Boxing legend, Azumah Nelson
On March 6, 1981, legendary Ghanaian boxer, Azumah Nelson silenced a Togolese boxer who had been terrorizing Ghanaian boxers for years.
Bossou Aziza, the Togolese boxer was an intimidating fighter who was notorious for beating Ghana's lightweight boxers mercilessly.
The Togolese boxer's ruthless reputation led to many Ghanaian boxers being carried away in ambulances after their encounters with him.
Azumah Nelson who had then turned pro but never fought outside the shores of Ghana accepted the challenge to fight the Togolese menace.
“I was up and coming and they said there was a promotion I had to fight. I had turned pro so I said I will take on Bossou Aziza. Anytime Bossou Aziza will come to Ghana to fight, when the fight ends they will take his opponents in an ambulance to the hospital,” Azumah Nelson stated.
The two-time world champion recalled that he was cautioned several times not to fight the Togolese because of the misconception that he fought under the influence of black-magic [juju].
Although Azumah Nelson was a featherweight boxer around 126 pounds, he accepted the challenge to fight Bossou Aziza who was a lightweight boxer which is an upper weight class. Unlike the other boxers, Azumah Nelson went all the way to fight the boxer in his home in Togo.
In the days leading up to the bout, Bossou Aziza mocked young Azumah Nelson when he said, “That small boy, I will beat him. They have made a big mistake to allow me to fight him at this point because he is a young boy.”
Despite the records Bossou Aziza had achieved against Ghanaian boxers, Azumah Nelson never allowed himself to become a statistic.
The young Azumah Nelson taught the Togolese boxer a lesson in the ring as he dominated him from the beginning of the fight till the 10th round when Bossou Aziza’s corner whisked him away from the ring.
“When we went to the ring, everybody saw how small I was and how tough the guy was. So when we started the fight I beat him from the 1st round to the 8th round. We were supposed to go for 10 rounds.
“But when the bell went for the 9th round, they carried Bossou Aziza from the ring. There was no one in his corner,” Azumah Nelson said during his interview on GTV Sports Plus.
Veteran sports journalist, Carl Tuffuor who bore witness to that fight said, “You may think he is cracking a joke but Azumah is serious. It was captured in the news of that era.”
JNA/KPE
