00:00
If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold,  then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rowlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:35
Well, welcome to the Big 6O, the podcast for anyone over the age of 60, or those circling the runway at least.  If this is  your first time tuning in,  welcome.  I'm here as always with my chum from  Ippingworths Public  and someone you never wanted to mess with at school, Kayleigh Harris.  How you doing? I don't see what you did there.  I'm good, I'm good.  Speaking of not wanting to mess or mix with anyone,

01:05
we're going toe to toe today with an Aussie legend.  The man known as the Maric Bull Mauler, who I think was actually born in St. Peter's, is that right?  And just fought his way into boxing history.  He contested four weight divisions, was world champion, all four, the fourth being  retroactively sort of awarded after an  absolutely disgraceful draw. I remember watching it.  He's a national hero. He's one of the toughest blokes to...

01:35
ever step into the ring. Geoff Fenwick, welcome. Yeah, thank you very much guys. And happy birthday this week, was it? Yeah, it was yesterday. So I'm definitely in the 60 group now. I'm 61.  Feel young, you know, these little things happen these days when you get older and you think, wow,  yeah, a  little bit harder to put the shoes on, put the socks on, kind of things. But all good. Everything's great.

01:57
How are the hands? How's the rest of the body though? craziest thing is I've had like five, six operations on my hands and had  hand problems all my life. And then I thought I'd have arthritis and those kind of things. I got nothing. It's all good.  That's a certain age.  You're You're looking well, gotta say. You look great. I feel fine. Good. I've got to say when, when I was a kid, there was a lot of sport growing up around the house  and you know, didn't matter what, with his footy or, but dad was a man keen boxing fan. Okay.  But

02:26
Conversation was always around  your Jimmy Carruthers, your Vic Patrick, your  Ellie Bennets.  So when I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to go and see Johnny Famishon, Lionel Rose,  Tony Mundine fight. He used to take me You were lucky.  I was very lucky.  So as a young journo, when I first started in the world of journalism,  the editor said,

02:53
As part of your training, you need to know how to use a camera. So you need to go to South's juniors for the next six months on a Friday night to watch the boxing. I thought  you were kidding me. This, is a job description and I got paid for that. for six months, every Friday night or thereabouts, I would be going to watch the fights at South's juniors  because if you could catch that punch, said, then you would know your trade. So I learned a lot about the sport. Not that I was involved in it directly, but

03:23
It was a fantastic experience for me. It got me and my dad together as far as going to the boxing of a Friday night. But your career had nothing to do necessarily with the interest in the sport, was it? For those of us that may not know the background, can you walk me through young Jeff Fennick and how you managed to find your way to Newtown Police Citizen Boys Club? The first thing was I was...

03:51
If I showed you a photo of me, maybe you give it to later, and I showed you a photo of me when I was like 17 and my friends beside me were 17, you'd think I was 12 or 11. I was a time, I was like 45, 46 kilos then. Yeah, I wasn't the greatest kid in the world, but like I said, I was one of these kids that if there was something out there to get that I would get it. remember when I was a kid, and again, not embarrassed to say it. I'd go to Walton's and stuff in the city.

04:20
big pair of tracksuit pants, go and try a pair of jeans on and walk around with tracksuit pants and jeans underneath it. yeah, was, my parents had no money. My dad was sick all his life. My mother worked three jobs. we, although we seen her for dinners and stuff like that, I she was working in the middle of the night to try to bring up six children. So yeah, it was tough. then all I ever wanted to do was be a first grade footballer. was very, very blessed when I was 14. played

04:46
Matthew Shield when I was 15 and 16, I played our jersey fling. then when I was 17 and 18, no, when I was 15 and 16, I played SG ball. And then when I was 17 and 18, I played jersey fling. And the thing was, just as I was playing jersey fling in the halfway during the year, me and the boys wanted to go to deal with, I don't even know if it was a problem back then, wanted to show that we were the tough guys and we went to a...

05:14
PCYC looking for a couple of boys that we wanted to beat up on and we searched the whole place and nobody was there. And the last room, we'll never forget it,  it was obviously a door but it had boxing on it and had a little glass so and you could look in, you didn't have to go in. So I'm looking through the window and I seen  a friend of mine from a school named Mark Crewe who also played footy and he was not a real big guy either.  but we very often read about him being, you know.

