Brian Nielsen (boxer)

Brian Nielsen
Data
Birth Name	Brian Nielsen
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Danish
birthday	April 1, 1965
place of birth	Korsør
style	Left delivery
size	1.91 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	67
Victories	64
Knockout victories	43
Defeats	3

Brian Nielsen (born April 1, 1965 in Korsør ) is a Danish heavyweight boxer with a very idiosyncratic career.

amateur

Nielsen was Danish super heavyweight champion five times in a row from 1988 to 1992.

At the European Championships in 1989 Nielsen was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Giorgios Tsahakis, Greece . In 1990 he won the Nordic Championships and in 1991 he was third at the European Championships in Gothenburg , where he lost in the semi-finals against the German representative Andreas Schnieders . At the World Championships in Sydney that same year , however, he was eliminated in the preliminary round against Henryk Zatyka, Poland (19:13).

After Nielsen had won the Nordic championships again in 1992, he qualified for the Olympic Games in Barcelona by winning the European Olympic qualification tournament in Copenhagen , in which he won over Seung Won Jung, South Korea (16: 2), and Peter Hrivnak, Czech Republic (14: 4), the semifinals, which he lost against Roberto Balado , Cuba (1:15), and thus won the Olympic bronze medal.

professional

Nielsen's professional career began in 1992 at the relatively advanced age of 27. After defeating his first seven opponents only on points, he not only achieved a visually impressive record, but also premature victories against well-known opponents. As a rule, however, these had their prime a long time ago. Nielsen's strengths were a slightly above-average punching power and good taker skills, his weakness his relative slowness, which was not so noticeable in his fights against the seniors of boxing.

In 1994 and 1995 he defeated, among others, Ross Puritty and the ex-cruiserweight world champions Jeff Lampkin and Carlos de Leon . He also beat the heavyweight title holders of the 1980s Tony Tubbs , James "Bonecrusher" Smith and Tim Witherspoon by technical knockout. He also defeated former world championship challenger Phil Jackson , Mike Hunter , Andrew Maynard , ex-cruiserweight world champion James Pritchard, Crawford Grimsley , Lionel Butler and Jeremy Williams. The 47-year-old former world champion Larry Holmes , who had boxed for the WBC title two years earlier and only just lost, he beat in January 1997 by split decision, but the decision was controversial.

Typical for Nielsen's opposition were also boxers who were unbeaten but had no amateur career behind them and as a professional had no success against well-known opponents. He beat Damon Reed (17-0) and Don Steele (41-0 with 40 KOs) in 1997 and Joe Guy (16-0) in 1998.

The American Dicky Ryan fell into this category, against whom he suffered the first defeat on June 18, 1999 in his fiftieth professional fight. Ryan, who had not achieved any successes despite a visually impressive record of 47-4 and later against all well-known opponents, u. a. Vitali Klitschko and Nikolai Walujew , who was knocked out briefly, won in round 10 by breaking off. However, Nielsen went into battle slightly ill. In December 2000 he faced Ryan again and was able to defeat him this time, but only on points.

After another points win against Orlin Norris , he then went to his career highlight on October 13, 2001 in the Parken Stadium against Mike Tyson . Although this had already passed his zenith and went into the fight with overweight, he dominated this battle completely and knocked Nielsen to the ground in the third round for the second time in his career. At the beginning of the seventh lap, Nielsen finally gave up after being hit hard.

In his last fight to date, Nielsen defeated Uriah Grant , another former world cruiserweight champion, in April 2002 .

After 8 years of abstinence from the ring, Nielsen started a comeback on May 7, 2011 against former heavyweight world champion and boxing veteran Evander Holyfield . Holyfield, himself already 48 years old, defeated Nielsen in front of 2,000 spectators in Copenhagen after a technical knockout in the tenth round. Nielsen had a hard knock on the third lap, but was able to save himself in the following laps. The referee stopped the fight in the tenth round due to Holyfield's clear superiority.

Combat manipulations

Thomas Williams, one of his opponents from 2000, testified in 2005 in connection with the manipulated career of the American Rich Melito (who is not directly connected to Nielsen), not only against Melito, but also against Nielsen According to his manager Robert Mittleman, who is closely related to Nielsen's promoter Mogens Palle, to have voluntarily lost. He was convicted in the USA for this. Nielsen and Palle denied the allegations.

predecessor	Office	successor
vacant Jimmy Thunder	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( IBO ) January 12, 1996–1999	vacant Lennox Lewis

Web links

• Brian Nielsen in the BoxRec database
• Court document
• Court document 2