I have some Azumah's fights when he was older & a lightweight. Last nite I watched my new copies of him against Sanchez and Gomez and to say Im impressed is an understatement. What a great fighter this man was.
Indeed. His greatest feats came when he was past his prime, with his shocking KOs of Fenech and Ruelas. Would've loved to have seen him in a unification fight with either Brian Mitchell or Tony Lopez back when he was in his prime.
A great featherweight , but an inconsistent and somewhat overrated fighter above that imo.Still capable of some great moments, but more of a Benvenuti/Toney type that couldn't be relied on to put in a good performance.I thought the performance he gave against Whitaker was actually one os his more earnest efforts above feather incidentally.He likely would have been a fine lightweight and that was a spirited effort attempt that i would have picked him to beat anyone else there at the time. I also think considering the styles and size difference involved his performance against Fenech in first fight was just garbage.A guy who is supposedly a physical beast and pressuring expert like Nelson should have been far more impressive in both of those fights.
He ended Cowdell's night early (the same Cowdell who went to a split decision with Salvador Sanchez): [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgXJgSJu_rQ[/ame] His last good performance: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBcs11n991Y[/ame]
Nelson was a monster indeed, but only at 126 to 130 pounds.................... Nelson was incapable of bringing his greatness up to 135 or 140 pounds..... Nelson was a natural Feather to Jr. Light dude to the maxi-pad....... As a Lightweight, he was normal and beatable.......... Cheers..... MR.BILL
One of my 10 favorite fighters ever because I grew up watching him and just loved his attitude in the ring. MRBILL is right though, the higher he went in weight, the more ordinary he got. At 126, he was a monster.
He looked fine at lightweight to me, and strong as hell.Looked like he had lost nothing from his stronger 130 efforts. Agree he was at his best at 126.
when i was little i remember settling down to watch nelson fight cowdell and thinking nelson would win but t should be a long fight ,
That Cowdell knock was something else..I remember thinking that he killed him. It was a very impressive performance. There was some bad blood between Nelson and Barry McGuigan, as I recall..Nelson baited Barry something awful in his frustration in not being able to secure a unification fight with him. He referred to Barry as a "sissy"..among other things...Nelson was one CONFIDENT badass..confident that he would "destroy" McGuigan, as he put it.
Even at lightweight he looked like a bull. He even looked a good bit bigger and stronger than Whitaker to me and put forward a good effort despite being comprehensively beaten. Had Whitaker not been around, he could have potentially made some noise at lightweight. I think he knew that he wasn't going to make much headway while Pernell was still knocking about though. Great featherweight though.
Although his best resume was at Junior Lightweight,I think he was at his physical peak at Feather. His win over Gomez was his most impressive he really put a beating on Gomez that day. He was faster,hit harder and was even more aggressive at Feather. In a Hth matchup at 126 I dont pick many guys over him. Watching at that Cowdell clip brought back memories,I remember I watched that fight in the TV section of the Mall. My Mom dragged me along (I was a young teen) so as I was watching this fight I was figuring that Im not gonna be able to see this whole fight(Knowing that Cowdell was very good and Gave Sanchez Hell) well to my surprise he just blew out Cowdell! Also one of his best performances.