05:41
in the local papers being Australian champion and so on. So I just thought I got nothing else to do the afternoon. I went to sit down and watch. When I was sitting down, I heard this man saying something about it'd be great if we had somebody feed a box. And I'm thinking, because I played football with him, thinking I could kill this guy. So I put my hand up and the next day I went there and had a little bit of a box. at the end of it, that same man, who I'll mention his name very soon, I'm saying, oh.

06:11
That was really good. You were really impressive. You've never boxed before. I've never boxed before, but in my head I'm saying, I just got the shit belt out of me and he's trying to tell me that was good. So I'm thinking he's just trying to con me so I can go back and he's got somebody for my friend to beat up on again. So he said, you got to come back. You got to come back. I said, oh yeah, I'm coming back. I'm going back. Soon as I walked out of there, my mindset was, mate, don't you dare go back there. Not that stupid. I don't know. The next day I went back.

06:39
and it changed my life and that man was Johnny Lewis. And back then, I'm pretty honest to say that none of me or my friends liked the police.  We were getting chased  most days and trying to keep away from them.  Although, like said, the police back then were completely different to the police today. Those police back then,  they would try to talk to you and it's a little different thing because the world's different. yeah,  I was just blessed that I went to a PCYC and instead of

07:07
being one those guys who hated him, I was with him every day and they were the most helpful and grateful people that I've ever been around. And I realized how tough their job was. then I realized, you know, the good ones  were better than good and they're trying to help us do the right thing. I was only yesterday got a call from Pat Jarvis, who was the policeman who was called to an incident in St. Peter's when I got into a fight in the park and  he still speaks to all the time. I love him. I, again, he was another.

07:36
part of the reason why I changed my life. And like I said, after that day, when I went back to the gym, my life changed. I went from being that kid that wanted to meet his friends every Saturday morning so we'd go down to Patty's Market and take what we could and then go to the Speedway and fight every weekend to change my whole life around. And this one went to tell people, if you want to do what you can, and I, again, honestly can say this, my friends that I hung around with back then.

08:03
They were all more talented than me,  and they were bigger than me. They had everything except they didn't have the willpower to say no.  I've been with my friends and I say this without a word of doubt, 365 days of the year, we would all go and do what we'd done during the day together and in the weekend. And  every single afternoon, whether we got money or whatever, they would go and buy a foil of marijuana and they would pass the bong around there and they'd pass them every day. I've never once had it.

08:32
I couldn't imagine put my mouth over this orange juice bottle and making all this noise, this crappy colored water coming up. So I just,  I was able to say no to that and I've never had a drug in my life. So I'm really, really proud of that.  I've never had a coffee in my life. I've, know, so, yeah, yeah, I'm just, I don't know what it was, but  like I said, when I had to do something, I would do it.  If I didn't want to do it, I didn't have to. And a lot of my friends, not that I lost them, cause I still always my friends, but because I wasn't going out with them, they weren't really

09:01
happy with me and I heard a lot of things are Jeff's given us the ass he doesn't come out this anymore but I kind of made a promise and I thought to myself when Johnny Lewis was telling me that you could be this and you could be that and all of a sudden these things that he just put in my mind he said you can be New South Wales champion I was New South Wales champion Jeff you keep training hard you can be Australian champion I was Australian champion like within two years I was the captain of the Olympic boxing team in 1984 with the Olympics and

09:31
Alex said my life had changed. And the other thing that changed was I seen in my neighborhood because back then the Olympics it wasn't just everybody paid. I had to run raffles and raise money from people around the area and everybody helped me. So  like I said, I'm in this position today without any doubt because of the people. If people didn't watch me fight on  TV and pay, I wouldn't have my beautiful house.  I wouldn't be the person I am. So I owe so much to Johnny Lewis and the PCYC for changing my life.

10:00
Are you  in touch with any of that crew that you ran with on the streets these days?  Any of them still in contact?  Well, I think most of them are dead. I  have seen a couple of them over the years and of course I'll go and buy the one I want to give them money and stuff.  yeah, I'm so blessed that they're the same age as me. They've got no teeth there.  Yeah, they're  still drug addicts and stuff like that. yeah,  for me, it's  the saddest thing ever. I only wish I had the power back then.

