Michael Chaise Nelson is hoping to prove he hasn’t lost a step after breaking both his hands in a sanctioned bareknuckle fight in January.
Nelson, of Mansfield, Ohio, faces Nicaragua’s Alexander Espinoza in an eight-round junior lightweight bout Friday night at Club Hefe in Houston.
Nelson, who is 21-3-1 (8 KOs), as a professional boxer, defeated Nate Williams in his bareknuckle debut in January. The fight came about when Nelson decided to follow the lead of a lifelong friend, Julian Lane, who is a titleholder in bareknuckle.
“I had been watching him do it for a while, and I just wanted to try one time,” Nelson, 27, told BoxingScene. “He never breaks his hands, so it wasn’t something I was concerned about. Then, of course, I go in there and broke both.”
It has been nine months since the injury took place. Nelson last fought in September 2024, losing a unanimous decision to Miguel Flores.
“I had surgery on my right hand, and my left one healed by itself,” Nelson said. “When I got back to the gym, I did buy a pair of 16oz Winning gloves, so I was wearing bigger gloves.”
He slowly worked his way down to smaller gloves. Fight night will be the first true test since the break. Espinoza will enter with two losses in a row, one of which was to Omar Trinidad. Espinoza, 32, will fight for the fourth time in 2025.
“I think he comes to fight, but his opponents come to win,” Nelson said. “There is a fine line between wanting to last all eight rounds and wanting to win all eight rounds.”
Nelson is a police officer in Mansfield. He has served the community for the past two years.
“The reason why I have a good job like I do is because I never want to be one of these fighters who have to take last-minute fights and depend on the money in boxing,” Nelson said. “Unfortunately, we deal with a lot of sharks in this sport, and they depend on fighters who need little paydays here and there.”
Nelson believes this fight will show the world that he hasn’t lost anything.
“I am ready to show I haven’t lost a step,” Nelson said. “I am actually better than before. With this hand injury, you have to learn patience.”
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
