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With none of his family members taking control of steering the conversation, a local dad has once again started talking about Jeff Fenech.
61-year-old Vince Calder (pebblecrete in-ground pools and ponds installer, Betoota Heights) has never encouraged his kids to take part in boxing. And has seemingly never boxed himself. He also rarely watches modern boxing – unless one of Kostya’s boys are fighting.
But he can tell you just about every single mundane fact there is to know about the career of Australian boxer, Jeff Fenech.
Scientists are unable to truly determine why Australian dads bring up Jeff Fenech so often, but for Vince, it’s likely because this chapter in Australian sporting history (1985-1996) coincided with the most glorious years of his young life.
As man of a similar age, and similar build – Jeff Fenech’s record of having won world titles in three weight divisions is something that Vince holds closely to his heart.
He also has a deep emotional connection with Fenech’s rags to riches story.
And this is why, without the intervention of his loved ones, Vince is quite capable of talking about Jeff Fenech for an hour or more.
It’s a topic of conversation that he can fall into quite easily.
For example, any discussion about the housing crisis can turn into a conversation about the Australian property bubble which can lead to a nationwide suburb-by-suburb break down of house prices. Inevitably at some point, Sydney’s once working class inner-west comes up. From here, Vince will likely say that Marrickville used to be a rough old place… when Jeff ‘The Marrickville Mauler’ was living there, and so was his coach Johnny Lewi…
Conversations around the current NRL and AFL competitions will inevitably lead back to a nostalgic sermon on how footballers used to be tougher in the 1980s. Take Rabbitohs icon Mario Fenech for example, who by the way, isn’t actually related to Jeff Fenech, it’s just a common Maltese last name because you see their parents migrated to Australia around the same ti…
Conversations around American politics will lead back to how most Americans are just plain mad, like, for example, that dodgy boxing promoter Don King who represented the US boxer Azumah Nelson when was Jeff Fenech fighting on the undercard of Tyson/Ruddock rematch in 1991 at Caeser’s Palace in Las Veg…
Today Vince has found himself on this topic after learning that his nephew had a kid, and named him Atticus, this lead vince to say that kids have the wildest names nowadays. Whatever happened to an honest masculine name like Je…
MORE TO COME. SO MUCH MORE.