10:30
to, and not just to power, but I wish I could have showed them earlier what I was doing and what it was gonna do for me, give them same outlook on life that I had. Like if I work hard, like I said, Johnny, every day was,  Jeff, work hard, do the right thing, and this is gonna happen. Like I said, it kept happening. And then I started to realize,

10:52
We train for two hours a day, whatever it may be. This was my outlook in life. said, it's not those two hours that are going to make me champion. It's the other 22 on my own. What time I go to bed, how much I rest. And I was an apprentice bricklayer and then all of a sudden I went from being an apprentice bricklayer when I was like 17, 16 and a half to never working again. I worked hard, but I never had a job again in my life. know? So yeah, like I said, Johnny Lewis and the PCYC changed my life. boxing career is very well documented and

11:22
I want to touch on it a little bit. You mentioned, you know, captaining the Australian Olympic team. A very dubious decision there at the Olympics, which cost your medal, I would imagine. Well, it's the first time in Olympic history that the judges, the judges usually tell you if you're, if you win or not. This year there was a jury as well. These people in the jury in the amateur sport are just some people who have been around for long time. They get a free trip overseas. They most probably weren't even watching the fight.

11:52
but they scored it to the other person and they reversed the decision and I lost automatic bronze medal and an opportunity to fight for the gold medal. So I lost that opportunity, but yeah, to do it, this is what people don't realize, my career is documented well, but I mean, I had 25 fights as an amateur before I went to the Olympics. The guys I fought had 300, 200, 100 and something. So it was like...

12:20
It was like I was born to be at the youth club as I think I was born to box.  Everything just come together and I did things quicker than anybody else in the history of the sport. Well, it was not long after that, wasn't it? It was about three bouts.  Was it the Australian Super Lightweight title you picked up after three bouts?  And I don't even want to... I remember, you remember Moonland. I remember where I was when I was watching that first world title fight. And I think that was after seven... Yeah, my seventh fight.

12:48
And I remember where I was, I was there with mates and we were watching it and we thought, who is this bloke? Like we'd seen you. The great thing is the reason why you were able to watch it was because Channel 9 lost the Logies. I'm not sure if it was Channel 10 or Channel 7. So the great Mr Packer thought this is an opportunity to have somebody do something different and maybe get a few viewers from the Logies. while I was training in my training camp,

13:18
60 minutes came with me to Fiji and watched all my training. all of a sudden people were seeing this little kid from the back streets of Maryville where I trained to fighting for a world title in 196 days and they tuned in and we outrated the Logies for the first time in TV history. We beat the Logies in ratings. seven fights, that's unheard of. Yeah, it is. the thing is that what people don't realise after my seventh

13:47
If you count until my around my 23rd I'd fought after 13 or 14 times for the world title. And let's just say, I don't know if it'll ever be done again, because in this day and age, things are happening quicker. But like I said, yeah, I was the first person to win three world titles and be undefeated. You know, my fourth world title would have made me the same, the first person to win four. But they gave it a draw over in Vegas. And then 31 years later, they

14:17
did something that was pretty credible because it was a, you I won the fight quite easily. But like I said, with me, everything, everything in life happens for a reason. All those adversities that I've gone through and the ups and downs are the reason why I'm sitting here and able to talk because yeah, I've got a story. I know that what I've been through has been pretty tough. And like I said, the toughest thing that nobody really realizes is that, you know, if a runner has a torn ham, he can't win a race. You know, if, you know,

14:47
If a horse has a bat, I had broken hands in 90 % of my fights and I won  just about every one of them with that, you know?  And again, people say, oh, you had this,  you got a massive heart, you got a heart like Philep. said, no, Philep never  just had a heart. He had  this head that wanted to beat every other horse. And that was the same as me. It's first from the head, then from the heart. The great Bryce Courtney that wrote The Power of One and so on,  he sent me a message one day and he said, son, I can't believe you and yeah, you're.

15:16
You're the words to my book, The Power of One, but it's first from the head and then from the heart. Those titles in 85, 87, 88, and I don't want to rehash a whole lot of that. But as I said, I was in the States when you had that fight against Azuma Nelson and it was the draw. There was a split decision and I could almost see on your face, it wasn't disappointment. It was almost...

