Azumah Nelson was just a young boxer when he took on the Togolese boxer Bossou Aziza, who had a reputation for terrorizing Ghanaian boxers. Aziza was a larger and more experienced fighter, but Nelson was determined to prove himself.
The fight took place in Togo, and Aziza was confident of victory. “That small boy, I will beat him,” he said. “They have made a big mistake to allow me to fight him at this point because he is a young boy.”
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.
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.
When we went to the ring, everybody saw how small I was and how tough the guy was” Azuma said while narrating the story on GTV GTV Sports Plus.
He went on to sat…
“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.
Nelson had other plans for the fight which was not known to the opponent as a young boxer who had just turned pro.
He dominated the fight from the beginning, and by the 10th round, Aziza’s corner had had enough. They carried him out of the ring, and Nelson had won.
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.”
The victory was a major upset, and it made Nelson a national hero in Ghana. He went on to become a two-time world champion, and his story is an inspiration to boxers of all ages.