Johnny Nelson admits he's in the dark over a possible all-British showdown with Enzo Maccarinelli.
Reports on Frank Warren's website, frankwarren.tv, claim that 'The Entertainer' has agreed to put his WBO Cruiserweight title on the line against the Welshman.

However, the 38-year-old champion from Sheffield has heard nothing since speaking to promoter Warren last week.

Despite the confusion, Nelson - who last defended his crown against Rudiger May in September 2004 - would be happy to take on the 24-year-old, providing the price is right.

"I got a call last week and that was the last I heard," he confessed to skysports.com. "I asked for a certain amount of money and if I get that then that's fine.

"It's a fair quote, I'm not asking for silly money, I'm just asking for what the fight is worth.

"Now they're putting out press releases saying the fight is on, so they must have agreed to what I asked for.

"It's possible they might let me box mandatory challenger Vincenzo Cantatore first, because then Enzo would move to No.1 in the rankings."

A showdown between the experienced Nelson and young upstart Maccarinelli would certainly excite the British boxing fans, and the champion himself is keen to see the bout take place.

"It's a fight I'd relish. It's the only fight that excites me as much as the possibility of taking on Carl Thompson.

"He (Maccarinelli) is young and fresh and he looks the part, so for me to beat him up will show what a champion I am.

"If Enzo's people think that I'll take him lightly then they've got it so, so wrong. I won't underestimate him.

Courtesy of Skysports.

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I reckon Nelson would win this fight... I think he'd box a really boring counter punching fight.

It would be a repeat of Bernard Hopkins being chased around the ring all night by Howard Eastman.

What do you guys think?

I dont wanna pick a winner, i just hope Enzo wins, i'm tired of Nelson in the comfort zone.

I'm sure Nelson would have asked for more than he's worth, thats for certain, people are paying to see Enzo take his title not to see him.

Yeah... Nelson is one of the most boring fighters to come out of England in a long time... He's very affective though.

Remember when he fought Ezra Sellars in Denmark?... That has to be the fight with the LEAST punches thrown in the history of boxing! They both just stood there waiting for the other to make his move 1st, and neither would back down.

Johnny Nelson has to be in line with John Ruiz as the most boring world champions in the history of boxing. I would not watch Johnny Nelson if I was paid £500 this man talks a lot but does nothing he once fought Carlos De Leon on ITV he never threw a punch for 12 rounds then had to cheek to ask for a rematch, something he never gave a REAL WARRIOR Carl Thompson. Enzo vs Johnny Nelson does not excite me one bit, why did he not ask for a rematch with Carl Thompson ?

He thinks he is intelligent so do sky but he is just a waste of space and time. He is just looking for 1 big payday which frankly he does not deserve

thomspn has retired unless he gets a big money shot mate.

spoke to man in the know a few weeks back says carl will only come out of retirement for a lot of money.

i dont agree with you bout nelson, he is boring to watch but i have admiration for anyone who is in such good shape at aged 38.

he has an excellent boxing brain and is in my opinion probably the most insightful analyst out there .


however i did come here seeing u had posted knowing that you cant stand nelson, so you didnt dissapoint bro! no worries be boring if we all thought the same ;)

I hear what u are saying but what annoys me with certain boxers is for example Bernard Hopkins is another either back up what u say with action or shut up and get on with fighting. Hopkins comes across as a real Warrior out to inflict pain but goes into a shell when the bell rings. Look at his fight with Taylor comes steaming out at the start and does what NOTHING.

Jeff Lacy what u see is what u get, this man will try and make a fight what ever the situation. This is what boxing on TV is all about. I like to see guys make a real effort from start to finish otherwise fight abroad in Germany where they like that start.

