jamesmcdonnell wrote:It's a great shame that Nelson never got any of the big names, against whom he would have had a bloody good chance of winning in his prime. A combination of a style which was far from his monicker of 'the entertainer,' the fact he wasn't a draw, was competing in a division where none of the champs wanted to face one another, and the fact he was so bloody hard to nail with a clean shot did not really give him much chance of ever getting a shot at any of the major belts.
I'm not a fan of Nelson's style, however, just because you don't like the tune being played on it, doesn't mean the fiddle itself is shit. He was a good technician who made the best of his level of talent and came back from a disastrous early career to carve out a pretty decent resume for himself. Fair play to the man, he was the consumnate professional in my eyes.
I certainly USED to agree with your first line, but when I saw the matured Nelson fight his bigger named fighters (excluding Thompson) I don't think he would have beaten many, if any, of the champions during his championship reign.
Nelson fought so badly IMO vs Sellars, Dominguez and Jones. He lost to Jones, I know its not the opinion of the Nelson fans but I think the only reason he beat Dominguez was because Dominguez ran out of gas.... and was struggling vs Sellars untill Sellars' chin came to the rescue.
He might well have been past it when he fought these - but it is hard to guage when his peak was. For me, his second best career performance came in his penultimate fight vs Rudiger May.
Gurov, Braithwaite, Toney et al all would have been able to walk threw Nelson's power and offered something back.. If Sellars had enough speed to tag Johnny, then so did these. I don't know if it was a fear regarding his ability to take punches - but Nelson reacted very badly to a pressure fighter and in a way that wouldn't endear him any fans or points with the judges. I hate to call any person who steps into those ropes scarred, let alone one of our most successfull world champions.... but that what it seemed to be. The Warring / De Leon fights showed he would rather lose on points and not get tagged than win on points at the risk of getting tagged. When it came to scenrios, usually against slower boxers, in which he could be offensive and no nothing is coming back - he'd be fine. I don't want to call it fear, but I am struggling to think of appropriate vocabulary to call it.
I think had Nelson fought the champions - Gomez, Braithwaite, Toney, Jirov etc I think it would have been Nelson surviving and losing on points - ala Nelson vs Warring or Harrison vs Guinn.
Its a bit of a pity, cause I think Nelson had the tools to be the best British fighters of the 90's/00's and that a match with HIM and Roy Jones should have been demanded on both sides of the atlantic.
Of course, the old boy still remembers him from the De Leon/Warring days.