:00] I was getting
[00:17:01] Jeff: the photo of him. Especially when you were telling me before that you'd knock
[00:17:03] Wayne: him out.
[00:17:03] Wayne: Yeah. Well, I just thought I was a little bit bigger than him. That's, uh, just part of the pun, but no, he, he, um, that was a great thrill, but so you've met guys like I and Mike. What about some of the other people? I noticed you rubbing shoulders just recently with, I'm not putting him in Mike Tyson's category by the way, by Kyle Sanderland's wedding.
[00:17:23] Wayne: You're talking to the Prime Minister at the wedding, you're just rubbing shoulders with some pretty big names.
[00:17:28] Jeff: Yeah, I wanted the Prime Minister to know that. When it comes to Maryville, because he's from Maryville, there's three, there's me, my retarded friend Con, and then there's the Prime Minister who's done great as well.
[00:17:36] Jeff: Great man, I was amazing meeting him, but I'll tell you a great little story, um, I was at a restaurant in L. A. and Al Pacino was there. And um, I wanted to meet him, you know, and um, so I asked the owner, who's a good friend of mine, who earlier got some gloves signed for me and all this kind of stuff. And um, I said, do you mind if I go and meet Al Pacino, he says, um, do you have to listen?
[00:17:57] Jeff: We don't do that in this restaurant, we don't let people get in the restaurant, we don't get [00:18:00] photos. I felt like something, well you just got on with me, you know, because this guy just got a photo. Anyway, but I understood totally, you know, but I was really, I'm there looking and looking. And after a couple of little stares, he was looking at me and I'm thinking, oh well, you know.
[00:18:12] Jeff: Anyway, I got up to leave the restaurant and we're just walking out and um, he says, champ, sit down beside me. So I sat beside him, it was amazing. I went and got the gloves from the owner of the restaurant, I gave them to Al Pacino. And um, We had a great talk and he was telling me that he's going to put these gloves in a place at his home that he'll cherish and that kind of stuff.
[00:18:31] Jeff: Really nice. And all of a sudden in the morning I get a call from my wife and she says, Jeff, where were you last night? I said, why? She said, we just got an email from Al Pacino saying how delighted he was to see you and your gloves are in his bar at home and he was really excited. So that, that really made me feel on top of the world that I'm walking out of a restaurant in Al Pacino.
[00:18:47] Jeff: So that was, that was great. But like I said, I've met, um, De Niro and I was blessed enough to meet LeBron James. And I was maybe even more blessed to, to travel the world with Kerry Packer and to see, um, wow, what a, what a [00:19:00] different world that is when you're, you know, when you carry Packer and what a different world is when you're Mike Tyson.
[00:19:05] Jeff: I remember being in London with Mike and. If Mike would move the blinds in his, in his room, there's people downstairs, we'd go and scream and it was just crazy, we'd get in the car and because of the traffic in London, people would, would walk or run for kilometres just touching the car to meet Mike, it was crazy, I've been blessed.
[00:19:19] Wayne: Who, who was your hero growing up?
[00:19:22] Jeff: My hero growing up would have been Ray Price and Peter Sterling, rugby league players. And I never really, um, followed the sport of boxing, but when I got involved in boxing, of course I loved Mike and Roberto Duran. They're my, um, two favourite fighters and my great friends in the sport of boxing.
[00:19:36] Jeff: But yeah, when I think of the sport of boxing, I think of Joe Lewis as an amazing, maybe the greatest heavyweight that I believe of all time. And I think Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran were just... So yeah, I'm just blessed and like I said, um, I've got all these beautiful belts at home, but the belts mean nothing to me.
[00:19:51] Jeff: If somebody asks me to donate them for a charity or something, I'm sure that I would give them away. But um, when you know you've made it in any sport is when your peers [00:20:00] respect you. And um, when I get off a plane and I go to a convention or something to get the cutest and the applause and the love that I get from the Roberto Joannes, the Tysons, the Lennox Lewis and all those guys.
[00:20:11] Jeff: You know, the Vinnie Paz's, then I know I've made it in the
[00:20:13] Wayne: sport. Well, I've, I've seen you in a room, I see when you walk into a room, you've just mentioned some amazing people that all have, uh, a presence. What I love about you when you walk into a room, and as you said, you're not a big, you're not a big guy, but you have an amazing presence and I, and, and you feel the love.
