Description
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Battling Nelson
Born: June 5, 1882 Copenhagen, Denmark
Died: February 7, 1954 (aged 71) Chicago, Illinois
Height: 5’7″
Weight: 120-142
Division: Lightweight
Record:
Total fights: 135
Wins: 73
Wins by KO: 40
Losses: 30
Draws: 24
No contests:
Biography:
Oscar Mattheus Nielsen was born in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, on June 5th, 1882, the anniversary of the day Denmark ended being a monarchy and accepted a Constitution in 1849. His parents were named Nels and Mary, and the couple had seven boys and one girl. Nielsen’s family emigrated when he was still in his infancy to Illinois, to Hegewisch, a small town on the outskirts of Chicago.
In an auto-biographical piece written for The San Francisco call in 1909, Nelson himself describes his first fight at the age of fourteen. A traveling circus complete with a boxing ‘champion’ had pulled into nearby Hammond, Indiana. Despite his youth, Nelson was already confident in his fighting ability and he already had a reputation for having a knock-out punch, so he stepped up to the challenge for the prize of $1. The circus, the Wallace circus, gives its name to the ‘Wallace Kid’ who is in the official record as Nelson’s first organized fight. Nelson, due to his job as a meat cutter, was introduced as the ‘Packing House Pride’. The circus ‘phenom’ would be KO’d by Nelson in the first round, and never be heard from again. Nelson writes of the story ending this way:
After ‘dusting his wonder into oblivion’ the circus owner offered him a job, at an astounding $50 a week. Nelson wrote ‘my parents wouldn’t listen to such a proposition at the time, informing him that I was needed at home and was entirely too young to be traveling with such an affair’.
The “Durable Dane” began boxing professionally at fourteen in 1896. He fought for the vacant lightweight title against Jimmy Britt on December 20, 1904, but lost a twenty-round decision. He lost to Abe Attell in 1905 but beat Jack O’Neill to secure another shot at the title on September 9, 1905, finally beating Britt by an eighteenth-round knockout.
One of the toughest boxers in ring history, Battling Nelson twice held the world lightweight title. Slight of build but relentless in both delivering and enduring beatings, Nelson spooked more than one opponent with his unblinking resistance. His trademark punch was a short left hook aimed at the liver, with thumb and forefinger extended to provide greater penetration. A Dane by birth, Nelson grew up in a suburb of Chicago. He fought professionally for the first time against a fighter in a traveling circus. Challenged to last three rounds, the fourteen-year-old Nelson knocked Wallace’s Kid out in one.
Nelson’s career blossomed in 1904. He knocked out Martin Canole, Eddie Hanlon, and Young Corbett and won a decision against the hard-hitting Aurelio Herrera, who once flipped Nelson into an involuntary somersault with a powerful punch. In December 1904, Nelson lost to Jimmy Britt in a fight for the vacant white lightweight title.
More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battling_Nelson
http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/oldtimer/nelsonbattling.html
http://www.thesweetscience.com/forums/showthread.php?12266-Another-Bio-Battling-Nelson
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/nelson-b.htm
