Just how good was Azumah Nelson

One of my favorites! A truly great fighter.

 

I'm surprised we haven't heard from our own Olu Rotimi who lays claim to being the great Azumah Nelson 's nephew. Actually I haven't seen anything of Olu in a while I hope he is OK. I miss our good natured discussions.

 

An ATG. Great fighter. Good to see the praise. He gets heavily underrated quite often. The one criticism is he was sometimes a bit flat.

 

Remember the July 21 1982 WBC Featherweight Title bout clearly. Azumah Nelson was a last minute replacement for WBC no.1 challenger Mario Miranda of Colombia, who was undefeated. Nelson, who sported a 13-0 record was given that title bout against the legendary Salvador Sanchez, who was making his 9th title defense since dethroning WBC Champion Danny Little Red Lopez on Feb 2 1980 with a TKO 13. The Sanchez vs Nelson title bout was held in Madison Square Garden on the Don King Television Network. Sanchez floored Nelson in round 7 and stopped Azumah in the 15th round to retain his title. Sanchez was killed on August 12 1982 in a tragic car accident in Mexico.

 

He was the most confident fighter I’ve ever seen …even more so than Muhammad Ali…I’ve never seen a fighter with such little regard as to what the other guy could possibly do to him

 

He was extremely tough and carried himself well. I loved watching him fight

 

I hope Olu is ok

 

I'd be sure to look at Gomez. Might only be a shyte version available tho. If you want to see one of the greatest left uppercuts in history (that never gets mentioned) have a Captain Cook at his KO of Cowdell it won't take you long. The Martinez and Villasana rematches are decent too. They are tough cookies those two.

 

JT’s mentioned some good ones. The second Martinez fight is a good one as well against a fighter he had trouble with first time round (Nelson was the king of the rematch).

His win over Jim McDonnell is also worth a watch and a very good fight too.

 

You might be right actually!

 

I saw his fight with Gomez in person and had Gomez ahead 98-92 at the time of the stoppage.

This tells you one thing: 12 year old Puerto Rican Gomez fan girls listening to the roar of the crowd arent the most reliable judges.

Nowadays I have it 97-93 Nelson on You Tube.

In his time, Nelson wasnt going to be beaten by normal challengers.

Mario Martinez should have won their first bout, but then again, Mario Martinez was no normal challenger when you think about it.

 

It was no mean feat taking Pat out with one punch in the first round.
Pat was a tough cookie who gave Sanchez trouble over the 15 rounds.

 

I completely agree.....and of all things a left uppercut.

 

Sanchez vs Nelson in 82 was classic Fire vs Ice. Great fight.

Funny. Commentator for that fight, Larry Holmes, not knowing a lot about Azumah - which no one did really at the time, tried to talk up the Ghanaian fighter being hungry due to coming from an impoverished background.

Larry’s co-commentator being a bit more clued in told Larry that Nelson actually came from a well padded background, Azumah’s father owing and running multiple businesses.

Larry seamlessly transitioned to saying that was an even better situation since Nelson didn’t HAVE to fight, he was obviously fighting because he WANTED to - Larry followed that comment with a little chuckle - quick thinking on his feet. Lol.

Nelson was a great fighter and got the nickname The Professor from a member of the Aussie press corp and it seems to have stuck pretty well ever since.