Anyone tell me much about this little Nigerian? How was he stylistically? Anyone you can compare him to? What have people seen of him? Anyone seen the Moore, Pep or Hamia fights?
I've seen a bit of him. He was somewhat like a FW Dick Tiger. Generally aggressive, could punch hard, but not particularly quick on his feet.
I watched his bout against Carmelo Costa recently. Bassey was obviously a hard puncher - reminded me a lot of Azumah Nelson with his constant stalking - walk 'em down approach. He knocked Costa down twice in round 3 with a solid, thudding right hand lead which had Costa motionless on the canvas for a few secs before he managed to get up and survive the round. Bassey had decent defense with hands high and good head movement though did have a tendency to swing a little wildly with the overhand right which left him open to the counter. He looked like a mini Dick Tiger - only 5"3 but a solid ball of muscle. Serious power in the right and a decent left-hook as well. He was featherweight champion of the world at this time but the bout was a non-title over-the-weight fight. Entertaining scrap as Costa, though out-classed, put up a good fight with lots of movement and occasional flurries.
Nelson and Tiger are good comparisons to his style. Spider Kelly had a reputation as possibly a great upcoming defensive fighter early in his career.
Looks like he was knocked out cold for quite a while there. Seems like the loss all but ruined him. In the Pep-Bassey fight, all Pep had to do was stay on his feet for two rounds and he would have atleast gotten a draw against Bassey, the featherweight champion at the time. Pep was leading on points at the time of the stoppage, having brought in whatever he had left in the tank at 36 and put on a display of boxing for 8 rounds. By round 9 his legs were shot and Bassey ended up knocking him out. Not a win for Pep, but a very good effort nonetheless for an aging fighter who no one gave a chance. I don't think the fight was filmed but this is based on what I've read about the fight.
Tough little rascal..preceeded Dick Tiger as the first Nigerian world boxing champion, but Tiger was the older man.
