Azumah backs Commey to reclaim title

Boxing legend Azumah Nelson has tipped the recently dethroned International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight champion Richard Commey to overcome the "mistakes" which cost him the world title.

Commey lost the strap in dramatic fashion when he was stopped by Teofimo Lopez Jr in the second round of their world title clash on Sunday, December 15, 2019.

Contributing to the post-mortem of Commey's loss, Azumah said the former champion (29-3, 26 KOs) made the mistake of rushing from the canvas too quickly when he was dropped by Lopez Jr's damaging right hook, which signaled the end of the bout.

Commey’s mistake

The former three-time world champion explained that as a boxer, being caught off by a good punch felt like a jolt of electricity passing through your body and the only option was to use the referee's mandatory eight count to shake-off the after-effects.

"I always say that boxing is boxing and anything can happen.

You can knock him out in the first round or he can knock you out in the first round," Azumah said last Friday in an interview on the sidelines of the launch of the Azumah Nelson Fight Night Series in Accra.

"He [Commey] made a mistake and he crashed with a punch; he went down and he's supposed to stay down for a while.

He has about 10 seconds to stand on his feet. When he went down, he just rushed and got up.

I have been telling people that a punch is like an electric shock, you know.

When electricity shocks you, you will go down and when you go down, you have to wait for a while for the power to go off but when the power doesn’t go off and you get up, you will fall down again. That's the mistake that he (Commey) made."

Corner’s help

Azumah, who himself came back from a loss to reclaim the World Boxing Council World super featherweight title against Jesse James Leija in 1996, stressed that if Commey's corner had had that experience, they would have directed him to allow the mandatory count to progress before rising to his feet.

"If the coaches have that experience, they will tell him to stay down but the coaches too don't have that experience so the guy just got up and he couldn't continue the fight.

You know, we learn from our mistakes,” he added.