Boxing great Jeff Fenech has admitted to using “Fenech privileges” to ensure a title fight avoided ending as a no contest as Hassan Hamdan claimed the Australian super lightweight belt.
Hamdan dominated the first four rounds against Justin Frost, but was left with a huge gash above his left eye following an inadvertent head clash with Frost in the final two minutes of the fourth round.
The fight was stopped due to heavy bleeding with a doctor on the scene declaring that it should not continue.
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Fenech, who was in Hamdan’s corner, pleaded with the referee and the doctor to “give me the chance to fix it”, before the doctor’s call was overruled and the fight was allowed to continue.
Hamdan was able to see out the final 1.09 remaining in the round before the fight was called off at the end of the fourth round. All three judges on hand voted in Hamdan’s favour, giving him a unanimous points decision.
“You have to acknowledge the influence that Jeff Fenech has whenever he is the trainer in the corner,” MainEvent commentator Ben Damon said.
“He has that presence and it has played a part here.”
Fenech’s influence on the contest did not go unnoticed by former American boxer Shawn Porter.
“Let’s be realistic here, Jeff did everything he needed to do to get out of that round,” he said.
“Frost’s corner should’ve been doing everything they needed to do to keep that fight in that round so it could get stopped.
“It was one of those tricky situations where the ref, his back was against the ropes, the doctor’s back was against the ropes, because you don’t want to disappoint Mr Fenech over there. I do believe that Mr Fenech played a role here, but also Hamdan himself pleading and arguing that he could continue.
“There’s a lot that went on there that shouldn’t have gone on … Jeff Fenech was not supposed to be up there. You’re not allowed to be up there.
“That was just beautiful coaching there (by Fenech), but it was also him working his magic in terms of who he is and his starpower here in Australia.”
Fenech confirmed it himself after the result was made official.
“I knew it (the cut) was bad, but I knew that he won every round,” he said.
“I just knew that if we could get through that fourth round this belt was coming home with us. Thanks to the Fenech privileges we got it done.”
“The doctor wanted to stop it,” Hamdan added.
“I said, ‘Listen, I nearly floored this motherf—er, you’re not going to f—ing give me a draw, no way’.”
Hamdan and Frost have already agreed to a rematch at a later date to be determined.
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