Speaker 1: The public has had a long held fascination with detectives.
Speaker 1: Detective see a side of life the average person is
Speaker 1: never exposed to. I spent thirty four years as a cop.
Speaker 1: For twenty five of those years I was catching killers.
Speaker 1: That's what I did for a living. I was a
Speaker 1: homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead,
Speaker 1: I'm taking the public into the world in which I operated.
Speaker 1: The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories
Speaker 1: from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw
Speaker 1: and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some
Speaker 1: of the content and language might be confronting. That's because
Speaker 1: no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged.
Speaker 1: Join me now as I take you into this world.
Speaker 1: He went from a youth detention center to become the
Speaker 1: four times world boxing champion. Today I'm at the home
Speaker 1: of Ossie Icon.
Speaker 2: Jeff Fennick.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the moment a troublesome teenager walked into
Speaker 1: the Newtown Police Boys Club and change boxing history forever.
Speaker 1: Jeff Faneck, Welcome to I Catch Killers. Thank you well
Speaker 1: on a true crime podcast.
Speaker 3: Always a pleasurement. I love doing this stuff.
Speaker 4: I love being able to share my stories and hopefully
Speaker 4: the stories that I share make people a bit of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think and the fact that the life
Speaker 1: that you've lived in boxing, like you know, in the
Speaker 1: in the hurting game, as they say, a professional fighter,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of lessons that can be learned. And
Speaker 1: I see a lot of people's lives have been turned
Speaker 1: around by pursuing like you did, going becoming a professional boxer,
Speaker 1: turning away from a life of crime. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of lessons that can be learned in the boxing ring,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I certainly wouldn't be here without boxing. But the
Speaker 4: reason why boxing because Johnny Lewis saying if I didn't
Speaker 4: meet Johnny, and there's not a chance that I would
Speaker 4: have went back to the gym the next day. I
Speaker 4: didn't want to go back to the gym nexto. I
Speaker 4: got beat up by somebody. Shit, and he's telling me
Speaker 4: I can fight. I'm not stupid. I'm not going back
Speaker 4: to get beat up. It was it was Johnny Lewis,
Speaker 4: who I don't know, had this magnetic force that made
Speaker 4: people fall in love with him to this day.
Speaker 3: I love him.
Speaker 2: We'll try and we'll try and work that out.
Speaker 1: I know I've come into the orbit of Johnny Lewis
Speaker 1: and he has got some magic, hasn't he.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to me, he brings out the best in people.
Speaker 3: Yea, he makes you want. He's very very smart.
Speaker 4: He doesn't tell you when to go to the Olympics
Speaker 4: in the first time we sees you, but he tells
Speaker 4: you if you keep working hard and you prepare to
Speaker 4: roll your sleeves up, things will happen. And he's very
Speaker 4: very smart in the way that he will set you
Speaker 4: goals that are rechievable and then when you start achieving them,
Speaker 4: then he'll know. He'll put you on that next level.
Speaker 4: And I don't think there's anybody better than him that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fascinating the influence that Johnny has and the
Speaker 1: amount of respect he's got in regards to you. It's
Speaker 1: not a fast stretch of the imagination on a podcast
Speaker 1: that if you didn't find boxing, I could have been
Speaker 1: talking about your time, your time inside and all the
Speaker 1: crimes that you've committed because you were heading down the
Speaker 1: path as a young.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it wouldn't be I would like you wouldn't be
Speaker 4: talking about Yeah, I don't know where i'd be aware.
Speaker 4: We all most either still be in jail or I'd
Speaker 4: be dead today. So I'm just yeah, I'm blessed. I
Speaker 4: found a sport that I am that I was I
Speaker 4: think I was born to be involved in.
Speaker 3: I mean, I never boxed in my life. I was
Speaker 3: seventeen and a half.
Speaker 4: I never watched any but of course i'd heard of
Speaker 4: my armed Ali, But yeah, I never dreamt of being
Speaker 4: a fight. I want to be a first grade football
Speaker 4: and that's all I that's all I wanted to do.
Speaker 2: That was your passion.
Speaker 1: I actually saw you play at Cumberland Oval when you
Speaker 1: had your break from boxing and you signed with the
Speaker 1: NRL Paramatta and I think it was reserve grade and
Speaker 1: I'll see what happens when you took the field. So
Speaker 1: that was an experience. We'll talk about that later. I
Speaker 1: just want to ask up front, like you are and
Speaker 1: I think the eighties when you start having your success
Speaker 1: in boxing, Australia was devoid of sporting heroes and we're
Speaker 1: a sporting nation. And your success in the in the
Speaker 1: eighties and mid eighties when you won the world title,
Speaker 1: you became virtually an icon. You know, everyone knew who
Speaker 1: you were. How was that being Jeff Ferneck at that stage.
Speaker 4: Again, it was pretty strange. You know, I don't think
Speaker 4: I was really ready for it, and I don't think
Speaker 4: even to this day, there are a lot of people that
Speaker 4: aren't really ready to cope.
Speaker 3: With that stuff.
Speaker 4: Although we had managers and back back then we had
Speaker 4: nobody had John Lewis, you know. And you know, I
Speaker 4: made money and I spent it, and I have no
Speaker 4: doubt that I could have had millions and millions more
Speaker 4: if I was managed to properly, if I had somebody
Speaker 4: who knew what the numbers were. But like I said today,
Speaker 4: when I look at who I am and what I've got,
Speaker 4: I didn't need. I'm happy to have what I've got.
Speaker 4: I feel very, very blessed to a found the sport.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I believe that everybody has a gift,
Speaker 4: and sometimes we find it, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 1: Well, it's virtually become folk law and we'll dive into
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty of it about how you got in
Speaker 1: the boxing. But having the profile that you do must
Speaker 1: come with a weight too, Like there's a good and
Speaker 1: the bad of having a profile. But do you feel
Speaker 1: the responsibility as a role model, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4: So I've made some mistakes, but my mistakes all the
Speaker 4: more mistakes I've made just been guilty by association. I mean,
Speaker 4: I got charge with having a fight with the green grocer.
Speaker 4: I didn't even throw a punch. I was just stand there.
Speaker 4: And I've been pulled over for different things. And maybe
Speaker 4: back in the day they were the good things, because
Speaker 4: you know, the police would talk to you, you know,
Speaker 4: obviously because of my name.
Speaker 3: Most of the times I'd get off.
Speaker 4: But yeah, some of the things, Like I said, my
Speaker 4: wife and I were in the Gold Coast Valentimee's day,
Speaker 4: we end up having an agent because I was pouring
Speaker 4: as a special guest. I was pouring some girls champagne
Speaker 4: there and she's standing on her own. So we go
Speaker 4: downstairs at the back of a car park. We stand
Speaker 4: there to talk and she was pretty rowdy, you know.
Speaker 4: All of a sudden, the police go comes and we
Speaker 4: explained that to my wife and we have an am
Speaker 4: not nothing's happened, as I could see.
Speaker 3: My wife was no normal.
Speaker 4: We go outside, we stand back up and then three
Speaker 4: police cars coming and I end up getting arrested because
Speaker 4: you had done nothing.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to stand up for myself, you know.
Speaker 4: So like I said, there's good and bad, but like
Speaker 4: I think, the thing that I like the most to
Speaker 4: get what comes with it. But I have an opportunity
Speaker 4: now to give back, and I mean this beautiful outsgoing.
Speaker 3: I accredit that to the people who follow me. Am.
Speaker 4: You know, you don't own anything if you're not popular,
Speaker 4: So I am. I accredit this to Yeah, thanking the
Speaker 4: people for what I've done. But my main aim play
Speaker 4: is just to give back. And like I said, if
Speaker 4: I have to give back from experiences that I've had
Speaker 4: and made mistakes and hopefully people won't make the same ones,
Speaker 4: I'm happy to've gone through that roller coaster.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you're very forthright in your opinions too, and that
Speaker 1: sort of polarizes people and steers people. The first time
Speaker 1: I saw you, you're actually helping the helping the cops.
Speaker 1: I had just joined the police and they had the
Speaker 1: dollar drug drug dealer in.
Speaker 3: I was on the wall of me and Garf were they're.
Speaker 2: Just out there.
Speaker 4: If you look, did you see with me and Migado
Speaker 4: behind bars? Yes, the one below it there's the commissioners. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: well that's I was. I was there answering the phone.
Speaker 3: So you know what what happened to be? For that?
Speaker 2: My house was egged every day what the drug dealer
Speaker 2: has got? Yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 4: I don't have to do because I'm very energized. I've
Speaker 4: never had a drug in my life, never had a
Speaker 4: coffee in my life. After I spoke and just telling
Speaker 4: about not doing drugs, it said dobbing a drug dealer.
Speaker 3: So I was the enemy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny. Well it's not funny, it's yeah, terrible.
