Jeff Fenech’s Speedy Recovery from Heart Surgery Has His Doctors Baffled

Jeff Fenech was training a team of young Australian fighters in Bangkok when he began spitting up blood and feeling chest pains. He was hospitalized on Oct. 4 and four days later underwent a delicate five-hour operation to replace a defective heart valve.

The timing meant that Fenech would be unable to walk his daughter Jessica down the aisle this past Saturday (Friday in the U.S.) at her wedding at Sydney’s landmark St. Mary’s Cathedral. His Thai doctors, it was reported, prohibited him from traveling; the risk of infection was too high (it’s about a nine-hour plane ride from Bangkok to Sydney). Some reports said that Fenech might have to spend an entire month in the hospital before he was deemed fit to go home.

But Fenech, age 55, is one tough Aussie. He made it to the church on time. There he was walking Jessica down the aisle, wearing a black tuxedo and an incongruous black baseball hat. He looked haggard, but he was there.

Jessica has now been married twice, but to the same fellow in nuptials spaced roughly 10 days apart.

An Australian tabloid TV show, “A Current Affair,” arranged for a secret wedding between Jessica and her beau at Fenech’s bedside in Bangkok as he was recovering from the surgery.

In the modern era, no Australian fighter had a more avid following than Jeff Fenech who won the IBF world bantamweight title in his seventh pro fight and went on to capture world titles in two other weight classes. Fenech’s second fight with Azumah Nelson in 1992 was a huge event in the Land Down Under, attracting more than 30,000 to a stadium dedicated to Australian rules football.

Here we are 27 years later and Jeff Fenech’s fame in Australia is undiminished. Here he is with his glamorous wife Suzee during a day at the races in Hong Kong. They have been married for 23 years.

One of the fighters that Fenech was training in Bangkok was junior middleweight Jack Brubaker who has a high-profile fight coming up in December in Sydney against undefeated countryman Tim Tszyu. It isn’t known if Fenech will be okay to work Brubaker’s corner, but don’t bet against it.

Errol Spence Jr

It’s old news now, but WBC/IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr was extremely fortunate to survive his recent car accident and it was a miracle that he emerged from it with no broken bones. His condition hasn’t been recently updated, but various reports say that Spence suffered only facial lacerations and a few broken teeth.

In case you missed it, Spence was driving his Ferrari at a high rate of speed near downtown Dallas when he crossed the center divider and the vehicle flipped over several times. Spence, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was ejected. The accident happened shortly before 3 am on the morning of Oct. 10.

It came as no surprise when Dallas police charged Spence with driving while intoxicated. They filed the charge on Wednesday, Oct. 16, by which time Spence was out of the hospital.

Spence was widely considered one of the good guys in boxing, but that opinion has been tempered. Folks tend to have a very low opinion of people who drive drunk.

Spence’s management was reportedly eyeing a fight with Danny Garcia for Jan. 23. We would be surprised if Spence was able to get back in the ring again so soon.

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