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Australia´s former World Boxing
Federation (WBF) World
Featherweight Champion Nedal
“Skinny” Hussein was born on
December 1, 1977.
Based in Sydney, of Lebanese
descent, he turned professional
under the training and
managerial guidance of former
world champion and Australian
icon Jeff Fenech at nineteen, in
May 1997, after completing a
decent amateur career.
Cruising though five bouts
against nondescript opposition
in less than five months, four
of the victories coming inside
the distance, Hussein captured
the Australian national Super
Bantamweight title on November
14, 1997, beating Johnny Binge
(3-11-1) by wide decision at
Bankstown Sports Club in Sydney.
Impressively he managed to get
in yet another fight before the
end of 1997, making it seven in
seven months, getting rid of
Filipino Bienvenido Abi-Abi
(0-4-1) in just over a minute,
before setting his sights on a
big 1998.
That year started off with a
move down to Bantamweight, where
Hussein won the vacant
Australian national title by
unanimous decision over Dianever
Orcales (1-0) in February. On
the undercard, his younger
brother Hussein Hussein made his
paid debut.
Having established himself at
domestic level by winning
Australian titles in two weight
classes, Nedal started his move
towards doing the same on the
world scene. Victories over
Allan Visayas (15-3) and Maximo
Barro (20-29-5) put him in line
for a title shot at
Featherweight, another new
division for him.
With the vacant International
Boxing Federation (IBF) Pan
Pacific Featherweight crown on
the line, Hussein out-scored
Edgar Maghanoy (18-27-2) in the
main event of a show at the Star
City Casino in Sydney on
September 28, 1998.
Six weeks later no title was up
for grabs, but Hussein was back
at Star City Casino in one of
the featured bouts, taking on
undefeated compatriot Wade Clout
(5-0) over eight rounds. Clout
made a good account of himself,
but Hussein won convincingly by
unanimous decision.
1999 began with a first round
demolition of over-matched
debutant Dan Cody at the end of
March. Perhaps Team Hussein
didn't want to risk what was
next, as they had lured WBF
World Featherweight Champion
Thongchai Treeviset (35-6), AKA
Kongthawat Sor Kitti, to defend
his title in Sydney against
their man.
On June 7 Hussein, Now 13-0 (7),
was up against his toughest foe
to date, but passed the test
with flying colors as he won by
unanimous decision to become WBF
Featherweight champion of the
world in front of his home-town
fans.
Following his big triumph,
Hussein finished 1999 with three
more victories, all in non-title
fights, and somewhere along the
line it was decided that he
should move back down to Super
Bantamweight to pursue another
world title there.
In March of 2000 that journey
started by going on the road.
Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland
set the scene, as Hussein took
on local hero Brian Carr
(21-3-1) for the vacant
Commonwealth Super Bantamweight
title, and won a close 116-114
decision from scoring referee
Mark Green.
Less than six weeks later, on
April 28 in another main event
at Star City Casino in Sydney,
Hussein made a quick defense of
his newly-won Commonwealth belt
by stopping Nathan Sting
(18-4-1) in the first round of
an all-Australian clash.
Six months on it was on the road
again, but this time the
surroundings were more
challenging and the task was
even bigger than the fight
against Carr in Scotland.
Manny Pacquiao (29-2) had lost
the WBC World Flyweight title
the year before, moved up to
Super Bantamweight and, as we
all know, was enroute towards
greatness and world titles in
seven more weight classes.
On October 10 at Ynares Sports
Center in Antipolo City,
Philippines, “The Pacman” put
his WBC International title on
the line against Hussein, was a
clear favorite and expected to
win with relative ease. That's
not what happened, though.
Hussein gave Pacquiao one of his
toughest fights! In round four
the local man was floored, and
many felt that he was given a
long count by referee Carlos
Padilla. He was hurt but
survived, and managed to
regroup, but Hussein was giving
him more than enough to think
about.
In round ten, with Pacquiao
narrowly ahead on the scorecards
(87-85, 87-85 and 87-83),
Hussein was stopped due to a cut
on his eye-brow, which was ruled
to have come from a punch. So
close to causing a huge upset,
Hussein just came up short.
But Hussein had proven that he
belonged at world level at Super
Bantamweight too, and after two
good rebound wins, over Delroy
Pryce (5-0-1) and Joe Morales
(16-4), he beat another Filipino
in Jaime Barcelona (16-11-1) for
the vacant WBU World title.
He won another fourteen
straight, including good
victories over the likes of
Jackson Asiku (8-0), Samson
Elnino (10-1-1) and Fernando
David Saucedo (14-2-2), and
collected WBO and IBF regional
titles up at Super
Featherweight.
Due to Jeff Fenech having a
close relationship with Mike
Tyson, Hussein boxed on the
undercard of Tyson´s mega-fight
with Lennox Lewis in June of
2002 at the Pyramid in Memphis,
USA, defeating Ronnie Longakit
(6-3).
He then went back down to Super
Bantamweight to lose a challenge
for the WBC World title on
points to Oscar Larios (53-3-1)
in November of 2004, and then
back up to featherweight where
Scott Harrison (24-2-2)
decisioned him in a defense of
his WBO world title a year
later.
Hussein had five more fights,
winning two and losing three,
before retiring with an
impressive 43-5 (27) record in
the fall of 2007.
Besides the World Boxing
Federation (WBF) World
Featherweight title and WBU
World Super Bantamweight title,
he won IBO, IBF and WBO regional
straps, as well as two
Australian national titles and
the Commonwealth title.
Married to Rana since 2001, they
have three children and still
live in Sydney, where Nedal
keeps involved in boxing as a
trainer along with his brothers
Hussein, Billy and Maz at the
Body Punch Boxing Gym.
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