Speaker 4: It wasn't funny time they come every morning clean the
Speaker 4: eggs and shells from the house.
Speaker 1: Well for what that's where if I was excited, So
Speaker 1: it was been following you your career and senior there,
Speaker 1: so I was excited the last time I was here
Speaker 1: at your place. We're down here standing in front of
Speaker 1: this wall, and Michael fran sees the New York Mafia
Speaker 1: capo was we've been out for dinner and we came
Speaker 1: back here. I think we were shaping up and you
Speaker 1: were a refereeing or whatever. But like Michael Francis, he's
Speaker 1: been on the podcast and I know him fairly well,
Speaker 1: and you know he was a big deal mafia dude
Speaker 1: before he saw the light and got out of the mafia.
Speaker 1: But the respect for someone like Michael Frances he shows you.
Speaker 1: And I've seen that. We're talking about the function down
Speaker 1: down in Melbourne for Barry Michael, and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of colorful characters there. There were some bikis and
Speaker 1: business people and I was watching you mix between the
Speaker 1: two worlds quite easily.
Speaker 2: I just seem to attract people.
Speaker 3: Like I said, respect isn't given.
Speaker 4: It's you know, I've a knock some of my doors
Speaker 4: and some of the biggest bikes and other people back
Speaker 4: in the days stand Smith and all.
Speaker 3: They were friends, my.
Speaker 4: Outlook and my way of life and shot out of
Speaker 4: everybody shake their hands and that's it, you know. Like
Speaker 4: I said, I don't know if I'm lucky run like you,
Speaker 4: But like I said, because of I'm the fighter, and
Speaker 4: everybody wants to be around. And when I used to fight,
Speaker 4: all those guys from the good old days were their
Speaker 4: supporting me and stuff.
Speaker 3: So I was never going to turn my back on anybody.
Speaker 4: If you know, like I said, to this day, if
Speaker 4: something happens to you along with you, Gary, I'm going
Speaker 4: to jar with him.
Speaker 3: Brother. If somebody bashes you or hits you, They've got
Speaker 3: to hit me as well. I'm with you.
Speaker 4: My father taught me one thing. When you go out
Speaker 4: with your friend, you go home with him. And I
Speaker 4: don't care who I am, or who you are, or
Speaker 4: where I am. If somebody's got the audacity's to say
Speaker 4: something to me, they're copping the back. You know.
Speaker 3: It's the old Bible said an eye for an eye.
Speaker 3: Forget about this.
Speaker 4: New bullshit world we live in there, you know, I
Speaker 4: go by the old Testament where it says, yeah, if
Speaker 4: somebody is good enough to say something, will do something,
Speaker 4: you give it back, and I'll give it back a
Speaker 4: lot harder than they can because they're cowards. They're just
Speaker 4: you know, people who get on keypad keypads and they
Speaker 4: think they're worried because they're tougher. So I said something
Speaker 4: to Jeff Enny, I put my address on there'll put
Speaker 4: my phone number, and they came say to my face.
Speaker 1: Well, I think loyalty is something that's it's lost, and
Speaker 1: being a stand up guy is almost frowned upon these days.
Speaker 1: But I haven't got a problem with those values. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a funny world now, and you can get shouted
Speaker 1: down for those values.
Speaker 4: But you know, Gary, some people say to me, Jeff,
Speaker 4: what did you write that on Facebook?
Speaker 3: What would you say? Listen?
Speaker 4: I said, they're good enough to say something about my family,
Speaker 4: I'm going to give it back. And if they don't like,
Speaker 4: oh you see this, will shut your mouth up and
Speaker 4: don't say anything about me at the start.
Speaker 3: Don't listen.
Speaker 4: The reason why it was such a great fighter is
Speaker 4: because I've got that switch, and when the switch goes off,
Speaker 4: I'm unbeatable, much as unbetible. I'm not scared of anybody
Speaker 4: in the world. So don't turn that switch on. And yeah,
Speaker 4: you'll find that eye side of me.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I think loyalty is a strong value that's underestimated
Speaker 1: the importance of it these days. And I saw it
Speaker 1: in the police.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I had a lot of mates in the police.
Speaker 2: But when things went bad for me in the police.
Speaker 1: Couldn't believe how quickly the rats scurried, and people that
Speaker 1: I thought would back me up to the hip that
Speaker 1: I would have been prepared to back up to the hilp,
Speaker 1: I couldn't see him, see him the.
Speaker 3: Just yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 4: When you win to lose the fight, you Johnny Luis
Speaker 4: was famous to saying you when you when.
Speaker 3: You walk in the dress room, you can't move. When
Speaker 3: when you're lose.
Speaker 4: You and you get a dog by the tail, and
Speaker 4: when there's plenty of room in there, nobody comes in there.
Speaker 4: But like I said, that's that's part and past of
Speaker 4: what of the sport I'm in. But the great thing
Speaker 4: is because you're talking about lilting and and there's anybody
Speaker 4: more little to people than Johnny. Johnny am was somebody
Speaker 4: who instilled it any me. Like I said, I talked
Speaker 4: to Johnny about the good old days, the Terry Balls
Speaker 4: and all these fans that he had, Loopy and all
Speaker 4: those guys, and if anything happened to anybody, and they'd
Speaker 4: be the first person there, I'll never forget what. I'll
Speaker 4: let you down at RSIL, and Johnny stopped the fight
Speaker 4: a little early with obviously with his influence and some
Speaker 4: people screaming at Johnny calling away. I jumped down and
Speaker 4: next I've got a gun put to my head. I
Speaker 4: jumped down because I swear it at my trainer. You know,
Speaker 4: if Johnny walked down the street in front of any
Speaker 4: of us, our team over there and we're all jump
Speaker 4: in there and take a bullet.
Speaker 1: Foot And I think that's the character of that He
Speaker 1: instills that that you feel it.
Speaker 2: You definitely feel it.
Speaker 1: And I consider myself very lucky having an association with
Speaker 1: him now and lessons that I'm learning. I'm learning late
Speaker 1: in life, and just he sort of reinforcing.
Speaker 4: Think of this Kangaroo tools. They took him away there,
Speaker 4: but he wasn't and it wasn't for boxing. Was just
Speaker 4: for that company, was for that band. That he could
Speaker 4: sit down with somebody and make them the happiest guys world.
Speaker 4: He could sit down and if you were third best,
Speaker 4: he'd make you feel that you were the best in
Speaker 4: the world. Yeah, he had that ability in it. It's
Speaker 4: always great. That's one of those people around you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the most. Definitely your early early days. So you
Speaker 1: tell us about your childhood growing up before you discovered boxing.
Speaker 2: What was What were you like then?
Speaker 4: Well, I played football every afternoon. Soon a school was done,
Speaker 4: I first of all, I have a paper. I'd go
Speaker 4: and sell my papers to have some money, and then
Speaker 4: I would go to the park and play football with
Speaker 4: my friends. But I was one of the smart guys.
Speaker 4: I got out of school ten minutes early every day.
Speaker 4: So because I had this letter saying because my father
Speaker 4: was so sick with our lives, they had to be
Speaker 4: the paper shop first. And when I get the paper
Speaker 4: shop with the guys who had seventy or lady papers
Speaker 4: of each, I'd take five or ten out of each
Speaker 4: of their barrow put in the mine because I worked
Speaker 4: on the highway down near the Southern Cross Hotel, and
Speaker 4: I would sell papers, but I'd make a good extra
Speaker 4: five or ten dollars every day just yeah from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's where you always had that street smart,
Speaker 1: the rat, cunning and the starter as a paperboy and
Speaker 1: learn how the play the game.
Speaker 4: And then, like I said, my father was so strict.
Speaker 4: When my friends would go out and do things that
Speaker 4: rob things, I never went with them. But after they
Speaker 4: would bring him back and hide them everybody in the US,
Speaker 4: I would go and get them and I would I
Speaker 4: would sell them, would do whatever I had to do.
Speaker 1: So you were you're heading for a path of trouble
Speaker 1: because you did you did some time in the Yeah.
Speaker 4: I went to the boys for a couple of months,
Speaker 4: and I went to or Wonder, Yeah, and I got
Speaker 4: out of there in a month because good behavior.
Speaker 3: I mean we went and played.
Speaker 4: Football while we're there and there. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 4: was in a streaking. I used to go out and
Speaker 4: had fight sam. At that time, the street violence was
Speaker 4: really really bad. I was twelve, thirty years old. They
Speaker 4: made an example out of me. They nobody said it
Speaker 4: was actually me. I was just in the game. So yeah,
Speaker 4: they locked up quite a few of us, and then
Speaker 4: me and my brother, Yeah, we both got locked up.
Speaker 4: And like I said, for me, it was a great lesson.
