Former three-weight world champion and International Boxing Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech spent the weekend in a Thailand intensive care unit thanks to an infected heart valve and now faces surgery.
Fenech reportedly began coughing up blood on Friday while working a training camp and had to be “rushed to hospital.”
‘Every night I have been here I think I’m not going to wake up tomorrow,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph.
Fenech (29-3-1, 21 KO) is considered the greatest boxer Australia has ever produced. He claimed the IBF bantamweight world title with a knockout of Satoshi Shingaki in just his seventh pro fight, and after three successful defenses, moved up to 122 pounds to challenge the Thai legend, Samart Payakaroon. Fenech wound up stopping Payakaroon in four, and his two bantamweight defenses included a decision over one of boxing’s all-time great punchers in Carlos Zarate.
The rest of his career was highlighted by a lengthy reign as WBC featherweight champion and his epic battles with fellow Hall of Famer and Ghana boxing legend, Azumah Nelson.
–badlefthook.com
