BoxRec

Can anyone whos a fan of Azumah Nelson break down his career for me??? Why was he so great, what was his style like, how good a champ was he? Best wins etc

Cheers

Ghanas finest Azumah Nelson may just be the greatest fighter to ever come out of Africa, although Nigerias Dick Tiger is a close second in my book.

Nelson won a Commenwealth Gold medal at Featherweight at the same games a certain Barry McGuigan won a Gold at Bantamweight.

As a professional Nelson had very little 'padding' in his career as a mere novice and at two weeks notice he took on the late great Salvador Sanchez for the WBC Featherweight Championship and gave Sanchez all the trouble he could handle before running out of gas in the 15 round.

But Nelson showed his strength of character by soon running of a string of wins before finally winning the WBC 9st Title by crushing the nuclear punching Wilfredo Gomez.

After many defences against tough oppontition he eventually moved up to Super-Featherweight.

During his impressive 9st4 reign he stepped up to Lightweight to challenge Pernell Whitaker and got beat on points but losing to a peak sweet pea is no disgrace and Nelson wasn't quite himself that night as his wife had recently died and had no business at Lightweight anyway.

Nelsons fighting style? Always hard this as I often think different people see different things in fighters but to me Azumah Nelson was an extremely intelligent Boxer/puncher who seemed to have a great ability to 'decode' his opponents. He was very patient, with good speed and mobility and KO power in either hand. His chin was also very solid.

Two fights that are easily available and I highly recommend are his two fights with Jeff Fenech. The first fight REALLY could have been "held in a telephone booth", were an ill Nelson was given a dubious draw. In the rematch outdoors in Australia in front of about 45,000 Aussies, Nelson gave Fenech a scientific beating, it was a near punch perfect display by the wonderfull Nelson.

To my mind the combination of Nelsons all round ability, KO power, solid chin and brilliant Boxing brain means he ranks along the best Feather and Super-Featherweights of all time.

Even when near 40 years old he was still Word class.

The Little Professor is well worth checking out.

KOJOE90 wrote:Ghanas finest Azumah Nelson may just be the greatest fighter to ever come out of Africa, although Nigerias Dick Tiger is a close second in my book.

Nelson won a Commenwealth Gold medal at Featherweight at the same games a certain Barry McGuigan won a Gold at Bantamweight.

As a professional Nelson had very little 'padding' in his career as a mere novice and at two weeks notice he took on the late great Salvador Sanchez for the WBC Featherweight Championship and gave Sanchez all the trouble he could handle before running out of gas in the 15 round.

But Nelson showed his strength of character by soon running of a string of wins before finally winning the WBC 9st Title by crushing the nuclear punching Wilfredo Gomez.

After many defences against tough oppontition he eventually moved up to Super-Featherweight.

During his impressive 9st4 reign he stepped up to Lightweight to challenge Pernell Whitaker and got beat on points but losing to a peak sweet pea is no disgrace and Nelson wasn't quite himself that night as his wife had recently died and had no business at Lightweight anyway.

Nelsons fighting style? Always hard this as I often think different people see different things in fighters but to me Azumah Nelson was an extremely intelligent Boxer/puncher who seemed to have a great ability to 'decode' his opponents. He was very patient, with good speed and mobility and KO power in either hand. His chin was also very solid.

Two fights that are easily available and I highly recommend are his two fights with Jeff Fenech. The first fight REALLY could have been "held in a telephone booth", were an ill Nelson was given a dubious draw. In the rematch outdoors in Australia in front of about 45,000 Aussies, Nelson gave Fenech a scientific beating, it was a near punch perfect display by the wonderfull Nelson.

To my mind the combination of Nelsons all round ability, KO power, solid chin and brilliant Boxing brain means he ranks along the best Feather and Super-Featherweights of all time.

Even when near 40 years old he was still Word class.

The Little Professor is well worth checking out.

How do you think Nelson would fare against a prime Eusebio Pedroza?I think he was an awesome fighter also,and to have given a Great like Sanchez such a battle so early in his career,means he was something special.How about against Saddler,or Pep?
zuru

Kojoe, that was just masterfully said. Azumah is an all time great, anyone who really appreciates and understands this sport knows that. I only wish that Sanchez would have endured to later in life. What a "might have been" trilogy that could have become. Talk about state of the art.

KOJOE90 wrote:Ghanas finest Azumah Nelson may just be the greatest fighter to ever come out of Africa, although Nigerias Dick Tiger is a close second in my book.

Nelson won a Commenwealth Gold medal at Featherweight at the same games a certain Barry McGuigan won a Gold at Bantamweight.