Speaker 4: The only thing that I regret the iced to think, Oh,
Speaker 4: you're a tough guy who just did this. You did
Speaker 4: a little bit of time or whatever it is, and
Speaker 4: you went into these boys arms. You're fighting everybody. I
Speaker 4: didn't realize. I didn't realize the hurt that I put
Speaker 4: on my family. You know, it's not just a little
Speaker 4: tough guy. And I didn't realize how how hard I
Speaker 4: am made it for mom and dad.
Speaker 3: My dad couldn't even travel.
Speaker 4: And see my brother was in there, he was in Gosford,
Speaker 4: and my mom and dad through Hill And to any
Speaker 4: kid out there that we are, I think we're tough
Speaker 4: and stuff at a young age, and we think we
Speaker 4: can do this. I don't think about you think about
Speaker 4: the pain and hurt you put your mom and dad
Speaker 4: and your family through.
Speaker 3: If I thought.
Speaker 4: About that when I was younger, I never would have
Speaker 4: gotten on. I still would have been that little shifty
Speaker 4: guy that would try to live in allmal life, but
Speaker 4: I would never have put my mom and dad through
Speaker 4: what I've put them through. Ye.
Speaker 1: It's a good message, Jeff, because I think at that
Speaker 1: age you don't even consider that there.
Speaker 4: You just think you're tough around, your mates are good,
Speaker 4: and the world revolves around you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you don't realize the hurt and the
Speaker 4: pain you put your family through. And I've seen that
Speaker 4: later on in life. I've seen that as I was older,
Speaker 4: and some of those things that happened to me don't
Speaker 4: want to I wasn't even so I didn't do any
Speaker 4: and see my mom cry and that as I was,
Speaker 4: you know, in my twenties and stuff was really really
Speaker 4: hurtful to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, you talk boys home, and there's an interesting
Speaker 1: side story. I think we've made a him and you
Speaker 1: know him real well, he's made the mine. But he
Speaker 1: was talking about a former professional boxer and a genuine
Speaker 1: tough guy isn't he.
Speaker 3: He was one of the toughest guys ever came out.
Speaker 2: There is something something about Nata.
Speaker 4: Him and his group the Legends, and did a lot
Speaker 4: of damage to a lot of different people.
Speaker 3: Even the police.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well that's why he was in the boys
Speaker 1: home and he got three years and he was up
Speaker 1: at Gosford and he told me the story that you know,
Speaker 1: he was going down the path it would have inevitablely
Speaker 1: ended up in prison. And he read your book and
Speaker 1: that he said he stole your book. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: don't think you can get charged with still in the
Speaker 1: library book. But he read that book and then he
Speaker 1: started telling the other inmates or the people in custody
Speaker 1: and the guards that this life's.
Speaker 2: Not for me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to become a professional boxer. And that turned
Speaker 1: he turned his life around.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll never forget the first day he turned up
Speaker 4: in the gym and everybody was talking about this guy.
Speaker 4: And I think he learned the same way I did.
Speaker 4: He sparted his named Pierre Karen, who was pretty good.
Speaker 4: You can be the toughest guy in the world, but
Speaker 4: a few and have never been punched. Reform if you
Speaker 4: never had to throw a proper punch. It was tough.
Speaker 4: So Nata had a tough first bar. But he just
Speaker 4: got better and better and he got more and more dedicated,
Speaker 4: and like I said, he was in the same plus
Speaker 4: as me.
Speaker 3: He got a built in his first part. He went
Speaker 3: back because.
Speaker 4: He knew that the discipline and everything else that took
Speaker 4: to become a good person, and being around Johnny Lewis
Speaker 4: was just again a drug.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's the magic of boxing butt too, isn't it. Because
Speaker 1: you can be you think you're the toughest guy in
Speaker 1: the world, and you step into a boxing ring and
Speaker 1: you can get lit up by someone that looks like
Speaker 1: an accountant that knows how to fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's it's a discipline that you've got to
Speaker 1: put into. And we'll delve into that because I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of lessons that can be learned and
Speaker 1: the importance of police boys clubs and encouraging that.
Speaker 2: I think we make a huge difference.
Speaker 4: Forget forget police boys clubs. School Every school in the
Speaker 4: world should have a lesson every day or when a
Speaker 4: day it is, three times a week where they teach
Speaker 4: kids self defense today so they don't get bullied.
Speaker 3: So they don't go. Man. You know what upsets me
Speaker 3: the most are the parents. Today. My daughter came home
Speaker 3: to me now and Tommy, I'm not letting.
Speaker 4: Nobody, you know, bully my children or try to say
Speaker 4: the odds with things about our family. I mean, if
Speaker 4: they do, if my kids don't steak over themselves, then
Speaker 4: they're going to copy worse from me.
Speaker 3: And they've got to learn today that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got to teach all our kids some you
Speaker 4: know form of self defense. The most powerful tool we
Speaker 4: got is this just by talking. I mean I've been
Speaker 4: with plosive scream that's where you want to fight them.
Speaker 4: I've been with police to say come on mate, you
Speaker 4: don't need and it's the hugest thing in the world.
Speaker 4: But like I said, if you are confident, you you
Speaker 4: know what you're doing well, you didn't need to do
Speaker 4: is talk and then it goes to the next stage
Speaker 4: and you've got no choice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, at least you know what you're doing well.
Speaker 2: Jeff.
Speaker 1: I've tried to make this point because when I people
Speaker 1: think it's counterintuitive that a kid like yourself you get
Speaker 1: in street fights, you've been put in the boys home
Speaker 1: for fighting, and then teach you the boxing. How's that
Speaker 1: going to change? And the naysayers will say, well, you're
Speaker 1: just teaching him how to beat up people. But my
Speaker 1: observation of people that have the confidence that they've learnt
Speaker 1: through learning how to fight and look after themselves is
Speaker 1: that they don't have to prove themselves all the time.
Speaker 2: They can walk like the bullies. Invariably you must bullies.
Speaker 3: Then they know that I know who to pick on who.
Speaker 1: Yes, And that's Once you know how to look after yourself,
Speaker 1: you can walk away from a situation if you have to.
Speaker 1: You can back yourself up if you need to, but
Speaker 1: you can walk away from a situation.
Speaker 4: Gary, I will never forget one of the things that
Speaker 4: Johnny Lewis told me. You said, I've taught you to
Speaker 4: do this in the room, not to be able to
Speaker 4: build it outside. And I've got some boys that I trained,
Speaker 4: I said, young kids who were bullied and they're a
Speaker 4: little autistic. May they leave this house the happiest kids
Speaker 4: in the world, knowing that they can look after themselves. Now,
Speaker 4: I love when they walk out. That's maybe the greatest
Speaker 4: thing I've ever done. Every day, when these boys walk
Speaker 4: out of my house and I see the smile on
Speaker 4: their face and.
Speaker 3: When I leave, they can't wait to get back. For me,
Speaker 3: it's infectious, So I love it.
Speaker 4: I mean, if I had a million kids walk through
Speaker 4: this house to day, I made them leave and not
Speaker 4: they couldn't wait to get back.
Speaker 3: I've done my job.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: The fact that referencing back to Nada, the fact that yeah,
Speaker 1: just by the words that you had on that in
Speaker 1: your book inspired him enough to turn turn his life around,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, if you can change one person,
Speaker 1: it's something positive.
Speaker 3: And from Nata come his son.
Speaker 4: Train As has an amazing talent that I think and
Speaker 4: I'm sure Nada is this kind of father. Nada food
Speaker 4: for the world title and everyone I think has I
Speaker 4: think has can win the world title. So it's it's
Speaker 4: going to be interesting.
Speaker 1: Well, the synergy of you having an influence in Nata,
Speaker 1: then training with him, and then now you're looking after
Speaker 1: his son.
Speaker 3: It's exciting for me.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I've been around Hassen his family since
Speaker 4: he was born, so you know, they're an amazing family.
Speaker 4: The mother, the father, and the brothers are all very
Speaker 4: very close in there. It's kind of pleasure being around that.
Speaker 2: Rock solid human being.
Speaker 1: Native from what I've seen, and he's doing some work
Speaker 1: with kids, troubled kids and all that, and I think
Speaker 1: it's so important.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is this kind of guy.
Speaker 4: But Nate has to learn that even in this day
Speaker 4: and age, if it's black, it's black, toad. But I've
Speaker 4: got to till later. You can't just say this as
Speaker 4: if it's black. You've got to shade a little bit.
Speaker 4: You got to let it come out because some of
Speaker 4: these kids just yeare they go home and say something,
Speaker 4: the family go and to all the school teacher. Somebody
Speaker 4: said something, and and you're not there any longer. But
Speaker 4: the other guys we need, we need the nadors.
Speaker 1: Jeff, you might I'm laughing because you've probably were probably
Speaker 1: talking about the same story. But yeah, he gave someone
Speaker 1: some advice. It was very good advice. Was the kid
Speaker 1: appreciated the advice.
Speaker 3: But the teacher didn't.