[00:20:28] Wayne: You, you, you, you catch cry when you, I love you's all, which became famous, become a part of our language here in Australia, love you's all, and, and you, you're known for that. But that's how you carry yourself when you come into a room. And. Everyone, everyone feels that. Yeah,
[00:20:42] Jeff: I'd like to feel, today when I walk into a room, I walk into a room thinking that, yeah, I'm here for a reason, I'm here to, yeah, most times I'm, I'm, at places, I'm either talking or doing something, trying to help somebody, I kind of, I feel much better walking into a room, [00:21:00] at this age, than I did, um, When I was, you know, in my twenties, and the truth of the matter is that, as you know, I just got my fourth world title.
[00:21:07] Jeff: And I think I got it at exactly the right time. Had I got it back then, duck, I doubt if I'd be here now. I doubt, um... Positive I wouldn't be married to my beautiful wife that I'm married to today. And, um, everything happens for a reason. So I think, um, whoever's watching over me above, made sure that, um, I got the world title at the right time.
[00:21:26] Jeff: And, um, yeah. It's very
[00:21:27] Wayne: fitting that, uh, you can hear someone in the background hitting a speedball there. So we're
[00:21:32] Jeff: obviously... And that's another crazy thing. I've never hit one in my life. You've never hit a speedball? I've never done a round in my life on a speedball.
[00:21:38] Wayne: I think, I think there's plenty of people out there, we've been in enough gyms, you've beaten more than me, but generally some people that hit the speedball can't generally do what's required in here, would you agree with
[00:21:50] Jeff: that?
[00:21:50] Jeff: Oh yeah, a lot of, again we're talking about show and the fakeness, yeah, yeah, a lot of those guys that do that, they can't go and get punched in the face, that's for sure.
[00:21:58] Wayne: I love that, and [00:22:00] so you'd agree, it's not how you throw a punch, it's how you take a punch? Well, it's uh... Were you a technique, do you think you were a technically great...
[00:22:06] Jeff: Fighter. Oh, without doubt. You've got a great jaw. Well, and on top of that, if you, like I said, I tell people today, if you're not smart outside the ring, you're not going to be smart inside the ring. You've got to have, you've got to have, you've got to have smarts. And I was, and I was, Kerry Packer used to say, if you, you know, Jeff Fennec could run the country, because he always knew how smart I was,
[00:22:23] Wayne: you know.
[00:22:24] Wayne: Can you go and sort this bloke out that's on this football back there then? I'm
[00:22:28] Jeff: sure somebody could, if you just tell them
[00:22:30] Wayne: that. Fennec.
[00:22:36] Wayne: I know, obviously, you've got some, uh, you've got some, uh, boxers that you look after. You're still in contact with Tyson overseas and still heavily involved in the sport. You're in Melbourne, so tell us, uh, what, what you're doing here. Yeah, I'm
[00:22:47] Jeff: here, um, obviously, I work for Fox Sports. I work for our main event, so I'm working for Fox and, um, Thanks to Steve Cawley and the team there and Ben Damon who's an amazing co host of mine and we, we um, we call the fights.
[00:22:58] Jeff: I love it. I um, I [00:23:00] love trying to be real. I don't try to sugar coat things. If somebody makes a mistake, I'll say it's a mistake. If somebody's good, I'll say it's good. If somebody wins the fight, I'll say they win. If I think they lose, I'm going to say they lose. You know, and I've um, I've been criticized by a lot of fighters after the fight.
[00:23:12] Jeff: Said, oh, you're my friend. I said, listen, what do you want me to tell you? One way you didn't say it. It's pretty black and white for me. Is
[00:23:18] Wayne: that, given that this, uh, this is The Truth Hurts, do you think boxing has been hurt by the fact that, you know, people, especially, especially judges in boxing, there's just been so many controversial decisions around boxing that it has damaged the sport in some way?
[00:23:32] Wayne: Oh,
[00:23:32] Jeff: without a doubt. Listen, this is, boxing is a sport here. Look at this. So the guy that referees here. And the guys that judge, they can do the worst job ever, but next week they're working again. If your podcast is shit, brother, you're out of here. There's no more podcast. If I can't, if you can't hold a train and go and serve people, you get the sack.
[00:23:50] Jeff: These guys do it every week. And let me just tell you, the judge who judged the Lomachenko fight in Haney, that gave the fight to Haney by four rounds, I thought Haney might have just, well that's my opinion. [00:24:00] But the guy who gave it in by four rounds was the guy who robbed me against the Jermyn Nelson. It was exactly the same judge.
