Nelson Decisions Drexel In Four – by Bill Harris

Andrea Nelson of Dodgeville, Wisc., pounded out a unanimous decision over a fired up Brenda Bell Drexel of San Marcos, Tex., Saturday, Aug. 5, in their four-round lightweight bout, a preliminary to a KO Nation boxing program aired over HBO from Madison, Wisc. The women’s bout and the other three men’s matches were not broadcast by the television network.

Nelson advanced her professional record to 4-0 on the unanimous decision while Drexel slipped to 4-6-1. The lightweight women’s bout was well fought and counted as one of the better fights on the undercard for the two featured title fights.

One of those fights saw Eric Morel of Madison, Wisc., wrest the WBA world flyweight championship from Sornpichai Pisnurachank, Thailand, in an emotional match before a fiercely partisan hometown crowd at the Alliant Energy Center.

Nelson, 133, 3-0, met a determined Drexel, 135, 4-5-1, from the opening bell. The Texan had come to fight and the two had several splendid toe to toe exchanges through the course of the battle. Nelson was up to the task carrying the day against a more experienced boxer with six more pro fights than the hometown mother of two. Nelson swept the judging achieving two 40 -37 scores and a 39 – 37 for the unanimous decision. Neither woman was floored despite numerous power shots over the course of the fight. The bout was highlighted by spirited exchanges as the women forced the battle to the cheers of the crowd that was reported to be 2,750.

In Round One Drexel set the pace for the bout as she charged into a well prepared and eager Nelson who met the attack with some telling body blows. Drexel took the punishment well and returned left and rights in a somewhat wild manner compared with Nelson’s more accurate punching to the head. A slight swelling over the left eye of Nelson got attention in the corner.

Round Two saw Drexel off to a good start rocking Nelson with a great left to the face. Nelson returned punch for punch and regularly turned back Drexel’s charge with both head and body punches. Both stood and exchanged blows several times in this round. Drexel held Nelson and punched but the referee ignored the infraction.

Round Three saw more holding and hitting by Drexel as she tried to control the fight at the opening but Nelson was up for it and tagged her opponent with repeated shots to the head and face. Both exchanged punches frequently throughout the round to the crowd’s approval.

Round Four saw Drexel charge Nelson only to be met with stinging rights and an almost continuous left jab from Nelson as she nailed Drexel several times. Drexel was somewhat wild in her attack missing opportunities but she felt Nelson’s power and accuracy. The two stood toe to toe near the end of the round winging hard shots to face and head as the crowd cheered the fighters on. Nelson boasted an accurate jab and despite being banged a number of times came in hard and forced Drexel back with head and body punching.

At the conclusion, a vigorous exchange of punching by both women, there were wild cheers and applause as the crowd showed its appreciation of a good fight.

Referee Monte Oswald raised Nelson’s hand high as the announcer reads the two 40 – 37’s and the 39 – 37 marks by the judges.

Neither boxer was down in the fight and aside from Nelson’s swelling over her left eye and Drexel breathing through the mouth neither showed any serious wear from the spirited fight, easily one of the best of the four preliminary bouts.

Fight report by Bill Harris (Harris was one of WBAN’s Top writer in 2000 who is now deceased)