Speaker 2: The world you can't say that it.
Speaker 1: Was the best thing for them one hundred percent, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the world that. How did you end up in
Speaker 1: the New Town boxing gym? What brought you there to
Speaker 1: start with?
Speaker 3: I went to the youth club with some friends that
Speaker 3: we were We wanted to beat up some guys that
Speaker 3: were being a little.
Speaker 4: Smart, and downstairs we walked through. We went through all
Speaker 4: the There was a weight room downstairs, and the showers
Speaker 4: and the sewing room.
Speaker 3: We're looking through there. Then we went upstairs. There was
Speaker 3: a wrestling room, and there was a judo room, and.
Speaker 4: The last one was boxing. And they had a little
Speaker 4: glass window on there and said boxing. As I looked through,
Speaker 4: and we're looking for those people because the door was closed.
Speaker 4: I've seen a kid from my school that also played
Speaker 4: football with me. His name was Mark krub And I went,
Speaker 4: there's nowhere else to go. So I went and sat
Speaker 4: down and I wanted to watch him box. You know,
Speaker 4: thought could beat everybody anyway. But I heard Johnny Litle
Speaker 4: saying to him about it would be great to get
Speaker 4: some sparring for him and stuff, and I said.
Speaker 3: I was sparring.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It ended up being the best decision, but not
Speaker 3: at that time.
Speaker 4: It didn't end up good. I was winded and stuff,
Speaker 4: and Johnny's telling me how great I was. After I'm thinking,
Speaker 4: excuse me, this old bustard thinks some stupid may you
Speaker 4: got to come back tomorrow.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, I'll come back with my friends,
Speaker 3: and I'm not going to pretend I was not.
Speaker 2: I thought Johnny's just lining up for yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I didn't want to in front of my friends
Speaker 4: make out that I was a count and say no,
Speaker 4: I'm not coming back, So yeah, I'm coming back. When
Speaker 4: I got home that night, I've had a share and
Speaker 4: stuff and filed my ribs and how I was winded
Speaker 4: and everything else, and I said no, I don't know.
Speaker 3: The next day for some reason that Magne Johnny Lewis and.
Speaker 1: I know, and I've heard you say countless times, and
Speaker 1: I fully get it that you were your success in
Speaker 1: part or a big part of it was driven by
Speaker 1: not letting letting Johnny Johnny down.
Speaker 3: Ah, No, no, you wouldn't. I don't know. I think
Speaker 3: maybe more than anything else.
Speaker 4: When I seen Johnny at the end of the at
Speaker 4: the end of the fight jump in there with I
Speaker 4: knew I'd done my job. You know, that's say this,
Speaker 4: But it was for him more than for myself, and
Speaker 4: my fam was for him more than anything. Everything else
Speaker 4: came after that when I seen him, and then the
Speaker 4: rest of the crowd stuff.
Speaker 3: First my.
Speaker 4: First foot forward to were to cuddle Johnny before I
Speaker 4: darn anything else and then the crowd everything else were
Speaker 4: there and I love that more than anything. To be
Speaker 4: this little kid that's got twelve and fifteen thousand people
Speaker 4: screaming for you and am rooting for you was real,
Speaker 4: really important.
Speaker 1: It's funny with Johnny because he's such a quietly spoken person.
Speaker 1: Then you see some of the toughest and most notorious
Speaker 1: people in the town because I get around with him
Speaker 1: a bit, all pay homage and respect to him.
Speaker 2: And then the hard ass sportsman.
Speaker 1: He just has a way away about him like bringing
Speaker 1: probably bringing the best out of people.
Speaker 3: Oh with that doubt, AM.
Speaker 4: Met some of the biggest gangsters and whenever you want
Speaker 4: to call them in Australian history, that all have the
Speaker 4: utmost respect for you, and that that speaks for himself.
Speaker 3: That's seem He's just an amaze me, Johnny. I'll never forget.
Speaker 3: We were in Dubbo and we went to the fights
Speaker 3: and in the fights.
Speaker 4: There was a bit of an argument and stuff, and
Speaker 4: Peter mctwski fought and I'm walking down the street. I
Speaker 4: got my hands a bustard and stuff because I had
Speaker 4: a fighting because they had always.
Speaker 3: Hurt me and a few of these people were swearing
Speaker 3: us and stuff, and Johnny said, Jeff, don't just ignore
Speaker 3: I'm not ignoring them, Johnny. That's said, Jeff, just ignore them.
Speaker 4: There's gonna be fifty of them, and you know we're
Speaker 4: in double there's gonna be fifty, Johnny, I'm not worrying.
Speaker 4: So I turned around. I argued, all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: there's fifty and start chasing. Anyway, we get to the
Speaker 4: one and I couldn't run and won, so I turned around.
Speaker 4: I start fighting. And the first thing I'll say out
Speaker 4: from fighting this guy, this guy has a bottle and
Speaker 4: he's just about to smash over Johnny's head. So I
Speaker 4: run straight in front of it. Get the bottle cracked
Speaker 4: right over my head. My head's all split up and
Speaker 4: I'm bleeding. And anyway, the fight ended with a few
Speaker 4: of them getting injured, and I was pretty injured. And
Speaker 4: we went back to our hotel and Johnny says, Jeff,
Speaker 4: they're going to come back here tonight with more people
Speaker 4: and they're going to you know, I said, Johnny, don't
Speaker 4: worry about just fixing my head.
Speaker 3: So he fixed it and he made it.
Speaker 4: Our driver, who at the time Brian Wilmot, drove straight
Speaker 4: back to the city that night. I had to play
Speaker 4: footy the next morning. So yeah, it was We've been
Speaker 4: through some exciting times. I'll never forget that time Johnny
Speaker 4: Johnny had these booths on say it couldn't really run too.
Speaker 3: Fast, it was.
Speaker 4: It was, Yeah, we've been through a lot together, and yeah,
Speaker 4: would I change anything?
Speaker 3: No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 4: I mean, of course there are things that you'd like
Speaker 4: to think that you could change, but listen, and what
Speaker 4: I went through through my time has made me the
Speaker 4: person name today Gary, and I'm very, very proud of
Speaker 4: all him. I get these wankers saying this that I
Speaker 4: stole to watch. I've never stole a watch in my life.
Speaker 4: To steal, We've got to walk out of a shop
Speaker 4: and I've never done that in my life. But I
Speaker 4: could charge with it. And again that's my name is
Speaker 4: Jeff Fennix.
Speaker 1: So you got to the Olympic level in the amateurs.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about your amateur career in boxing.
Speaker 3: There's not really much to tell.
Speaker 2: It was short and sharp.
Speaker 4: I had twenty eight fights. Sam My represent austraight at
Speaker 4: the World Cup. I went to Indonesia, I went to
Speaker 4: the King's Cup in Thailand. I went to the World
Speaker 4: Cup in Rome and it was all within twenty fights.
Speaker 4: It was just like I said that, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's ever been down or if
Speaker 4: it'll ever be done. When you think of how quick
Speaker 4: everything happened for me, I go to the Olympics after
Speaker 4: twenty four or twenty five fights, I win my first fight,
Speaker 4: win my second fight, win my third body gets overturned
Speaker 4: by the jury. For the first time in Olympic boxing history.
Speaker 4: There was a jury and I come home no medal.
Speaker 4: But I'll never forget the authority. Australian boxing authority.
Speaker 3: Didn't stick up for me, wanted a little bit, didn't
Speaker 3: go and complain that he wins the fight.
Speaker 1: And that was the judges, just the people that are
Speaker 1: not familiar with boxing. That was in the Olympics. So
Speaker 1: it's an amateur boxing. You won the first two fights
Speaker 1: and I think it was a quarter final or over
Speaker 1: three rounds. It was three rounds, and the judges scored
Speaker 1: the scored that you won the fights, which most people
Speaker 1: observing well the judges of the judges, the judges, and
Speaker 1: there's never been a jury before then they bought in
Speaker 1: a jury and the jury overturned it. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: with a stronger country that you know, and like I said,
Speaker 1: no disrespeak to Arthur Tunstan or any of those guys,
Speaker 1: but they didn't even say word.
Speaker 3: I just got another ring. Of course, I was greatly upset.
Speaker 4: I got, you know, like, you know, this is what
Speaker 4: people don't know about Jeffenny, and we talk about Michael
Speaker 4: Jordan's and those kinds of people, and I got the
Speaker 4: same mindset. Let me tell you I went to the
Speaker 4: Olympics for one reason. I went to win a go
Speaker 4: and middle for Australia. Nobody gave me a chance. I
Speaker 4: had twenty four fights. I thought, guys that had three hundred,
Speaker 4: two hundred, one hundred and ninety fights. When I got there,
Speaker 4: I could have marched. But if I marched, it was
Speaker 4: the you know, I had to go out in the heat.
