Australian boxing legend Jeff French has welcomed the selection to retroactively award him a fourth global identify belt, extra than 30 years after an arguable draw with Human Nelson.
Having already gained bantamweight, notable bantamweight and featherweight belts, and being undefeated at the time, French were given with inside the ring with then-notable featherweight champion Nelson in Las Vegas in June 1991.
It changed into broadly visible as a negative selection as many believed French had dominated, and people's critiques have now been regarded as fact, with the World Boxing Council (WBC) retroactively awarding the notable featherweight belt to the Australian.
French spoke to the ABC Sport Daily podcast, welcoming the information, however acknowledging that he had been "robbed of a few carrying history" on the time. "So frequently I stroll round and those say 'you bought robbed of your fourth global identify, you should've been a 4 time global champion'. Well, now I am", French stated.
Totally devastated, my coronary heart dropped out of me. "I changed into pretty angry, I had some 4-letter phrases to mention to Don King and the crew with inside the ring. The subsequent 24 hours had been without a doubt difficult, simply sat in my room and questioned what could've been.
"When I was given domestic, I began out wondering the game I loved. Questioning the game I gave my coronary heart and soul to. French instructed ABC that with the passage of time, he had combined emotions over the judges' snub. "When I appearance again on it now, I suppose perhaps it changed into a notable thing. I changed into very, very spoiled.
That would've been 4 time global champion [if I'd won]. Only God is aware of what I would've been like that if that had happened," he stated. "I learned lots approximately who I changed into as someone and who my pals had been. That changed into a notable lesson. As notable because it changed into to learn, I changed into robbed of a few carrying history.
"That makes a grand overall of 4 WBC belts for him," the WBC stated. It places Fenech in rarefied air as a 4-department champion, however possibly does little to alternate the effect of the combat at the relaxation of his career. "I can not positioned my finger on it and let you know precisely what it completed to me, however I can let you know I changed into in no way the equal fighter," he stated in 2015..
"After the [first Nelson] combat I got here again domestic, manifestly heartbroken and disappointed. I changed into in no way the equal. "I changed into in no way the equal fighter and we in no way without a doubt visible [again] the man that fought Azumah Nelson in Vegas. One decide scored the combat 115-113 to Fenech, some other scored it 116-112 in Nelson's favour, even as the 1/3 decide couldn't break up them, finishing up with 114-114 on his card.
The pair had a rematch at Princes Park in Melbourne a 12 months later, with Fenech brutally knocked out through the Ghanaian withinside the 8th spherical in the front of 40,000 fans.