Very seldom does the boxing world get to witness a championship fight
between two men who are not only world class fighters, but arguably the
best boxers their respective continents ever produced. In the early part
of the decade it not only happened once, but twice.
On June 28, 1991 in Las Vegas, Azumah Nelson (left) put his WBC super featherweight diadem on the line against Jeff Fenech and retained the title via majority draw. Most ringsiders believed that Fenech not only won the action-packed fight, but dominated it.
The champion, from Accra, Ghana, ranked among the world's best fighters for a decade. Nelson's only two losses came at the hands of Salvador Sanchez and Pernell Whitaker in title fights. Fenech, of Sydney, Australia, was trying to join Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard in boxing's four-division champion's club. He won the IBF's 118-pound belt in just his eighth pro fight then captured world titles at 122 and 126 pounds. He's the only champion to win titles in three weight divisions while undefeated.
When the two met on Fenech's home turf in Melbourne, Australia, most boxing insiders believed that the Aussie tough guy, still only 29, would barrel through the thought-to-be fading 33-year-old African. How wrong they were. Nelson floored Fenech with a hard right to the chin midway through in the first round and sent him to the canvas again in Round 2. March 1, 1992 belonged to Nelson, who called himself "The Professor," as he systematically picked apart his foe before the referee stopped the bout in Round 8.
Nelson continued to fight at the championship level until retiring in 1997. A fourth world title proved elusive for Fenech, who retired in 1996 after a few successful comeback attempts. They've already set two spots aside for these gladiators at the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