Speaker 4: So the biggest thing is when you march out with
Speaker 4: the Australian team, you're recognized by all of Australia. I
Speaker 4: never done it going because I wanted to fight. I
Speaker 4: wanted to have my energy to fight, to fight that night.
Speaker 4: So I didn't want to go on march and then
Speaker 4: have to fight when I had to lose weight. The
Speaker 4: second thing is when you go to the Olympics, you compete,
Speaker 4: you know. And I only went there, like I said,
Speaker 4: to win, when when that didn't happen to me, I
Speaker 4: didn't the days that I won, I never went down
Speaker 4: just I just kept thinking, I'm going to be the
Speaker 4: first destroy I never did want to go on medal
Speaker 4: when that didn't. When that doesn't happen, your next brain
Speaker 4: thing with the Olympics is you can't wait now to
Speaker 4: the Olympics because there's the biggest party ever. There's the
Speaker 4: biggest party in the world going to happen. You're going
Speaker 4: to go out, You're going to do this, You're going
Speaker 4: to do it. As soon as I lost, I wanted
Speaker 4: to get on a plane and go home. You're going
Speaker 4: to miss the party. And I didn't go there for
Speaker 4: a party again. I wanted to win a gold medal.
Speaker 2: That that says a lot, doesn't it, Jeff about your mindset?
Speaker 3: And I got on a plane the next day and
Speaker 3: went home.
Speaker 2: What separated you?
Speaker 1: Because yeah, going to the Olympics, a lot of people
Speaker 1: are day and that that's a highlight that you've gone there.
Speaker 2: No winning goal, Well.
Speaker 3: Most people who lose the Olympics. The highlight.
Speaker 4: It's not them competing, it's the Olympic party. It's you know,
Speaker 4: it's walking in front of your your whole nation. I
Speaker 4: couldn't walk in front of the nation because if I
Speaker 4: it was stinking hotter than LA I.
Speaker 3: Was going to be be weak. From my flight. I
Speaker 3: thought I wanted to win a medal.
Speaker 4: At the end of the store, when they see me,
Speaker 4: put a medal around my neck and they're gonna understand
Speaker 4: why I couldn't march.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and then like I said, well, my friend,
Speaker 3: now you can't miss the party. Just didn't big party.
Speaker 4: We're gonna have all these goods. It's gonna happen. That's
Speaker 4: gonna happen. I said, yeah, I want I'm going home.
Speaker 4: You know I could never and I'll never forget that.
Speaker 4: My interview just before I got on the plane was
Speaker 4: I said this, if I don't let me win a
Speaker 4: gold medal, I'm going to go home and become world champion.
Speaker 4: And the reason why I said that was because while
Speaker 4: I was there, I asked out the tunst and stuff
Speaker 4: that I want to go home. I'm going to stay
Speaker 4: at met again. I went in four years. In four
Speaker 4: we use time. Me doing what I've done in twenty
Speaker 4: eight flights, in one hundred flights, I'm going to be gone.
Speaker 4: I'm going to be gone medalists. But I asked them
Speaker 4: for one thing. I asked them, and I want to
Speaker 4: make sure that it's a guarantee that Johnny Lewis would
Speaker 4: be in my corner. They said, we can't go into that.
Speaker 4: So we came home, we waited a little bit, We
Speaker 4: asked one more time with my sponsors that they said,
Speaker 4: we can't guarantee that.
Speaker 3: So I turned professional. One hundred and ninety six days later,
Speaker 3: I was world champion.
Speaker 1: Well, let's let's talk about that. Just explain the people
Speaker 1: that mightn't be for me. With boxing.
Speaker 2: The difference between amateur boxing and professional boxing.
Speaker 4: Well, there's a lot of difference, but back in the
Speaker 4: day it's it's completely different now, the amateur style today
Speaker 4: to what it was back in the day.
Speaker 3: Were all those great Americans that won medals.
Speaker 4: That in eighty four all went on to, you know,
Speaker 4: sign huge contracts because the amateur systems was.
Speaker 3: An apprenticeship for you as a pro.
Speaker 4: Yeah, now you can be the greatest avage in the
Speaker 4: world and get down there the professional boxes. Nothing like it,
Speaker 4: although it's changed a little, but me, I was always
Speaker 4: distanced to be professional. Like I was fighting three rounds
Speaker 4: as the amateur, but I was still fighting twelve sparring
Speaker 4: twelve fifteen rounds as an amateur. I was sparring every
Speaker 4: Australian champion that there was when I was like fifty
Speaker 4: one fifty two kilos and there I was always competitive
Speaker 4: with all of them. So when I got home and
Speaker 4: I did turn professional, and I went from fighting three
Speaker 4: rounds to you know, yeah, when I was fighting, it
Speaker 4: was fifteen rounds.
Speaker 1: For the world time, fifteen three minute rounds. Yes, and
Speaker 1: I think I mightn't appreciate that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was like yeah, So in my seventh fight,
Speaker 4: I fought fifteen rounds. Four more times I fought fifteen rounds.
Speaker 4: They didn't all go fifth rounds, but one of them
Speaker 4: went fourteen rounds, one went fifteen rounds. And you know,
Speaker 4: most of those fights I wandered round goo. There weren't
Speaker 4: fights where I went to a split decision or it
Speaker 4: was closed. Every fight after ID finished and went straight
Speaker 4: over and cudle Johnny's on, you had won.
Speaker 2: You know, so going when you from it was eighty
Speaker 2: four the Olympics, wasn't it. Yeah, so eighty five. You
Speaker 2: turned professional late eighty four, a world.
Speaker 3: Title in April eighty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember it, Jeff. You know why I remember
Speaker 1: it because I had passed out of the academy two
Speaker 1: days before, and my biggest concern getting out of the
Speaker 1: police academy was whether I was going to be rosted
Speaker 1: when you were fighting. So I wanted to wanted to
Speaker 1: watch it. So it was on the twenty sixth of April,
Speaker 1: I think it was. It was, Yeah, yeah, two days
Speaker 1: after I got out of the academy, and I wasn't
Speaker 1: on night shift, so.
Speaker 2: I was wrapped. Tell us about that. Because people didn't
Speaker 2: think you well.
Speaker 1: The naysayers were saying, hey, yeah, you had limited amateur fights,
Speaker 1: you've had seven or six professional fights.
Speaker 2: There is no way you can fight for a world title.
Speaker 3: They didn't just think there was no waking five to
Speaker 3: fifty round me.
Speaker 4: And let me tell you, I'm the first to put
Speaker 4: my head up and say the IBF was a new
Speaker 4: organization at the time. Setosi Hinhaki wasn't the greatest fighter
Speaker 4: in the world at time, but he was world champion.
Speaker 4: I had the opportunity and I took with both ends.
Speaker 4: I stopped him in the ninth round. Then you've got
Speaker 4: to realize I fought the Olympic gold medalist with a
Speaker 4: broken hand and went fourteen rounds.
Speaker 2: One that won the Yes, Steph McCrory, who won.
Speaker 3: The Olympic gold medal. I fought him, and of course
Speaker 3: he was with the great a Magus Stuart. They all
Speaker 3: thought they were going to beat me. I knocked him
Speaker 3: out in the fourteen round.
Speaker 4: Prior to that, I thought a guy who was twenty
Speaker 4: six and oh who was one of the America's biggest
Speaker 4: names named Jerome Coffee, that win fifteen rounds and I
Speaker 4: beat him. And the only reason why I win fifteen
Speaker 4: rounds was because the referee was a cheat. He never
Speaker 4: let me fight my fight. He kept every time i'd
Speaker 4: get hi ho stop clean fire.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean when I later on in my career,
Speaker 4: when I looked at a few videos of him, it
Speaker 4: was the same referee riffed him on quite a few occasions. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: things in boxing were corrupt in and they're still corrupt now.
Speaker 3: Like they didn't want me whin. They never thought I
Speaker 3: could win, you know, And when he came.
Speaker 4: Here, he was this cocky guy walking through with a
Speaker 4: big Master Blast thing and saying, now he's gonna knock
Speaker 4: me out.
Speaker 3: I can't do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, even when I had my first one, We'll go
Speaker 4: back to what you asked me, and nobody thought I
Speaker 4: could win that. He's had seven fights and he's never
Speaker 4: win fifteen rounds before. Gary Johnny Lewis put me through
Speaker 4: fifteen rounds and one hundred occasions prior to that. He
Speaker 4: knew exactly what I could do. He wouldn't He wouldn't
Speaker 4: have let me fight if he didn't think I could win.
Speaker 1: Tell us your mindset, Jeff, because there's different levels in boxing,
Speaker 1: and I'm always fascinated by people that, Okay, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be the world champion. I don't care who you
Speaker 1: put in front of me. I'm going to beat this person.
Speaker 1: Seven fights in you got people, Yeah, the they sayers
Speaker 1: in your money, you're telling you you can't do it.