If u think I am wrong about Nelson do a poll and see how many people rate I don't. I just wish he would retire and saw new blood can give us some exciting times i would rather see Haye vs Enzo. But I doubt it as he will get exposed once again by Hobson, but at least Haye makes a fight Johnny does not

Agreed Nelson is very effective at what he does but 'The Entertainer'? that's like describing Mike Tyson as the shy retirng type :D
Technically he's miles better than Enzo but he relies on his reflexes and at 38 they won't be getting any better and he was floored by Sellers (who could hit though!), he's been very inactive recently and seems pretty comfortable in his role as studio analyst so maybe this is the perfect time for Enzo to upset Nelson, can't decide myself it's a good crossroads match.

mate, im not dismissing you iopinion im just saying i have a different one, i can see how Johnny wouldnt appeal to some folk, but i can appreciate his talents, i also thinky ou are being very very harsh on Nard.

blokes a friggin legend mate, and he came to fight tito all right didnt he, and de la hoya.


come on you cant base a whole career on his last two fights.

Yeah but unlike Hagler who came to fight, and engaged in exciting battles Hopkins has done nothing. Everybody keeps going on how great Hopkins is because he was champion for so long everybody should then give Joe Calzaghe the same props but they don't.

What I really cannot understand is how come and remember he was around when Benn,Eubank,Collins, Watson was around he never fought none of them. Please don't say there was scared of him, he never called them instead he was fighting blown up welterweight ie Simon Brown, can u imagine Honeyghan vs Nigel Benn ?

That is why I am being hard on Hopkins yes I did root for Jermain Taylor (I cannot comment on that fight as I fell asleep when it came on ) I am not kidding U!!

Note:I am boxing junkie with over 450gig of fights so that should tell u something

rudy you dont have to prove your credentials to me mate, i know you know what you are on about mate, i wouldnt engage you in coversation otherwise mate.

i disagree hopkins has been UNIFIED champ, for along time, Collins priced himself out of the money and been and eubank were shot when hopkins truly ruled.

owning all three belts is somwhat different to defending the WBO.

especially ten years ago when it was probalby as recognised as the WBU is now.

im not picking holes here, i just dont agree but thats fine.

the truth, as is oftenthe case in such matters is probably somewhere between my opinion and yours mate! :D

I hear u, hope u don;t think I was boasting just my opinon of what are great fihgts and exciting

thats ok I just wanted to know why they never fought, now it makes sense

rudy you dont have to prove your credentials to me mate, i know you know what you are on about mate, i wouldnt engage you in coversation otherwise mate.

i disagree hopkins has been UNIFIED champ, for along time, Collins priced himself out of the money and been and eubank were shot when hopkins truly ruled.

owning all three belts is somwhat different to defending the WBO.

especially ten years ago when it was probalby as recognised as the WBU is now.

im not picking holes here, i just dont agree but thats fine.

the truth, as is oftenthe case in such matters is probably somewhere between my opinion and yours mate! :D
But that's not true J !

Hopkins hasn't been the UNIFIED champ for ages... He first fought for the Vacant IBF belt and captured it at the beginning of 1995'... But then stayed with the same belt untill 2001' (And in that time he fought a few same guy's over and over)... 2001' is when he fought Trinidad. It was only at this point he became the UNIFIED champ. After then, instead of capitalising on his success he went on to fight Carl Daniels, Morrade Hakkar, William "shot to pieces" Joppy, Robert Allen, untill he 2nd career defining fight came along: - A guy that 1st won a World title belt at super-featherweight, I can't say anymore than that.

That's why I got pissed off with all this 19th, 20th, defense of the UNIFIED middleweight championship... I always used to say, "NO! That's the 20th defense of his IBF belt, not the middleweight belt as he'll try to make everyone believe!"

I'm not a fan of Bernard Hopkins because I believe he's tried to pull the wool over people's eyes for so long now.

Anyway... In reply to your comment, "Hopkins has been UNIFIED champ, for along time"... But who did he fight when he WAS the unified champ?... Not particulary impressive...

If these two fight sometime this year i would go with
Nelson to pick up a ud and take Enzo to school.If they fight in
about a year or more from now Enzo may ko him,by then he
will have gained some more fight experience and allowed
Nelson to get that bit older and from what ive seen of Nelson
over the last few years his hunger for the big fights has seemed
to fade slightly day by day.He has been one of the better fighters the uk has produced over the last 10 years though.

