I used to watch boxing as a kid since early 90s but his career just passed me by. Heard lots of anecdotal stuff and his record on boxec does not read like a undefeated champions record. What was he like as a fighter ? What was the class of opposition he fought in that unbeaten run as champion ? Was he avoided or carefully matched ? And what went wrong with his relationship with Naz ? I thought they trained together ect both being ingle fighters but have read things in here that suggest bad blood there !?
He was very slippery. A typical defensive spoiler who was very difficult to look good against. He was managed terribly at first and was a HW journeyman. He was then managed too well and became a long reigning paper champion. He was never once the best man in the division but he could potentially have upset any of the elite CW men around when he was. I remember someone once saying you could throw a handful of sand at Nelson and still miss. I can't remember if it was a pundit, an ex boxer or a poster but someone said it and they're probably correct.
As a fighter he was an enigma. At his best he was a confident boxer with enough power to be competitive with fringe World Heavyweight contenders and a very solid chin. At his worst he was scared of his own shadow, he would shut down and cling on for 12 rounds. He was so bad that he may have been involved in the three worst main events I ever saw; one live against Henry Akinwande was so bad the ref should have thrown him out for lack of action. The others were on TV; against James Warring, and what many rightly think here was the worst ever world title fight, against Carlos Deleon. Certainly it was the worst live fight ever shown on ITV. He became WBO champion on the back of his best form as fighter, but as a champion was matched carefully against tat, albeit in a weak division. He did have a few lively opponents that caused him trouble in Sellers and Jones; also age was catching up with him at the end and he struggled in his last couple of bouts. What I would say about him is after the Warring fight through to the last Rodrigues bout, he was matched hard as a bit of a road warrior, being on the end of some shocking hometown decisions, because his reputation meant he could not get a decent fight in the UK. Also he got the Deleon fight on the back of a good story of 'Journeyman turned good'. As he was matched too hard early on, hence his 'unique' record. I think Nelson stayed friendly with Ingle and Naseem had a big falling out with his ex trainer, with Nelson taking Ingle's side.
Thanks gents that put's a lot of meat on the bones, watched a few fights today and he seem's to have had decent skills. Thompson fight was one of them and thought he looked very very good while it lasted.
Could have been much more, but was massively reluctant to let his hands go. In another sense, he was a massive over-achiever. I loved his demolition of Thompson. I loved Carl, great guy, but Nelson showed the kind of form in that fight (and it came out due to the bad blood between the two) that he should have shown all along.
Fighting Nelson was like plating saw dust could make any fighter look bad .almost impossible to stop at his best .not much fun to watch but good at what he did.
I never studied Nelson or his career, but what I heard is that he's one of the most boring fighters you'll ever watch. He also improved in such a peculiar way. I do wonder who actually deserved the nod, himself or De Leon? It's a fight I haven't seen.