Speaker 1: Was there any self doubt that you had? What was
Speaker 1: the mindset you've got that going I can do this.
Speaker 4: You remember what I told you early about people say
Speaker 4: something about me. It just makes me want to be
Speaker 4: harder and tell me go and.
Speaker 2: Prove it wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I want to show them, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And you got to think of this too.
Speaker 4: After seven fights and twenty eight amateur fights, I was
Speaker 4: nowhere near the fire I was when I thought Victor kalagious.
Speaker 4: I was learning every fight, so that for me as
Speaker 4: well as being a world title, which made me feel
Speaker 4: really really good, and it just made me get better
Speaker 4: and better every fight. If you look at that was
Speaker 4: my seventh fight, look at my eighth fight, look at
Speaker 4: my nine. Every fighter got better and better. People again,
Speaker 4: don't realize that. Tell me another fighter. I was the
Speaker 4: being away chair of the world. I defended three times.
Speaker 3: I moved up.
Speaker 4: I want the super being away chef of the world.
Speaker 4: I defended three times, moved up. I won the featherweight
Speaker 4: Championship of the world. I defended three times, undefeated, every
Speaker 4: in every division. And then I fight for the Union
Speaker 4: lightweight title. They give me the title thirty years later,
Speaker 4: but I wanted again. We're going to There's no boxing
Speaker 4: in history that back then that won four world title.
Speaker 4: I never won three and undefeated. I was the first
Speaker 4: boxing history to be three time world champion. Undefeed. I
Speaker 4: was the first boxer in history to be four time
Speaker 4: world champion and be undefeated, and I thought, the great Amos,
Speaker 4: who's one of the greatest fighters I ever leaved.
Speaker 1: Take us into the into because I find this a
Speaker 1: fascinating part of boxing too. What is on in the
Speaker 1: change room before someone walks out into the arena. When
Speaker 1: you won the world title, Hawden Pavian, you're in there
Speaker 1: warming up. What's going through your mind? Take people into
Speaker 1: the mind of a box, you know.
Speaker 4: To be honest, I'm this guy. I hate the national
Speaker 4: airth and being sung, I hate the introduction.
Speaker 3: I just want to fight. And I was in there thinking, man,
Speaker 3: I can't wait.
Speaker 4: To get out there, and I'll never forget that that
Speaker 4: that that is the only fight that I've been tired
Speaker 4: in Gary. You know why, because I was in there thinking.
Speaker 4: I was like, I was punching the walls. I couldn't
Speaker 4: wait to get out and I used up all this
Speaker 4: nervous energy. And I'll never forget Johnny's telling me to
Speaker 4: settle down some keep all that energy for the fight,
Speaker 4: but I couldn't.
Speaker 3: I was punching the wall. I was, you know, thinking,
Speaker 3: this is this is my time and here during that fight,
Speaker 3: I got a little tired, and you know, every other fight.
Speaker 2: That comes in with the experience too.
Speaker 1: He's comfortable stage like that, not burning yourself and the
Speaker 1: training leading up to it, that you don't cook yourself before.
Speaker 3: That's what people don't realize. That's where Johnny was great.
Speaker 4: Johnny was this guy who just knew how to, you know,
Speaker 4: maneuver you into the right right position right at the time.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget when I thought it was was my
Speaker 4: first fight the drawer. I wasn't well a couple of
Speaker 4: days prior to the fight because I went on a
Speaker 4: run and my tits and them were there. So I
Speaker 4: stayed and doubled what I'd done, and I'm going up
Speaker 4: and down these hills, just showing him how how fit
Speaker 4: and how strong I was. Man, I lost a lot
Speaker 4: of energy and stuff. And I'll never forget how Johnny
Speaker 4: didn't even ask me. He could tell him my training
Speaker 4: and then he just he cut back on my work
Speaker 4: and I'm thinking, why has he done this? And instead
Speaker 4: of asking, We've just done what he said because I
Speaker 4: knew what he'd done, because in my mind, an't you Yeah?
Speaker 4: So yeah, there's there's more of it than just you know,
Speaker 4: training hard every day. Like I said, I tell everybody
Speaker 4: if you go out there now, I'm you're in your
Speaker 4: in your car and you burn the engine out every
Speaker 4: day when you need that engineer to show it's not there.
Speaker 4: I mean, Johnny was a professional, and hopefully I've learned
Speaker 4: that from him that yeah, you need to you need
Speaker 4: to peak on the day.
Speaker 1: It isn't And people starting to wake up to the
Speaker 1: science and now yeah it's changed.
Speaker 4: And it's not just the science, but there are signs
Speaker 4: as well. Yeah, there are signs if you're if you're
Speaker 4: smart enough, if you know what you're doing, you know
Speaker 4: that the person that you're you're associated with. Johnny and
Speaker 4: I were like father, some best friends.
Speaker 1: We were every He would pick up on your energy
Speaker 1: straight away, straight away, whether whether it was in the gym,
Speaker 1: whether we're having dinner.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, while we're talking, Johnny knew exactly who I wasn't,
Speaker 4: what turned me off and what turned me one.
Speaker 1: That must have given you a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of comfort as you're progressing your way through the boxing
Speaker 1: world having someone that you could trust.
Speaker 2: How the funny thing is.
Speaker 4: Going, like we're talking about this now and I am
Speaker 4: trying to look at my fighters, and I think that
Speaker 4: guy is going to be hard for him if we
Speaker 4: can get this. Well, Johnny did enough to do that.
Speaker 4: You know what, we had a we had a.
Speaker 3: Matchmaker who put me in against Daniel Zarragozo.
Speaker 4: Whoa who just lost the world title, who wins the
Speaker 4: world title years after from remains world cham Who's in
Speaker 4: the Hall of Fame day?
Speaker 3: I thought in my twelve fidus, Yeah, I thought I
Speaker 3: was gonna lose. But I don't know. Johnny just thought
Speaker 3: I could be anybody in there.
Speaker 4: You know, if you know the story to that, to
Speaker 4: the to the lead up, I must have had the
Speaker 4: worst leader of in my life because I've been having
Speaker 4: problems with my private life in them the day we
Speaker 4: have to get on the plane, I turn up and
Speaker 4: my partner doesn't, so I don't.
Speaker 3: Sleep all night. I come whatever and ever whatever, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I still wonder fight.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget in my boxing gear. I went to
Speaker 4: the airport to get on a I got on the
Speaker 4: red eye to come home to see what happened. But yeah,
Speaker 4: every happens for a reason. But like I said, some
Speaker 4: of the guys I thought at that stage in my career,
Speaker 4: and I say it's remarkable. I mean nobody, Like I said,
Speaker 4: nobody in the sport has ever done what I've done me.
Speaker 4: I don't care who they say what they've done. Floyd
Speaker 4: Maye with he might be undefeated, but let him let
Speaker 4: him do what I've done at the at the stage
Speaker 4: with the spirits, said nobody's donether.
Speaker 1: Gary, Well, I think people now looking back acknowledged and
Speaker 1: accepted what you were achieving, and at the time people
Speaker 1: probably didn't really appreciate it because there was always that
Speaker 1: he's fighting this weightly starts fighting the American fighters, and
Speaker 1: then okay, well he's beaten them weightly fights and Mexican fighters.
Speaker 4: When we talk about Agoza, seven years later, the great
Speaker 4: Marco and Toney Brera and and Morales fights him, stops
Speaker 4: him in the tenth round when he's eight years older
Speaker 4: than when then I bought him.
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, and I won every single round
Speaker 3: against him.
Speaker 4: When they ask him who the hardest fighters they've had,
Speaker 4: he says Jeff Fenick straightaway, you know, and you know
Speaker 4: when I fought him, I had twelve fights.
Speaker 1: What what was the discipline you had to keep to
Speaker 1: keep progressing or maintain to keep progressing through that, Because
Speaker 1: I would imagine you've become world champion. There's pitfalls and
Speaker 1: trappings that come. You could be let me tell you
Speaker 1: when you can be out and about and everyone's buying
Speaker 1: your drinking.
Speaker 4: I never went out back then. But when when you're
Speaker 4: trying to win the world title, you're the hunter. When
Speaker 4: you win it, you're you're the one that's getting hunted.
Speaker 4: So your hunted, and I was. I was blessed that
Speaker 4: I lost lots of my friends at that time because.
Speaker 3: I was a recluse.
Speaker 4: I ran in the morning, I rested, I watched days
Speaker 4: of our lives. I went and trained every afternoon, I rested,
Speaker 4: I had dinner, I went home, and a lot of
Speaker 4: my friends you don't come out with us anymore.
Speaker 3: And I try to explain them.
Speaker 4: Look at the at the results, look at my rewards
Speaker 4: for not doing I just done there and again.
Speaker 3: I done that more than for myself.
Speaker 4: For Johnny, because I knew that were the things that
Speaker 4: Johnny toime I had to do to be successful. So
Speaker 4: I hearing that he told me, you know, I done it.