As a professional Nelson had very little 'padding' in his career as a mere novice and at two weeks notice he took on the late great Salvador Sanchez for the WBC Featherweight Championship and gave Sanchez all the trouble he could handle before running out of gas in the 15 round.

But Nelson showed his strength of character by soon running of a string of wins before finally winning the WBC 9st Title by crushing the nuclear punching Wilfredo Gomez.

After many defences against tough oppontition he eventually moved up to Super-Featherweight.

During his impressive 9st4 reign he stepped up to Lightweight to challenge Pernell Whitaker and got beat on points but losing to a peak sweet pea is no disgrace and Nelson wasn't quite himself that night as his wife had recently died and had no business at Lightweight anyway.

Nelsons fighting style? Always hard this as I often think different people see different things in fighters but to me Azumah Nelson was an extremely intelligent Boxer/puncher who seemed to have a great ability to 'decode' his opponents. He was very patient, with good speed and mobility and KO power in either hand. His chin was also very solid.

Two fights that are easily available and I highly recommend are his two fights with Jeff Fenech. The first fight REALLY could have been "held in a telephone booth", were an ill Nelson was given a dubious draw. In the rematch outdoors in Australia in front of about 45,000 Aussies, Nelson gave Fenech a scientific beating, it was a near punch perfect display by the wonderfull Nelson.

To my mind the combination of Nelsons all round ability, KO power, solid chin and brilliant Boxing brain means he ranks along the best Feather and Super-Featherweights of all time.

Even when near 40 years old he was still Word class.

The Little Professor is well worth checking out.

Agree with everything said here - Azumah was always one of my favorites and a great champion - Could box or bang -

Though I will say the notion that Azumah was "ill" in the first Fenech fight (a fight in which Fenech clearly won and was jobbed via the draw decision) ....I find that a little hard to swallow -

Especially considering the same could be said for Fenech with regard to the rematch - Fenech had bad hand problems in training (always had brittle hands) which kept him out of sparring for several weeks leading up to the fight.......Fenech also had the flu about 10 days before that fight -

Yet you never heard the Fenech camp complain or suggest these were reasons for the loss -

Both were great champions -

Great summation Of Nelson's career by Mr KOJOE. Nelson was, is and will continue to be, underappreciated and underrated. Perhaps if he thought he was a homie and spouted off at the mouth a bit more, he'd be given his dues

Also agree with the Sanchez comment - couple of rematches with a more 'ripe' Nelson could have seen an incredible trilogy and much closer results than most think

KOJOE90 wrote:Ghanas finest Azumah Nelson may just be the greatest fighter to ever come out of Africa, although Nigerias Dick Tiger is a close second in my book.

Nelson won a Commenwealth Gold medal at Featherweight at the same games a certain Barry McGuigan won a Gold at Bantamweight.

As a professional Nelson had very little 'padding' in his career as a mere novice and at two weeks notice he took on the late great Salvador Sanchez for the WBC Featherweight Championship and gave Sanchez all the trouble he could handle before running out of gas in the 15 round.

But Nelson showed his strength of character by soon running of a string of wins before finally winning the WBC 9st Title by crushing the nuclear punching Wilfredo Gomez.

After many defences against tough oppontition he eventually moved up to Super-Featherweight.

During his impressive 9st4 reign he stepped up to Lightweight to challenge Pernell Whitaker and got beat on points but losing to a peak sweet pea is no disgrace and Nelson wasn't quite himself that night as his wife had recently died and had no business at Lightweight anyway.

Nelsons fighting style? Always hard this as I often think different people see different things in fighters but to me Azumah Nelson was an extremely intelligent Boxer/puncher who seemed to have a great ability to 'decode' his opponents. He was very patient, with good speed and mobility and KO power in either hand. His chin was also very solid.

Two fights that are easily available and I highly recommend are his two fights with Jeff Fenech. The first fight REALLY could have been "held in a telephone booth", were an ill Nelson was given a dubious draw. In the rematch outdoors in Australia in front of about 45,000 Aussies, Nelson gave Fenech a scientific beating, it was a near punch perfect display by the wonderfull Nelson.

To my mind the combination of Nelsons all round ability, KO power, solid chin and brilliant Boxing brain means he ranks along the best Feather and Super-Featherweights of all time.

Even when near 40 years old he was still Word class.

The Little Professor is well worth checking out.

I didn't get to see a prime Nelson but he was still a top fight at an older age.

But, I have to disaggree that Nelson ran out of gas in the Sanchez fight.

After the Whitaker fight where he was easily beaten (refer a previous post - his wife had died of Aids not long before) he said "it doesn't matter, it's only a game anyway"

Took some major intestinal fortitude to go through with the fight under those circumstances