15:44
I don't know what was it because and how do you come back from that emotionally because you know in your heart that you've actually won that. Well guess what? I mean I was never the same after it. I thought that the sport that I loved and give it give 200 % not 100 % because I was the fittest boxer. Just recently we had those huge fights in Saudi Arabia or wherever it might have been and where Canelo and everybody fought.

16:09
in the whole fight between the two champions, they threw 200 something punches. On my own, in one round I threw over 200. So boxing changed, a lot of money, a lot of things happening. like I said, I don't have an excuse, but something left me that evening in Las Vegas. I never felt the same, I'd never been hurt in a fight before, not in that fight as well. But after something left me, I was getting hurt and sparring and stuff like that.

16:38
So I don't know, like I said, and maybe, and I do, believe in karma, maybe that cheeky little bastard got in all the trouble when he was young, got, you know, whoever's up there said, that's enough for him, let's make it a bit harder again, he's had a good run again, see here. So, but like I said, I wouldn't change anything, would I change that decision? No, I wouldn't. The greatest thing that ever happened to me was the draw in my boxing career, and then my loss against the Jim and Nelson, because that made me realize, and...

17:05
let me know who my real friends were and let me know who I was. Had I not lost, I wouldn't be here. I'd be in America partying, doing stuff like that. And I wouldn't have met my beautiful wife. I wouldn't have had my beautiful children. So when I talk about my life and my career and people ask me what was my favorite fight, I say, well, my first fight against Azuma Dawson, because I really won, but it was a draw. And then the rematch where he taught me a lesson that you don't just think you're going to win a fight and take things easily. Like I said, my mindset.

17:34
changed completely. just thought, wow, I can beat anybody now. And I trained like that. I didn't do what I'd done. I'd done an appearance or anything in my life prior to a fight. I'd signed with two of these big blue. I was doing appearances from every night with women every night. And yeah, just partying like somebody who's super successful does. What about, I want to talk to you about the difference between boxing then, say in the 80s, and boxing now with the likes of UFC,

18:04
I mean, it feels like to me as someone who's not overly into boxing that the UFC people, their social media status is more important to them and the fame side of it is more important to them than the actual sport. Is that a fair comment or not? Oh, definitely so. And it's not more relevant or anything, but you've got to realize Sam, I can have the worst camera in the world, but if I put it out there and everybody see it at the right time and say how great it is, people are going to buy it. And I mean,

18:33
I mean, boxing has been their own or  has brought about their own downfall because, yeah, they don't really care what happens anymore. had,  like I said, these judges who judged me  back in 90, 91 when I had the draw, they still judge that and they still do the same thing. mean, listen, if you can't do your podcast, somebody's gonna say, listen, go and do something else. These guys and that, let me say they do cheat, but they don't cheat on purpose. What they do is just think of this, that you're doing a podcast. I own this podcast. I own this building.

19:03
All of a sudden you're going to be super nice to me, you know, you've got to.  So these guys, you know, like I said, not on purpose, but if something's close, they'll always give it to the promoter who's flown them around the world.  Like I said, these guys get flown around the world for free. They eat for free.  I'm happy to say they get women sent to their rooms. That's what they want.  If that's going to make the promoter get the right decision, that's what they do.

19:29
What impact did he have on your life at the time? He was a very big name in the sport in the 80s and 90s. he good influence, bad influence? No, no, Wow. He took the biggest gamble ever. But like I said, I don't know, was back and file up every race a huge gamble. It's always a gamble, but he was blessed that he found me as a young kid and supported me and yeah, got me that world title quicker than ever. But like I said,

19:59
I'm one those guys that always tell the truth and I'm gonna have to say something  here.  Think of 5,000 Sky Channel outlets at $350, add it  up.  Think of 15,000 people just at $100, which is more than that,  add it up. Think of the sponsorship, add it up. And I got $100,000 for like my world title for it. But listen, again, don't  be grudging, but I'm just saying, you know, I honestly believe that I deserve more. And then I find out that my manager,

20:26
He was another huge name in Australia because he was the boss of the NRL, Colin Love. And when I did approach Bill Morty, and this is the first time I'm saying this on a podcast, when I did approach Bill Morty, his words were, go and ask your bloody manager. He's 50 % in the promotion. So yeah, I mean, but that's boxing and that's people. I have gone through all that. Like I said, today I tell people about money. People say, oh, money's evil, money's no good.