I would not say better fighter of England I would say most overated champion who has fought nobodies. Nobody cares about Nelson and what he is going to do next. This guy talk and talked about unification, then retiremen now the on and off saga of Enzo. Whatever the money if it is more than £50k this guy shold be grateful. Because I cannot understand how they could pay him more.

5 YEARS IS A LONG ****ING TIME TO BE UNIFIED CHAMP I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY GUYS, the list of people who have managed that in boxing history is minimal level of oppositon being weak or not, give the man credit where its due.

lets put it this way Martin, hopkins has fought much better opponents than Calzaghe.

if he was british you would be all over him like a rash, strange you think Calzaghe, who is the biggest con artist in the sport, is great yet hopkins is a fraud come on man, take of the brit specs and look at it from a boxing fan's perspective.

calzaghe is the biggest fraud in world boxing. i hoep he gets his ****ing head knocked off cos im sick and tired of this con merchant talking it up and fighting the likes of Veit, pudwill, saleem, jiminez etc. these guys arent even european champ level.
at least hakkar eastman joppy etc are.

and dont blame waren either, calzaghe bottled his BIG fight with johnson twice, i know for a fact he made the most of his "injury". **** his personal problems who cares, do you think hopkins over the past ten years hasnt had problems but like a true pro he does the buinsess time and again, its laughable you support calzaghe but demean hopkins. Its a shame cos on other issues you are pretty spot on but we van agree to disgree but i do strongly disagree with you on this.

Fact remains calzaghe best win is a washed up chris eubank ten years ago.

blokes a **** in real life as well, a complete arrogant prick.

5 YEARS IS A LONG ****ING TIME TO BE UNIFIED CHAMP I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY GUYS, the list of people who have managed that in boxing history is minimal level of oppositon being weak or not, give the man credit where its due.

lets put it this way Martin, hopkins has fought much better opponents than Calzaghe.

if he was british you would be all over him like a rash, strange you think Calzaghe, who is the biggest con artist in the sport, is great yet hopkins is a fraud come on man, take of the brit specs and look at it from a boxing fan's perspective.

calzaghe is the biggest fraud in world boxing. i hoep he gets his ****ing head knocked off cos im sick and tired of this con merchant talking it up and fighting the likes of Veit, pudwill, saleem, jiminez etc. these guys arent even european champ level.
at least hakkar eastman joppy etc are.

and dont blame waren either, calzaghe bottled his BIG fight with johnson twice, i know for a fact he made the most of his "injury". **** his personal problems who cares, do you think hopkins over the past ten years hasnt had problems but like a true pro he does the buinsess time and again, its laughable you support calzaghe but demean hopkins. Its a shame cos on other issues you are pretty spot on but we van agree to disgree but i do strongly disagree with you on this.

Fact remains calzaghe best win is a washed up chris eubank ten years ago.

blokes a **** in real life as well, a complete arrogant prick.
I only reckon Hopkins was the unified champ for 4yrs because of boxing politics... During that time he fought Daniels, Hakker, William "shot to pieces" Joppy, poor old Robert Allen, and De La Hoya. For a unified champ thats extremely poor opposition.

I don't tend to pay much attention to what belts are being held by whom anymore... I believe these multiple belts are the secret key behind boxing corruption.

Barrera may not have held all the belts, but in the same time Hopkins was the "unified" champ, Barrera was fighting - Naseem Hamed, Enrique Sanchez, Erik Morales, Johnny Tapia, Kevin Kelley, Manny Pacquiao, Paulie Ayala, and Erik Morales AGAIN!.

You gotta admit the level of class the two fighters are mixing in is almost a different f**kin' sport... LOL!...

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Bernard Hopkins is a **** fighter or anything like that... I just think its funny the way the Americans have Bernard Hopkins on a pedestall, and they call him a Legend, because of these "belts"... And at exactly the same time Hopkins is around you've got guys like Barrera out there that probably won't be considered legends in the same way.

