International Boxing Hall of Famer and former three-division champion Jeff Fenech has revealed that if it wasn’t for his undefeated super flyweight prospect Brock Jarvis 13-0 (12) he wouldn’t be involved in boxing.
“Boxing changed for me a little bit,” said Fenech in an interview with Sporting News Australia. “And I had changed whole persona. Did I want to be involved in boxing? Brock came into my life and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else at the moment.”
Jarvis, then a 16-year-old builder’s labourer, was introduced to Fenech by his father Dominic who wanted the Marrickville Mauler to take a look at his son, who had just taken up the sport.
“I remember I was pretty nervous on the way here and I was excited,” said Jarvis, who also happens to be the nephew of rugby league strongman Pat Jarvis, a pivotal figure in Fenech’s early life when the Test forward-cum-inner-city copper advised the young Fenech to look up boxing coach Johnny Lewis in order to keep him out of trouble.
“Jeff was my idol, I watched all his fights. To meet him and then to train with him, I was very excited, I thought it was a one-off.”
Fenech was immediately impressed by Jarvis’s work ethics, skills and dedication to his craft.
“At this stage of his career this kid can do things that I couldn’t dream of doing,” said Fenech of the now 20-year-old. “This kid punches to the body, hooks, uses his core better than I could even dream of, nobody taught me how to do it.
“This kid hasn’t got a trainer, he’s got a teacher. Someone who can show him. And when you show somebody something properly and they know it’s working, then they do it.”
This Friday night Fenech will be in Jarvis’s corner when he takes on Thailand’s Yotchanchai Yakaeo 26-11 (21) at Redfern’s Technology Park on the undercard of Billy Dib versus Tevin Farmer for the vacant IBF super featherweight title.
It is still early days for Jarvis, but Fenech has unwavering faith in what his prodigy can achieve.
“Billy will do something great on August 3rd that will put him right up there,” said the former bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight world champion. “And a couple of years later a young guy that I started training at the age of 16, at the age of 24-25, might be the greatest Australian fighter in history.
“Because I believe that Brock Jarvis has the potential to be that person.”