He seems a great bloke on tv and in ifilm interview. I was too young to watch him box and didn't see any of his career. How good was he in his heyday? I saw he was who champion...was his reign on top decent?
Had a good career and won a WBO world title, very good considering he lost his first three fights and twelve in total.
He won his WBO belt at a time when it was rated about the same as the IBO or WBU are now, so he was never a real World champion.
Interesting when you look at his record, you can almost see on paper how he developed as a fighter. First 10 years as a pro, he won a lot more than he lost but it was patchy. Then between 96 to 2005 he went undefeated, which included his world title run.
sometimes he looked like he had the tools to be big time only to then go on to stink the place out ...which for me is frustrating.i ended up not bothering watching his fights... i am hoping his friend Kell Brook doesn't go the same way
Nelson was abducted and held for ransom for the sum of 500,000 by some northern gangsters the gangsters were pals of Richard Towers who at the time was serving 15 years for kidnapping some wealthy man and using a iron on him to get money.
Total enigma. Showed grit to get his first title chance, then blew it. Got another chance and blew it. Fought Akinwande, and was so awful, he literally had to avoid fighting in the Country for a couple of years in the hope people would forget. When he came back, he had the most successful period in his career, fighting thoughtfully, but offensively and was genuinely impressive in wins against Andries, Aouissi and Thompson. But then although not quite as shocking as he was, he choose to 'sign in' performances and not build on his excellent form in the late 90s.
The most boring fighter I've ever seen and there's been a few. He did fight scared. His world title fights against De Leon and I think James Waring were a disgrace to ever fighter who never got a chance to fight for a world championship. He may be a nice bloke but he did a disservice to his sport. And yes he did call out the prime Mike Tyson around the time he appeared petrified to engage with 2light fisted alphabet champs.
His draw against Carlos DeLeon live on ITV was a truly awful fight one of the worst world title fights i have ever seen.So timid barely threw a punch DeLeon just as bad. Went away spent time in Europe as a sparring partner Germany mainly then came back remember the fights against Andries & Thompson was a totally changed fighter.
Made Wlad Klit vs Povetkin look like Gatti Ward. 99.9% of his fights were truly horiffic to watch like a forerunner to Rob Norton. I can't stand him as a pundit, but if it keeps him from fighting again I am happy to take the hit!!!