20:56
Money's amazing. It's the best thing ever. If you know how to spend it, if you spend it on having memories with your family and taking your kids  to places you're never going to forget. When I pass, my  kids will say,  oh, we went to Disneyland with dad or we went here, we went there. Their money's great. And the  people who say it's not great, they say because they don't have it. And like I said, I talk about diseases and I spoke about them earlier to you guys about, you know, COVID and stuff.  There's one disease that we're never going to get a cure for and we're never going to get rid of it. It's jealousy, you know.

21:26
It's  to me. It's the that's the worst thing in the world. I mean, I look at people today like Jake Paul. They're making hundreds of millions of dollars and then they've before. But guess what? I say, wow, how smart are they? I congratulate them. I think they're amazing. And  yeah, they're they're getting eyes on the sport. But guess what? Everybody  in the world, you work for money. We you're doing a podcast. I do what I done. This guy invented this  scheme and stuff by being on social media and getting all these followers.

21:54
that made him earn hundreds and billion dollars, I take my hat off to him, congratulations, I'm not one big jealous. There's a lot of things that you obviously learn inside the ring about yourself. You mentioned Johnny Lewis, what are some of the things you've learned outside of the ring about people that maybe Johnny taught you as well that have stayed with you? Well, I'm gonna tell you this now, so  Johnny was, like I said, without doubt the biggest influence.

22:19
on my life by far, not my mum and dad, but Johnny, because I spent from the, like I said, from 17, 17 a bit, I spent every single day with him. I travel the world with him. I breakfast with him, lunch with him. I got to see him every single night. he taught me all these things and all the principles. And like I said, where Johnny come from in Erskineville, there are a lot of great tough guys, Terry Ball, Nettie Smith, all those guys all around at that time. And Johnny would always tell me stories about them all.

22:49
If you told on this guy or this or if you did this to somebody you were going to be punished and whatever. And yeah, it was like a scary thing to listen to. And so  not that I was scared of him, but I'm just saying, just listening to some of the stories that he told me about what these guys had been through. when Terry Ball apparently this is a very beautiful man that I met many, many times. His son  also boxed.  heard he got shot once and then he went to

23:17
and drove over the top of somebody that shot him and he drove back over him and whatever. then,  know, and then as you go on in life and  I'm trying to live by  the methods that Johnny showed me or  the words that he spoke about,  I had a few problems later  in my life and I thought that Johnny betrayed me on everything that he taught me. And that's going to be my  doco is just coming out and hopefully, yeah, hopefully.

23:46
that'll be up, but like I said, and I just will tell the truth. Like I said, I'm not gonna pretend that something happened to if it didn't happen, and I'm not gonna say something that I think can help somebody for can't. And I've spoke to Johnny many times now, and he's 80, and I love him. When I see him, I cry. I love him when I talk him. I get off the phone, I'm emotional. But like I said, he kind of broke my heart because, well, he broke my heart, and he didn't really want to, but there was a circumstance where there was a few other boys that he'd been.

24:16
that he also  helped and raised and then, but still for him to betray me,  if that was me and somebody done that to whoever it was,  they're dumb, because that's what Johnny taught me.  But like I said, what I have learned about my friends and stuff is I'm very, very famous for I used to say, how can somebody say their wife's their best friend or their girlfriend's their best friend? Me,  only.

24:45
Males were my best friend. I learned without doubt when I went through trouble and I went through tough times that my wife and my children are my best friends I've ever had and they always will be. My wife's been the most loyalist person to me.  Even  when I've done things that weren't the best and you know,  my friends that I've brought houses and helped them buy cars and take them all around the world have just turned their back and left me closed the door. But  that's life. And you know what,  when you've been through that,

25:14
It makes you stronger and tougher and I am.  that money for me  was wasted for a great reason. When you waste a lot of money and you learn the most powerful lesson you'll ever learn in life, that who your real friends are and who you are.  It was great. And I try to tell people this too, man, because people say, Jeff, you're still the same as you was. I said, no, no, I wasn't.  That guy that was three time world champion, I don't like that guy one bit.  He  got everything for nothing. He could walk in a nightclub and get a...

