Azumah Nelson savours WBC honour
Legendary Ghanaian boxer, Azumah Nelson, is hopeful that his World Boxing Council (WBC) Champion Award would motivate the government to devote more resources towards the development of boxing in the country.
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Nelson, widely considered the greatest African boxer of all time, was for the second time since his retirement honoured by the WBC sanctioning body at the 55th WBC Convention on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan.
According to him, he did not expect the award so soon after he was crowned as the greatest WBC Super Featherweight Boxer in 2014.
"I want to thank the WBC for the honour, it came as a surprise because they didn't tell me," Nelson told this paper shortly after receiving the award on Monday evening.
"I was sitting with my son, Yaw Sakyi, enjoying ourselves then they started playing my documentary and the African President started talking about somebody whose career sounded like mine."
He added: "I dedicate this award to Ghana boxing and my prayer is that the government will show more interest in the sport for us to get more champions from Ghana with focus on the younger one.
"This award means that, whatever you do, do it well and even many years after the world will continue to celebrate you".
Other honorees on the night included fellow boxing Hall-of-Famers Evander Holyfield, Bernard Hopkins and Kostya Tszyu.
At the time of calling time on his career in 1998, Nelson had a record of 39 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws, with 28 knockout wins.
He made a brief comeback to engage lifelong rival, Jeff Fenech, in Australia in 2008 to raise funds for a charity project being undertaken by the Azumah Nelson Foundation.
He has been actively engaged by inspiring Ghanaian high school students to focus on their studies with a programme dubbed "Time With The Professor", which he uses to interact with selected students in the various schools across the country.
Recently, he has been mentoring several young boxers, including his young son, Azumah Nelson Junior, in the sport.
Nelson is also involved in boxing promotion in Ghana, partnering Hemann Promotions to stage the popular Azumah Nelson Fight Night series.