Nelson Vs whitaker

Fair post, Pryor and Chandler lost "it" almost overnight and where heavily involved with coke.

 

Leonard was taking lines of powder up his nose after he retired with the detached retina in 1982, and probably after the Howard fight as well no doubt.

 

I'd say Pernell was sporadically dipping into the bag pretty much from the start, but he only became a serious user around 95-96. That was the period when he really dropped off. He looked absolutely horrible against Hurtado and Rivera, and though some of that was due to age and not training enough, you could tell that he lost something there. I think he got himself into great shape for the DLH fight, and really trained hard, getting the best (of what he had left) out of himself for one more fight. Then as you say, inactivity and coke abuse saw him have to enter drug rehab before he got to Tito. He actually nearly died from overdosing after his last fight. Did you hear the 911 call that his chick made when he OD'ed?

 

Im not too sure about 95/96. I might be wrong. But not sure Whitaker would have been taking coke around that time as he was fairy active around then, more so 1995. Surely he must have been randomly tested during that period. Very risky indeed for any boxer stepping into the ring to make money and gain glory. I don't know the concrete facts, probably only Whitaker himself knows what periods of his life he was coke active. My gut feeling is that he began taking coke after the De La Hoya fight.


In no way am I saying your wrong, just that none of us have hard evidence to support our views.

 

Sure, but don't forget that coke only stays in your system for about a day.

 

Cocaine when urine tested 2-4 days.

 

Actually you're right, and maybe even longer for serious users...

 

Nelson was very respected, but it was thought he was past his best. But he would show in the 90s there was a lot left of Azumah Nelson.

 

If they used that test on boxers I'm pretty sure we'd lose a large chunk of the sport's talent through suspension. Plenty of boxers would recreationally dabble in it here and there.

 

90 days, not a year.

 

Cheers for posting the footage, mate. I haven't seen that Whitaker fight for a good while actually, so will prob end up rejoging the memory later on and watch it again.

From what I can remember last time I scored it (which was a couple of years back) I only gave Nelson two rounds or something, even that might have been generous. :think

 

It was a safe fight for Whittaker. Nelson was a great Feather who lost his power and speed at 135. The fight was also a bad match for Nelson. he had too many physical disadvantages and Whittaker's style made it hell for Azumah.

To beat Whittaker you need to either be a defensive master yourself (Gans); be a non-stop punching machine (Duran); or be a mini Hearns (Williams) and even then it's always going to be a close fight.

 

Whitaker and Nelson were physically like fighters from the same division when they shared a ring. Also Nelson's capabilities in power and speed at lightweight were unknown, as his fight with Whitaker was his first at the weight.