25:44
as many drinks as he wanted for him and his friends, go straight to the front of the line and all that. That was amazing when you think I'm world champion. I look look what happens when you're world champion.  And I've got children today, you know, and I see and I think about what me and my friends done when we went out and stuff like that. And I think, wow, if somebody done that to, you know, my daughter or, you know, I would I would kill them. So I kind of don't like that guy. But and but again, it's a lesson. And the greatest lesson is that I'm able to.

26:14
to tell the truth in front of the camera, because it doesn't bother me one bit. Yeah, it makes me feel bad, because then again, I  think to myself, yeah, just because I was, if I was just Jeff Fernick, that's not happening to me, because I was three time world champion,  that happened, and I tried to tell everybody, I didn't kill anybody, because  they used to always ask me, hey, Jeff, you're still the same? Yeah, of course I'm the same. Excuse me, but bullshit, fame and fortune changes everybody.

26:44
I don't care who you are, what you've done. I've blessed. I've traveled the world with Kerry Packer. I've trained the great Mike Tyson. And I've been around a lot. So I've witnessed a lot of stuff and I witnessed a lot of that false friendship and people that are around people for the wrong reasons. And like I said, again, for me, all the mistakes I made and the things I tell people, said, listen, please just take it as a lesson, not a life sentence. What do you want your legacy to be?

27:12
How do want people to remember you?  Other than obviously your sporting  achievements? I don't want people talking about boxing. mean that's great. People know I know what I've done.  And people say, he was hopeless. People say he's good. Oh he's done this. So none of that bothers me. But what I want people to know is this. And this is something I don't share. I'm very happy to  share.

27:37
Well, I'm not happy, like said, I'll be at a restaurant and see two beautiful people having dinner and they'll smile when I walked in there.  I will send them a bottle of wine, they'll thank me. But when I leave, I'll pay their bill as well. I've done all around Australia, when I go all around the world, when I go to Bangkok, it's the happiest time of my life because I can give people what they've never had and yeah, I want people to  remember me as an Aussie sportsman who

28:01
realised that without the Australians, I wouldn't be a, I'd be nobody. If people didn't pay to watch me fight, I wouldn't have my house.  If people didn't pay to watch me, nobody would know me. So  I want, I really want the rest of my life and career to be all about me and me giving back and helping and letting people know that, that I appreciate what they've done for me. You're always perceived as that tough guy, regardless  of  what you do in the future, people have that vision of you.

28:30
Is there a time where you felt vulnerable? Or do you now as you're getting older? Yeah, I feel vulnerable in  situations like because of this.

28:43
excuse me, crap social media.  These people are able to write crap about me and my family and I'm not sure if you've been on them and read what I've said back to them, but  it's not too good. I tell people,  I've had one day, was just a Mother's Day, somebody saying something about my wife in a photo and  I  paid this person back tenfold and I, you know,  I got a message from somebody saying that, Jeff, it's Mother's Day and you're talking to Mother. I said,

29:13
let her remember it was Mother's Day as well and not talk about my wife and she's a mother as well. So I just look at the world this way. If I go out with my friend, I go home with my friend. I don't care what are the circumstances. If something happens to you today, I'm in here. I'm jumping in front of you straight away. I'm going to try to protect you. That's who I am and I'm always going to protect my family. And like I said, I wish, I only wish that I was in Bondi when that guy was carrying a knife around because

29:42
I don't know. was so many people in, you think of how many people would be in there and how many people were there. All they do is pick some up and pretend they were going to throw it in, jump on him, two or three people, you know,  and we would have saved some lives. So like I said, we need all our kids today at school to have a  lesson where they learn self-defense  and not just self-defense. need somebody to talk to them and let me tell you something. So they get you in at the start of the year and they say, here, we've got this amazing guys, a motivator is going to talk to you.  They talk to the children, the children all walk out. They feel great.

30:11
Two weeks later, it's forgotten. They've got to do this every couple of weeks. They're to do it  every week.  When these kids leave school  on Friday, listen, so you've got Saturday and Sunday, you're on your own now, please, let's not do drugs. They've got to be reminded every time.  Listen, there are still going to be some that break the rules, but there are going to be others that don't, because they're going to remember, wow, we just got that right. I used to write everything that I had to do every day  on my wall at home. Everything that Johnny Tom would do,  I'd have it written down and do it every morning when I woke up.  My routine was...

