Battling Nelson
Name: Battling Nelson
Alias: The Durable Dane
Birth Name: Oscar Mattheus Nielsen
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
Died: 1954-02-07 (Age:71)
Height: 171cm
Reach: 172cm
Referee: Record
Pro Boxer: Record
Managers: Billy Nolan, Willus Britt, Jack Robinson (1910) [1]
Battling Nelson Gallery
Battling Nelson was born in Copenhagen, Denmark; his family emigrated to the United States the following year. He was raised in Hegewisch, a neighborhood on the far southeast side of Chicago. (17 Jan. 1909 auto-bio: [2])
He began boxing at age 14 in 1896, and won the World Lightweight Title in 1905 to become perhaps Scandinavia's most successful boxer ever. (Extended bio on Wikipedia: [3])
After his ring career ended in 1920, Nelson worked as a laborer in the Chicago Post Office.
His 52-year-old mother, Ida, suffered a tragic death when she was struck by a speeding train at Burnham, IL, August 10, 1911.
According to the Oct. 25, 1912 Seattle Star [4], Nelson planned to marry Miss Fay King, cartoonist, of Denver, and formerly of Seattle and Portland. By October 1916, he was having plastic surgery in an effort to win Fay King, his ex-wife, back. [5]
He died in 1954 in Chicago, Illinois, after suffering serious head injuries sustained during a street crime attack.
Nelson was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.