By Mark Vester
In a recent interview with The Daily Mirror, Irish boxing legend Barry McGuigan said that he fears for the safety of Jeff Fenech and Azumah Nelson, who are both coming out of retirement to stage a trilogy bout on June 24 fight in Melbourne. The two hall-of-fame fighters, Nelson, 49 and Fenech, 43, are returning to the ring after long retirement stints.
"Azumah Nelson is arguably Africa's finest boxer ever. Jeff Fenech one of the greatest to come from Australia. But Nelson is 49 and has not fought for 10 years, Fenech, 43, has been idle for 12," McGuigan said. "This coming contest will prove nothing, other than that one old man is better than another. Big deal. This is ridiculously silly on a number of fronts. But first and foremost it is dangerous. Boxing is not something you play at."
McGuigan was an active fighter in the same time period as both men and he's been retired for almost 20-years. He never fought either of them, but would have liked to fight them in their prime.
"These boys were from my era and I've been retired 19 years. Nelson and I both won gold medals at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, he at featherweight, me at bantam. Nelson was the target had my comeback not faltered. Fenech was always on my radar, too. I hold my hands up and say Azumah would have been too good for me. It would have been a great fight but he was too much of an all-rounder," McGuigan said.
"Fenech, as good as he was, would have been a great match-up. I wouldn't have had to go looking for him and he didn't hit as hard as Nelson."
Fenech's trainer Johnny Lewis doesn't feel there is a real danger involved.
"If there was any real danger to Jeff I would tell him not to fight," Lewis said. "But he is not fighting some young lion on the way up, he is fighting a guy of his same vintage. Jeff is superfit and I am certain he will finish the fight with flying colours. I have the utmost respect for Azumah too, and I know he will prepared to go 10 solid rounds."
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