Speaker 4: There was never a day that I went to the
Speaker 4: gym that Johnny said, did you run this morning? Did
Speaker 4: you eat properly? Because he just knew I was disciplined.
Speaker 1: It's a trap, but isn't it. And friends, I've seen it,
Speaker 1: and you see with a lot of sportsmen or people
Speaker 1: just making a success in any area of life.
Speaker 2: Friends so called friends. Sometimes you just took the words
Speaker 2: out of my mouth because they don't want you.
Speaker 3: They're going to just take all those people that I
Speaker 3: thought my friends.
Speaker 4: They weren't marry they yeah, they were wrapped when I
Speaker 4: went and gave them things, but they didn't want me to.
Speaker 1: You know, I believe it makes them feel bad about themselves.
Speaker 1: Like it's almost like, let's keep keep this person down.
Speaker 4: Man, Well let's try to bring him down. Let's yeah,
Speaker 4: come on, you're going to come out. Like I said,
Speaker 4: I want to explain to all my all my boxes
Speaker 4: today I'm explained. And listen, these guys you think are
Speaker 4: your best friends that are asking you to go out,
Speaker 4: they're not your best friends. These guys that you think
Speaker 4: are your best friends, and I know you want to
Speaker 4: diet and they take you out there eating and drinking.
Speaker 3: They're not your best friends. They wouldn't do that to you.
Speaker 3: But that's life, and I mean that's I mean, like, listen,
Speaker 3: the greatest disease in the world is not cancer, it's
Speaker 3: not anything else. It's jealousy.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: That's the greatest disease in the world. It's it's called jealousy.
Speaker 4: I mean, and with that you get all this stress
Speaker 4: and all this other bullshit that that leads you to
Speaker 4: other things. But like I said, when you can sit
Speaker 4: down and know that you're around somebody that just wants
Speaker 4: you to have success, then you're very, very lucky. And
Speaker 4: I can only say without any doubt that Johnny Lewis
Speaker 4: was that man. I mean, some of the guys who
Speaker 4: I trained with today are kind of now that I've
Speaker 4: grown up, and I look at it and I think
Speaker 4: of what happened.
Speaker 3: I question it tremendously.
Speaker 4: And like I said, I don't bring up names, but
Speaker 4: I know the people who I helped in every way,
Speaker 4: shape or form, and you know.
Speaker 3: I had to be they were jealous. They were jealous
Speaker 3: of my success.
Speaker 4: They were living, you know, behind me, instead of you know,
Speaker 4: being equal in front of me and everybody. I mean,
Speaker 4: as an athlete, you want to be the best. And
Speaker 4: that was just lucky that I was.
Speaker 1: Just On that issue of friendship, like I think, true
Speaker 1: friendship is that I would enjoy your success as much
Speaker 1: as if it was my success. That's what That's why
Speaker 1: they're real mate, real friendships.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there are many of them going. I think we've
Speaker 4: learned that in your experiences the same as I've learned it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, definitely, But it's a quality that I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: we really should try and hang on to because I
Speaker 1: see too many people get dragged back into a world
Speaker 1: because they're friends, so called friends, or even family for
Speaker 1: that matter. It's got the wrong family drag you, drag
Speaker 1: you back.
Speaker 4: I'm happy you brought up fan. Well, I'll tell people
Speaker 4: this and said, listen, everybody talks about blood. Blood's nothing
Speaker 4: to me your brother or sister, your father or something
Speaker 4: done something wrong.
Speaker 3: Than my to my family, they're a blood.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna they're gonna they're gonna that's blood, but they're
Speaker 4: gonna be bleeding.
Speaker 3: I mean none of that.
Speaker 4: I don't believe any of that. She like, there's just
Speaker 4: the one word you said. It's looking and me being
Speaker 4: able to show you that. I'm You've been able to
Speaker 4: accept and show me that in return. That's when you
Speaker 4: know you've got a friend, or that's when you know
Speaker 4: your family member loves you and stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, I've seen your mum talk about it, and she's
Speaker 1: like any any loyal mum, and she supports you. But
Speaker 1: it must have been a great joy for her seeing
Speaker 1: you steer your life in the right direction.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, my mom was Yeah.
Speaker 2: And my dad, like I said, my dad, was you
Speaker 2: lost your dad earlier?
Speaker 4: Yeah, fifty seven. He was sick with the same problems
Speaker 4: that I had with my vows. My dad had valves
Speaker 4: putting into his heart when he was in his twenties,
Speaker 4: you know, and he lived at fifty seven. And I'll
Speaker 4: never forget. Just before I thought Victor Collagious and Johnny
Speaker 4: and I we had to go to the hospital because
Speaker 4: they said my dad's.
Speaker 3: Going to be dead.
Speaker 4: And my brothers were there cleaning him, shaving him, and
Speaker 4: the family were there, and the priest came in and
Speaker 4: my dad held my inn. I sad, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to fight, Dad. It was going to it was for
Speaker 4: my third world. Told you, yes, you're going to fight
Speaker 4: us down. I can't fight. I don't want to, you know,
Speaker 4: you know, he said, son, I'm.
Speaker 3: Going to be there. The priest was saying.
Speaker 4: My dad a week later watched me fight and died
Speaker 4: after I thought, and my dad was dressed in a suit,
Speaker 4: look like there was nothing wrong with him. Yeah, out
Speaker 4: of hospital watched me fight. So, like I said, I
Speaker 4: don't know, the world's a puzzle as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 4: You know, just trying to put that puzzle together is
Speaker 4: really really difficult. Like I said, when I think think
Speaker 4: of these people who I thought my best friends in
Speaker 4: the world there today, I sit down and I kind
Speaker 4: of think how stupid I wasn't how wrong I was.
Speaker 2: But life. Life is a journey, isn't it, And like.
Speaker 3: There are all lessons I've learned so much from it
Speaker 3: I take.
Speaker 1: From Sometimes people are in your life for a period
Speaker 1: of time for a reason. You get, you get some
Speaker 1: reward from it, you give a little bit back, and
Speaker 1: then you move on.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, Garrey.
Speaker 4: People alway ask me, I'm sure if you're gonna ask
Speaker 4: me this question, what was my favorite fight and what
Speaker 4: was the highlight? Favorite fight? Without doubt, nothing compares to
Speaker 4: the fight that I got knocked out and I lost him.
Speaker 4: I love that fight because of who I am today.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be talking if I didn't do that, I'd
Speaker 4: be over in American I've had millions more dollars. I
Speaker 4: would be the person I am that I taught me
Speaker 4: everything about myself, everything about the world I live in,
Speaker 4: and yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Just you know it. That's interesting you to say that, Jeff,
Speaker 2: that like.
Speaker 4: You don't learn from me, you know me, Well, well,
Speaker 4: there's nothing to loom when you win, you just want
Speaker 4: to keep winning. But when you lose, there's a lot
Speaker 4: to learn. And then you learn about your surroundings. Who
Speaker 4: who your real friends are you learning about?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You know, And man, that is without doubt, I love
Speaker 4: a zoom and Nelson for that, you know. And the
Speaker 4: reason why not for me, it was because I thought
Speaker 4: I was going to just go back out there and
Speaker 4: was just going to be around thirteen forty. I thought
Speaker 4: I was going to kill that guy in the second fight,
Speaker 4: and he went home. He studied me, he studying had
Speaker 4: to do, and I just, you know, I just became
Speaker 4: a big end. I don't even like the person that
Speaker 4: was back then. I don't like that guy that was
Speaker 4: three times world chair and undefeated. I got privileges and
Speaker 4: stuff that. Man, we've got poor poor people who live
Speaker 4: out in the streets. Give them the privileges that taxi
Speaker 4: restaurants gave me. Yeah, that in the world. That's when
Speaker 4: the world would be a bit of place when we're
Speaker 4: we're putting emphasy on them, on people who need it,
Speaker 4: not people that can buy it. Can buy your restaurant.
Speaker 4: I go to restaurants, or I go to bars. They
Speaker 4: give me a drink card, can drink all night for free.
Speaker 4: There are people in the streets that can't even afford it,
Speaker 4: you know, a bottle of water. Let's go and give
Speaker 4: it to them instead of gives to the rich people.
Speaker 1: It's interesting and all the celebrities, I should say, but
Speaker 1: it's interesting that that that loss was sort of wake
Speaker 1: up call. And I've heard you say this before that
Speaker 1: it could have if you didn't lose, you would have
Speaker 1: all the bright lights.
Speaker 2: You believe your own publicity. That was a sort of
Speaker 2: wake up call.
