Azumah Nelson
Azumah Nelson ( born July 19, 1958 in Accra, Ghana ) is a former Ghanaian boxer.
Amateur
As an amateur Nelson won featherweight 1978, the Africa Games in Algiers, the Military World Championship in Lagos and the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, at the World Cup 1979 in New York, he was third. His record was 50-2.
Professional
He became professional in 1979 at featherweight. His first thirteen fights took one exception still held in Africa. As an almost complete stranger he got as a replacement opponent then on July 21, 1982 a title fight against Mexican WBC champion Salvador Sánchez.
The fight was surprisingly completely balanced, to the famous for his condition Sánchez in the fifteenth and final round could still prevail with a technical knockout. Sánchez died shortly afterwards in a car accident. For Nelson, it was the only knockout loss of his career.
Despite the defeat, Nelson had now risen to become a formidable opponent. So he got six more wins on 8 December 1984 a renewed title fight, this time against the new world champion of WBC, Wilfredo Gómez, who came from the lower weight classes and had also been knocked out in a featherweight bout previously by Sánchez. Nelson created the surprise and won by KO.
He made six title defenses, including against Marcos Villasana before he ascended into half Lightweight and 1988 won the WBC title of the class by a razor-thin point victory against Mario Martinez. The subsequent rematch he won much more clearly by TKO. During his time as a semi- lightweight world champion, he joined on May 19, 1990, against the world champion Pernell Whitaker lightweight, but lost convincingly on points.
In 1991 he defended his half- lightweight title against Australian Jeff Fenech. Fenech dominated the fight, but got only a controversial draw. The direct rematch in Australia dominated Nelson but clearly, winning by KO.
He then struck in February 1993, although the highly assessed Mexican Gabriel Ruelas in the IBF light- welterweight fight in Mexico City on points, but his age slowly made itself felt. Jesse James Leija counter he managed only a draw in 1993, but lost the rematch and hence his title. Leija but had the title in his first title defense dispose to Ruelas, in December 1995, in turn, Nelson was able to regain his title of the.
The third encounter with Leija, he won by knockout in the terminal, but had to give up his title in March 1996 after one defeat to Genaro Hernandez. In 1998, he lost to Leija in the fourth edition of their duel in the lightweight and finally ended at the age of almost 40 years of his career.
2004 saw Nelson induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He's athlete ambassador of development organization Right to Play.