30:41
Amazing, you so yeah, I want kids to know that yeah, you don't have to do what other kids do and if you don't do what other kids do, one day people are gonna say, wow, how lucky was he or how strong was he? And yeah, that's how I feel, you know, I feel empowered by some of the stuff that I've done as a young kid. I feel embarrassed by some of it and I'm embarrassed, yeah, and yeah, stupid by some of it. But like at the end of the day, I'm here and like I said, I'm an open book. You can ask me anything and I will answer the question because I'm, know,

31:10
I'm proud of what I turned into. I'm proud of what those  mistakes  and lessons, you know, that brought me to.  You mentioned before about social media.  And this is a very loaded question.  What else is wrong with the world?  Do you think we should be doing, we could be doing  better?  Yeah. Well, earlier when  my friend there was saying about when he'd come home,  do this and do that with his dad and stuff.

31:39
That doesn't happen anymore. When I went home every single day,  I tried to skip my homework,  but I was straight at the park playing footy with my mates.  The park was full.  Everybody from everywhere would go, we'd get together, play footy or we'd do something. And today  they don't have that anymore. They're too soft. The world has become soft. mean, parents are allowed to scream at their son or daughter, which I think is terrible. My dad.

32:05
whacked the hell out of me with a belt, not saying I didn't deserve it, but still it made  me  tough, made me stronger, it made me know the world that I was living in today. You say something to your children, they can go to the police, you're in trouble.  So I just honestly believe that the world's changed and social media is a major part of that because like I said,  if there was no social media, these kids would be going riding bikes or kicking balls and stuff with their best friends like I've done every day in my life.  And that's hell. You know what, that's hell.

32:34
you get great relationships by being around somebody. You don't get a relationship by talking to somebody on social media.  And then they think you said something wrong and they put a fake account or something, they having a dig at you. And they're the people who's supposed to be your friends and  respect you. So no, I mean, I wish I didn't get on social media. And  every day, think just to switch it off, but  I have  one really enjoyment. Every day I wake up at 6 a.m. or whatever,  I go and say happy birthday to everybody and have a great day.

33:02
So then I'll have my social media on. don't look at it again in the day. I might look at it in the afternoon when somebody says, you know, thank you, Jeff. I'll always say, pleasure. Have a great day or pleasure, you know? So that's, yeah, I mean, that's really my thing that I do on social media. But there's been many times I've thought I'm just going to say, listen, guys, I just want to say happy birthday to everybody for every birthday for the rest of their lives. I'm getting off social media. And for all the evils of social media, we were talking earlier and I hope you don't mind me mentioning it.

33:30
About to do some work in the mental health space. Um, are you allowed to walk us through that a little bit? Yeah, I'm definitely am. was, um, speaking to some people over the last few weeks and what I want to do is I want to do a series of podcasts where we talk about some of the last few questions about my life and mistakes and so on. And, uh, being able to say no to drugs and what kids should be doing, what their parents should be doing is like I said, a parent today in this world, the first thing they should do when

34:00
their son or daughter says, I'm going out with Johnny or Jackie tonight. Just go and see if they're there. That's the first thing. 99 times out of 100, whenever they were, done that all our lives.  But then also go and find out what their family's like. Find out a little bit about the person your children are gonna be with because that's  90 % of the time, that's what your child turns into, the people they hang around with. yeah, I just think that  the first thing that I wanna do is I wanna try to...

34:30
And not that I'm this  guru,  but I just think that parents need to be educated and parents need to be told. Like I said, I've been around places  in Double Bay and stuff, seen these youngest kids that I know that,  know, to  rich parents doing whatever they want to do.  I try to tell people when I was a young kid, I wasn't going to Marigold school to sell or steal any. I'm going out where the rich kids are. these kids, yeah, we're not, know, people aren't going to sell drugs  to people.

34:59
at Maryville School or St Peter's School, we didn't have money to buy them. But they're going out to Double Bay and those places where they know people have got money. And we've got to  get together and realise that this is the truth.  We all try to hide the truth. We all try to hide behind a tree or behind a door.  My son wouldn't do that. My daughter wouldn't do that. Well, let me tell you, your son and daughter,  like everybody else's son and daughter, they all do things like  crazy thing was I was watching  this young man sing on Australia's Got Talent or America's Got Talent, whichever one it was.

