
Australian boxing legend and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Fenech says he was reduced to tears when he saw countryman Andrew Moloney 25-3 (16) knocked out in the 12th round of his contest for the vacant WBO super flyweight title against Japan’s Junto Nakatani 25-0 (19) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
The 32-year-old Moloney struggled with the rangy southpaw from the early going, getting dropped with an uppercut in the second frame of the fight. He managed to do better in the middle rounds of the contest, but was down again in the 11th.
His trainer Angelo Hyder warned him he was on the verge of stopping the fight before sending him out for the final round.
As it turned out, he didn’t need to stop the fight. Nakatani did it for him, courtesy of a booming overhand left that left Moloney out cold on the canvas at the 2:42 mark.
At the time of the stoppage Moloney was well behind on the scorecards, trailling 99-108, 99-108 and 100-107.
Retired three-weight world champion Fenech wasn’t happy with Hyder’s decision to send his charge out for the last round.
“Look the kid wasn’t going to win,” Fenech told Fox Sports Australia.
“What you need to do is preserve the kid for the next couple of fights because he fought a very good champion. You don’t need to be hit another 100 times.
“This is on my father’s grave and I was sitting here with my wife and son saying, ‘I wish he would’ve stopped it, it can take just one punch’.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen until he got knocked out but you can take one punch too many… it was sickening, this kid will never be the same from it, you know.
“The corner was so terrible. All you should be doing is looking after the kid… you just say to the fighter, ‘I know you’re going to hate me for this but we’re going to look after you so we can win another world title when we get another chance’.
“You don’t need to get punished anymore. You don’t need to take the chance to get hit.”
Fenech is more conscious than ever about the damage blows to the head can cause after close friend and former rugby league great Mario Fenech was diagnosed with early onset dementia.
“A time comes where you’ve got to honestly think about the health and evaluation of what you’re doing these days and my whole outlook on boxing and life and sport has changed because I’ve seen [it with] my best friend Mario Fenech… it doesn’t need to happen to anybody else if we can help it,” Fenech said.
“Even after Round 11 when he said he was going to stop it, why couldn’t he stop it? It’s Round 12, you can’t win the fight. He’s not going to knock the guy out. He hasn’t hurt the guy.
“Be smart, evaluate things. I saw the referee look many, many times. I wish the referee stopped it because I saw him look, he wanted to stop it but he didn’t get hit with that one big punch but still, he got hit with 50 other punches which can be worse than one big one.
“It was just really sad. I was watching with my wife and we were both in bloody tears. We love the Moloney boys… I was sick. I was sick. I had tears, I was emotional. It didn’t need to happen.
“I’m not saying Moloney wasn’t trying but the fight wasn’t close. He wasn’t going to win the fight. What does he get out of showing how tough he was for another round in 20 years’ time? What does he have to show from that?”