[00:24:04] Jeff: And he's still doing it today. He's still doing it today. How old, how old is he? I'm a hundred and six, that's what I'm saying. And that's the other thing, Duck. I mean, some of these guys can't even walk to their chairs to sit down. So I don't know how they can see or how they can judge. And the biggest thing is, they've never been punched in the in the mouth.
[00:24:20] Jeff: They need to be punched in the mouth. Especially after that fight as well. But, yeah, they've got, unless you've been in there and done that, it's, it's... It's a hard job. Well, given the,
[00:24:30] Wayne: uh, given the noise, I know it looks like the speedball's finished in the background. I was going to say, given the noise, we might, uh, we might wind it up.
[00:24:36] Wayne: What I was going to say, and we, we, uh, did a bit of a podcast yesterday, and I was standing in here earlier and I had this shirt on which says athlete, and, uh, someone yelled out, they said, Athlete, and I turn around, see, see the black eye, Jeff did that, that's, that's now, that's now a part of how I got the black eye, it's the great Jeff Fennec gave me
[00:24:55] Jeff: a clip, alright.
[00:24:56] Jeff: I'd like, I'd like to say it was a weird day, just to have the credit for doing it, didn't [00:25:00] I, nah, but nah, like I said, um, you know, Duck, I'm honoured to be sitting with you, and I know the rides you've been through, and I know the shit you've been through, and I know how you must feel, cause I've been there, brother, and I, um, I'm totally with you 100%, hey.
[00:25:16] Jeff: And we all make mistakes. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Listen mate, I tell everybody this, we all make mistakes. I've written references for people, I try to say to people, listen, hey, to these, to these judges and stuff, I say, put your son in that position. When I write to them, I say, put your son in that position.
[00:25:31] Jeff: Wouldn't you like your son to get a second chance? We all deserve a second chance. And who cares if it's a second or a third chance? People deserve a chance. And if people are willing to work hard and show you they're going to change, they deserve the chance to do it.
[00:25:46] Wayne: You're an absolute superstar. Um, obviously your boxing, uh, um, speaks for itself.
[00:25:52] Wayne: We know what you did there, but I think, and as you say, and this is what I love about what we're doing here and the interviews that I'll be doing. And that [00:26:00] is people that have come from obviously rough upbringings, or not even rough, but have succeeded. And then fallen and then come back through the other side and, and, and clearly you sit better and more comfortable in your own skin now than you ever have, which I think is
[00:26:12] Jeff: awesome.
[00:26:13] Jeff: I'm going to give somebody an opportunity because, you know, back in the day there was that, that there was that movie with that lady when, how did you become so rich? What was that lady's name? She's a blonde lady. She's passed away now. God bless her soul. She was beautiful. And she was, you know, and she'd go up to people, listen, we need to do a podcast.
[00:26:27] Jeff: We need to do a series on how did you become so poor? Because so many rich people that have been poor and these people that live in the streets have had money. And. That's the message that we need to get across to kids at school. Have a look at these people that have got nothing and why they've got nothing.
[00:26:41] Jeff: Don't worry about how people got rich. You know, just look at how people got born. That's going to make you become rich, you know. So I've always wanted to do something and go and talk to people about the situations they're in and how they got there. There's an opportunity if you wanna change it, because if you wanna change it, we, we can change, we can all change, we can all [00:27:00] get up and wash ourselves.
[00:27:01] Jeff: We can All you Yeah. With a little bit of, with a little bit of help and a little bit of support. We, we can do that. I, you know, I've always said I'd love to do a, not just a podcast. I, I'd love to do a thing where you, you go and see a lot my sport in boxing industry. Um, there are so many people had millions and millions and millions and they've got nothing today.
[00:27:16] Jeff: And I, you know, would love to go. Ask them why, and why that happened,
[00:27:20] Wayne: you know? I've got the right producers and the right team here to, uh, to start that forever.
[00:27:25] Jeff: Does it sound good? How did I become so poor? Mate, uh, you know
[00:27:28] Wayne: what? Jeff, you are a champion. Hey, Duck. And you are a legend. I'm your friend forever, brother.
[00:27:32] Wayne: I just know that. Good on you, mate. Thank you. Thank
[00:27:37] Jeff: you.