35:28
And  he told a story that his father was a policeman and his mother was a lawyer and he was a rebel. And so he got in trouble and they kind of did so and he was brought up by his grandfather  and he sang this song. And not only was it amazing, but just to  be able to say that and  talk about it is amazing because that's what we lack  in the world today. People that  have enough courage to talk. again,  yesterday I done a...

35:57
a bit of a story on Ian Roberts. The courage that Ian Roberts had in 1995 to come out and say he was gay in the toughest sport of all was one of the greatest things that ever happened. I yeah, look, I think everybody's equal. Back in the day, if we would have seen him or thought that, the Barb's that would have been, you are this, you're that, we don't have to say, people know what they would have said. For him to do that, wow, that's one of the most amazing statements I've ever heard.

36:26
They're one of the greatest because it's given now it's given life to everybody else that that that again and he's given life to people. He's given them something to to look up to and to realise, yeah, I'm not going to be scared to walk down the street and hold my friend's hand, you know, and  that to me and Robbins is an amazing individual. You've been incredibly generous with your time, but what's the one  misconception you think people would probably have of Jeff Fennig?  Yeah, just the things that I've done wrong. am.

36:55
Man,  just think, like I said, people hold things in their mind  they  don't want to forget.  So if there's anything that,  if you're in an argument,  they will bring up the dirt. And like I said, I'm happy because I know the dirt has been cleaned and I learned from the dirt.  let them know that anybody that even  attacks me and my family.

37:23
will be attacked back. Like I said, I'm not the biggest Bible reader, but I do know one thing that says an eye for an eye. usually if you try to take one of mine, I'm to take two of yours. What a ride. The kid from Merrickville that's turned good as far as his life, as far as becoming an Aussie legend, an inspiration for people as well. And of course, was it 2002, the International Boxing Hall of Fame, which is well deserved? How did that feel?

37:52
Yeah, well again, I'm this kind of person. If somebody asks me for my belts that I'd fought for, they needed for a somebody was, I would donate them, man. Because my belts are just on a manual piece. My life and everything else is out there. And what I tell people is that when I get off a plane and go to a boxing convention, every world champion congratulates me and I get the gratitude from the people.

38:21
Not from my belts. That's when you know you made it. When your peers say you're a champion. because of the The belt says you want to fight. you know, it's longevity. I three world titles for nearly 10 years. I was undefeated in every one of those weight divisions. And like I said, putting that aside, that's why I'm respected in the boxing world. Because people know I took the hard road and I kept to the top.

38:50
I didn't, I didn't surrender. And like I said, that's the biggest thing for me is getting a pat on the back from Roberto Joanne or Ray Leonard or Mike Tyson saying that I was his favorite fighter, which he said, you know, or Evander Holyfield saying that I might be the toughest little fighter that ever lived, you know. That's when you know you made it. No money or no belts can replace that. And getting inducted in the Hall of Fame in my first year of being able to be inducted is again.

39:19
It doesn't happen sometimes you have to wait 20 years or something. Same as in the Australian Boxing Hall of Fame. I still think I'm the youngest person that was ever inducted and the quickest. I've done some remarkable things and I don't really get the credit for it. again, I don't need credit from other people. It's myself. like when I do something for somebody, wherever it may be, I'll never, you oh, can I tell the people you've done this for us? I said, please, I don't need you to tell them. If you want to write something that's up to you, but I don't need you to tell them. I don't need people to know that I'm.

39:48
paid for something or I gave you some gloves and some shorts and so on. So  I just want to help you.  Jeff, you're not just part of boxing history. You are boxing.  Thank you so much for your time  and spending a little bit of today with us both on the Big Six. So  thanks for letting me share some stories and hopefully, and like I said, hopefully the people out there will take  a little bit out of it and try to be better people.

40:12
The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six O are personal and reflect those of the hosts and guests.  They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations  or companies.  This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

40:36
And before we go,  let's give credit where credit is due.  Kayleigh Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode.  Our producer,  Nick Abood,  well, he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. thanks for keeping us on track, Nick.  Nick?  Nick?