I actually don't think there's any difference between Calzaghe's and Hopkin's careers. So everything I've just said about Hopkins applies to Calzaghe too.

Don't worry about dissagreeing with me J !... This is a boxing forum, it would boring if everyone agreed with each other all the time. ;)

ha ha ha ha. Comparing that ****fagshe and Hopkins on the same breath. ha ha ha ha. One question who did that ***** ****fagshe has beaten that was a career defining win. None. He stuck his sorry ass fighting second rate opponents and bums to milk whatever he can get.

ha ha ha ha. Comparing that ****fagshe and Hopkins on the same breath. ha ha ha ha. One question who did that ***** ****fagshe has beaten that was a career defining win. None. He stuck his sorry ass fighting second rate opponents and bums to milk whatever he can get.

I'm 100% certain Calzaghe would butcher Hopkins, its a joke that anyone could think otherwise!! Be real Hopkins cant even handle Eastman or Taylor = :o

i thought this was about 1 fight a year but ill be a pundit and slag everyone else off fighter a year as in nelson bout time he showed some class and got ATLEAST 4 FIGHTS A YEAR VS WC OPPO!

MARTIN NO WORRIES BRO, WASNT FLAMING AT YOU, as you say we just dont see eye to eye on this one mate ;) :)

****fagshe will kill Hopkins, ha ha ha ha ha haah. If the Hypochondriac ****fagshe pussied out on Johnson, freaking Johnson, that Hypochondriac ***** will malinger himself out aginst Hopkins. ah ha ha haha much love :luvbed: :boxing:

Sliquestylez ha ha ha ha u pusssy, u wish u was a brit

Nelson-Cantatore in Italy!

Tuesday, August 23 2005

By Alessandro Ferrarini

The next WBO title defense of long reigning 200lb champ Johnny Nelson will take place in Italy, after all. A purse auction for Nelson's mandatory defense versus Vincenzo Cantatore was held minutes ago at the Stansted Airport in London, England, and Italy's Sport Promotions outbid Frank Warren's Sports Network, winning the right to stage the title bout. Nelson is one of the longest reigning champs in today's boxing, having won the WBO cruiser belt on March 27, 1999, stopping fellow Brit Carl Thompson. Since then, Nelson had 12 consecutive successful defenses - the last two being on foreign soil in Germany. Cantatore is a former European champ and already challenged once for world honors, losing in ten rounds to then-WBC champ Wayne Braithwaite. With a pro ledger of 30-3-1 (27 KOs) the Italian contender has a "puncher's chance" versus anybody, but the slicker Nelson won't be scared, even fighting in Cantatore's backyard. In fact, Sport Promotions plan to stage the clash in Cantatore's hometown of Rome, Italy, on November 19. The winning bid was 160,000 US $, with Sports Network coming up short at 155,000. (special thanks to WBO exec Edoardo Ceccoli)

"The winning bid was 160,000 US $, with Sports Network coming up short at 155,000".

LOL!... Poor old Johnny! The company he's gotta contract with to promote him got out-bidded... LOL!...

Mind you, some of his shows have totally stunk the joint out, and I do know it's this reason that makes Frank Warren pissed off with him. I remember Frank Warren looking extremely embarrassed in Denmark when Johnny Nelson got into a stalemate of neither fighter wanting to throw the 1st punch!... LOL!...

At the end of the 2nd Warren got up from his seat, went over to Johnny's corner and started having a go at him shouting, "Are you gonna ****in' fight this evening!?!" Johnny Nelson and his corner were saying, "This is our fight strategy!"...

Frank Warren did look embarrassed... LOL!...

I hate Nelson's lack of ambition. I know he's 38, but you'd think he'd want to do more than wait around until he's forced into his WBO mandatories. He should be chasing Mormeck or Bell, not cleaning up the rest of the mediocre European Cruiserweights.

Maccaranelli is an okay fight, so is a showdown with the winner of Haye-Hobson - but these guys are really at opposite ends of their careers - Nelson should be looking for a final big title fight to see how much he could really achieve.