Speaker 4: Well I already look, I'd already believed. Or they go
Speaker 4: like I said, I don't like I said. Man, when
Speaker 4: I was young, I was able to do what I
Speaker 4: wanted to do, and then the best and the worst
Speaker 4: thing happened to I had two daughters, and if anybody
Speaker 4: done what I'd done, and I don't mean I've done
Speaker 4: it in a bad way. But I mean I was
Speaker 4: free to pick and choose at that time. To my daughters,
Speaker 4: I'd be disgraced. You know, I want to kill people.
Speaker 4: And I think to myself today, how just how blessed
Speaker 4: I was. And the great thing that I can say,
Speaker 4: I was never abusive. Like I said, I took all
Speaker 4: the advantage I could with the time I had. But
Speaker 4: every person I've ever gone out with are still my
Speaker 4: friend's day. Every sponsor that I've ever had, that's still
Speaker 4: my best friends today. But like I said, I've done
Speaker 4: things that am I'm not proud of, but we all
Speaker 4: have the world's changed. And you know, I think, well,
Speaker 4: I've got two daughters, I've got two granddaughters. I just
Speaker 4: hope that they can learn from the experience I've given
Speaker 4: my children as well.
Speaker 2: You know it it came to you at a relatively
Speaker 2: early age.
Speaker 1: But you look at the footballers that get into trouble
Speaker 1: the NRL, that's your thing, looking at that young footballers
Speaker 1: that get into trouble.
Speaker 2: But it is a hard world. If I had all
Speaker 2: the fame.
Speaker 1: And trimmings that they get as a national sporting star
Speaker 1: in the NRL as nineteen or twenty year old, I'd
Speaker 1: be a dickhead.
Speaker 3: I've got to interrupt, and this is what we need.
Speaker 3: You know, this is what people don't realize at the
Speaker 3: start of the year.
Speaker 4: They have these people who the world needs more of you,
Speaker 4: and they need more of Johnny Lewis that people who
Speaker 4: have been there and done that know about it.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is this is what happens.
Speaker 4: So at the start of the year, we're going to
Speaker 4: the football team down and we're gonna tell them you
Speaker 4: can't do this, you can't do that. You can't listen
Speaker 4: two games later with the rout having a drink, that's
Speaker 4: all forgotten. Every game after every game, they need that personally,
Speaker 4: that Johnny Lewells or that Gary Juvenal or that Jeff
Speaker 4: Any this is down. So listen, I know we've just
Speaker 4: been amazing successful today. You want to go and celebrate,
Speaker 4: Please be careful what you're gonna do. Go out there,
Speaker 4: be conscious that yeah, if you had one drink, after
Speaker 4: two drinks, you're gonna have three, four, five, and you're
Speaker 4: gonna put yourself in They've got they've got to be
Speaker 4: reminded every week.
Speaker 3: This is not the one thing a year.
Speaker 4: Think they're gonna be reminded every week and they're gonna
Speaker 4: have somebody there at the end of the game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we all want to celebrate, but the world's changing.
Speaker 3: You can't celebrate like we.
Speaker 2: Used to celebrate it and you got mobile phones everywhere.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you look at in the old day the
Speaker 4: footy players used to go out and some of the
Speaker 4: stories I've been around it. I've been around it today. Man,
Speaker 4: I feel sorry for the players of today. And you know,
Speaker 4: I said, they drop a kid on the floor and
Speaker 4: on the front page of paper. These guys yesteryear and
Speaker 4: I was yester year as well, So I don't want
Speaker 4: to say, but man, we got away with a lot on.
Speaker 1: The stories are not just in the sporting field, like
Speaker 1: the policing world. Like there's an accountability for the cops
Speaker 1: now that certainly wasn't there when I first first joined
Speaker 1: joined the cops. But it is a is a changed world.
Speaker 1: We might we might take a break here, Jeff. I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying the chat. We haven't even scratched the surface. I
Speaker 1: haven't even referred to my notes set, I haven't did
Speaker 1: all this preparation and were chat.
Speaker 4: I'm this guy, like I said, I just love the
Speaker 4: like I said about me learning from everything that I've
Speaker 4: gone through is means a real lot to me. Going
Speaker 4: on and go to restaurants and every week, my wife
Speaker 4: and I'll be sitting down because we had every single night,
Speaker 4: and I will see two people there and they'll.
Speaker 3: Look at me. So their bills paid for it the
Speaker 3: end of the night.
Speaker 4: Not that I want to, but I've paid for it
Speaker 4: when I've gone, and I just want them to know
Speaker 4: that I appreciate the older people. Or I'll see somebody
Speaker 4: drinking a bottle of wine that's twenty I'll send them
Speaker 4: a beautiful bottle of wine.
Speaker 3: Just yeah, And I love doing that. It's for me.
Speaker 4: Giving back today is the most important I could ever
Speaker 4: dream of doing to this amazing country. That Yeah, that
Speaker 4: made me the person I am.
Speaker 1: Well, and like giving and giving back, there's rewards that
Speaker 1: you get from that, isn't it. You would hate to
Speaker 1: go through life and you could have had ten times more.
Speaker 4: Iially believe I'm still alive today because of the person
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that's what I believe in. I believe in
Speaker 3: I believe in Carmen. I believe that.
Speaker 4: All the great things that I'm in, great things I've
Speaker 4: done for different people, have changed people's lives.
Speaker 3: You know, I've helped people.
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 4: God has said it's not my time here, you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, it's when it's done, it's done for me.
Speaker 4: But like I said, I've had two major hard operations.
Speaker 4: If I fell asleep the first night, I would have
Speaker 4: been dead. If I went to bed that night in
Speaker 4: the second one, if I didn't feel that I had
Speaker 4: some lump in my wrist and in my think, I
Speaker 4: would have went to bed that night, I wouldn't have
Speaker 4: worked up year.
Speaker 2: You've had some close calls, Yeah, I've had some close calls.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So you might make you look at life a little bit,
Speaker 2: a little bit wiser.
Speaker 3: Yeah it does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it opens your eyes. And like I said,
Speaker 4: I'm miss going now. If I just believe when when
Speaker 4: when the time's right, it's right when it's time for
Speaker 4: me to go, And it was time for me to go.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I just I'm blessed. I'm blessed to still
Speaker 4: be able to go out and enjoy myself. Like I said,
Speaker 4: my wife, my beautiful wife, and I my life is
Speaker 4: the way it is because my wife, Susie am.
Speaker 3: If I didn't meet Susie.
Speaker 2: How long you've been with Susie?
Speaker 3: It's this year's thirty years married and my wedding. James
Speaker 3: Packer and all the boys.
Speaker 4: Man they had a board walked around saying three six
Speaker 4: and nine months and I had odds and yeah, and
Speaker 4: maybe that only should have last then, But I'm blessed.
Speaker 4: I have it amazing wife that's got an amazing family.
Speaker 3: And yeah, although I shares a strong woman with you,
Speaker 3: she's got to be strong.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I said, it's so hard to break away
Speaker 4: from all those things that I've done all those years
Speaker 4: with Johnny and all the team. We were a different
Speaker 4: television than the than the world is today. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I try my best, and you know, I just try
Speaker 4: to make sure that like I said, I explained, like
Speaker 4: I said, I open eample my daughters. You know, when
Speaker 4: they had boyfriends, then I'm going to I said, bring
Speaker 4: your boyfriend home. I said bring your boyfriend. That So,
Speaker 4: rather my daughter be here with a boyfriend than be
Speaker 4: out in the car or be somewhere else where.
Speaker 3: I can't. I've got no control at all.
Speaker 4: People think I'm crazy when my daughter's had a few boyfriends,
Speaker 4: but now all of a sudden. Through that experiences, you know,
Speaker 4: they learn. And my young daughter, Kayla has the most
Speaker 4: amazing husband, being Bradman best.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a football player.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget when she first told me she's going
Speaker 4: to go with Braden, I said, you're going to go
Speaker 4: out of the funny play. You know what. As soon
Speaker 4: as he finishes training, he walks out there there's a
Speaker 4: one hundred girls waiting for him, and my daughter said, dad,
Speaker 4: Bradman talked to me about that, and he said, just
Speaker 4: that your dad, And I'm going to prove him wrong.
Speaker 3: Has he proven me wrong?
Speaker 4: He's like, you know, yeah, there's always there's somebody that
Speaker 4: wants to change things. And like I said, you know,
Speaker 4: like I said, my daughter's had boyfriends and stuff, but
Speaker 4: now she's got the perfect one. She's got the granddaughter, Collira,
Speaker 4: and ayah, I'm so proud of her. I'm yeah, I'm
Speaker 4: just so proud of.
Speaker 3: Where she is today.
Speaker 2: Good stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about the poor guy that walks in.
Speaker 1: Do you bring him down to this room with all
Speaker 1: your world ted laid out? And yeah, what's your intention?
Speaker 1: Like my daughter brings someone home, I just sit there
Speaker 1: cleaning my gun. I feel, get the water pistol out
Speaker 1: all right, we'll take a break and we'll be back
Speaker 1: for part too shortly