Wisconsin's Andrea Nelson
to Stage Boxing Comeback
By WBAN's Correspondent Bill Harris
February 5, 2003

DODGEVILLE, Wisc., (Feb. 5) --After nearly 15 months of "retirement" from boxing and 19 months after her last fight, Andrea Nelson, one of Wisconsin’s very few legitimate professional boxers and maybe the only one, is coming out of retirement to box March 28 in a Janesville pro/am event. Her opponent is yet to be signed.

Nelson fought to a draw in early June, 2001, when she met Gloria Ramirez. She was scheduled to box Maureen (Henry) Brandy in July of that year but suffered injuries in training and did not take another match. She told WBAN back in September, 2001, that she was feeling better and hoped to box that fall. She had planned to go to Puerto Rico and be on a card featuring Eric Morel, her World Boxing Association world champion flyweight gym mate from Ford’s Gym in Madison, close to Nelson’s Dodgeville home. However during training she suffered severe back
problems diagnosed as a herniated disk. That injury compounded itself affecting both of the lightweight’s knees causing severe pain and making training a hardship as well as bringing discouraging words from doctors.

The Janesville program will be a pro/am event promoted jointly by Gary Pliner of Gust Boxing Club, Janesville, and Bob Lynch, boxing coach with Ford’s Gym, Madison. Morel will be the headliner although the match will not be for his title belt.

Nelson keeps herself in spectacular shape and is driven to work out stay fit to box on a moment’s notice. She continued to train despite the considerable pain. Her love for boxing kept her going, she told WBAN during those days. The match with Henry/Brandy was canceled when
Henry withdrew with no certain reason given. During some intense sparring with her gym mate, Morel, she took a rap to the face and lost a tooth. This, too, gave her considerable trouble and in November she reluctantly decided to end her boxing career. She explained she had overtrained and she felt that her age -- 36 then -- was against her. She spoke of her yearning to continue but her health just wouldn’t permit it. She ended boxing with a 8-0-1 record.

Nelson started rehabilitative therapy for her back and knees and reported it seemed to be helping a lot but then her back went bad again and with the loss of the tooth, a painful experience which took a lot of trouble to get fixed, she finally decided to give up boxing. "I love this sport,"
she told WBAN at that time. "I miss the idea of not fighting. I wish I had gotten into the game 10 years earlier." Her decision to quit was supported by her trainer at Ford’s Gym, Lynch, who said she had made a good decision.

Nelson explained then that she would continue her rehabilitation work and planned to help train martial artists at Ford. She had played martial arts before starting boxing but in 1998 she entered the Wisconsin Golden Gloves where she boxed Bridget Benjamin another amateur to whom she lost. Nelson faced Benjamin a time or two more as an amateur in Wisconsin and lost. Yet when both women went to the pro ranks Benjamin never beat her again although the two were popular boxers in Wisconsin.

Nelson said her therapy had worked so well she decided to get back training for boxing this past September. As is typical with her, she dedicated herself to getting back in fighting shape. Her sparring mates are Morel and Jose Ortiz, both of whom train at Ford’s along with a few other
aspiring boxing enthusiasts. As for sparring with the men, she said, laughing some, that there just weren’t any female boxers at the gym that were up to her standards. She told WBAN that this time around she really wants to test herself as a boxer and see what she can do in the sport.

Maybe Andrea Nelson will have a chance to make the mark in women’s boxing that she set for herself five years ago at the Wisconsin Golden Gloves. At 38 it’s a tall order but with the right matchmaking you never know with this dedicated and driven woman boxer.