Since the World Boxing Federation was originally founded by American Larry Carrier in 1988, many of the sport’s biggest names have won a WBF title, and proudly defended the blue, red and gold belt all over the world.
In the Champions Of The Past Series we take a closer look at some of the boxers who held WBF titles in years gone by, from lesser known champions to world renowned fighters, legends of the sport and current or future Hall of Famers.
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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