African lion who ruled the world

AZUMAH Nelson still cuts a striking presence. Boxing's once- great master of the steamy, arrogant interview, may have mellowed a bit since he retired, but he has lost none of what Barney Eastwood calls "animal magnetism".

Azumah's love of the good life and Chinese food has added a few inches to his waspish waist, and it won't be long before that famous black leather overcoat is something less than a snug fit.


Now 44, Nelson (pictured) was the only featherweight in the world whom most critics feel would have beaten Barry McGuigan in his prime.


It made a lot more sense, insisted manager Eastwood, to fight an ageing Pedroza on the way down than a hard as nails Nelson on the way up, and nobody questioned his judgment.


"I would have cheerfully accepted $100,000 to box McGuigan in London, but lucky old Pedroza got the job and a retirement present of over half a million," says the great Ghanaian.


"Nobody could have been more upset than I was when McGuigan hung up his gloves after losing to Jim McDonnell. A match between us both was on the cards and would have earned me by far the biggest purse of my career."


It was four monhs after McGuigan's WBA title victory over Pedroza at Loftus Road that Nelson came to Birmingham and knocked out Pat Cowdell with chilling ease.

Today the professor, as we know him, lives with second wife Peggy, in Accra's plushest suburb. The Nelson swimming-pool is shaped like a boxing-glove, and Azumah still works out occasionally in the magnificent basement gym in which he trained.


Like McGuigan, the lion of Africa, won gold at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada. Only two defeats in over 40 amateur contests hinted at better things to come, then officious officialdom tried to toss a spanner in the works. He was denied a professional licence by none other than Ghana's Minister of Sport.


It was about that time that Azumah wed teenage sweetheart, Beatrice, and the couple had a son and three daughters before she lost a brave battle against cancer.


"I was in Las Vegas for a world title shot with Pernell Whitaker at the time and had just bet $$300,000 on myself to win when they told me that Beatrice had been rushed into hospital," recalls Azumah. "Naturally, my mind wasn't on the fight, and I lost. Beaty died a week later."


Nelson, they said, was on the slide after struggling to a 12-round draw against world-beater Jeff Fenech, but soon gave the Aussie a second chance in Melbourne, and battered him senseless.


The toughest bout of Nelson's career?

"You gotta be kidding," he told me years ago. "Remember Mario Martinez? I beat him twice but at a cost of five years off my life. We fought like bull terriers in Los Angeles where he floored me, then I had to go nearly 12 rounds for another win in a title rematch. His chin was of Mexican granite!"


Sandy Saddler was the greatest featherweight I have ever set eyes on, greater even than Sanchez, Sandivar, Pep or Pedroza, but Nelson ran them all close. He was in my view the pick of Africa's five-star champions, a superb boxer-puncher with fists that could see.


Sanchez hadn't lost in five years, or 45 fights, when Nelson stepped in against him at two weeks notice and was only beaten on a 15th round stoppage.


It was the Ghananian's first fight in New York's famous Madison Square Gardens and the 14th of his career. What a way to announce yourself to a welcoming world!