Champion boxer inducted into Hall of Fame

ADAM KAMIEN

AUSTRALIAN boxing paid tribute to the glittering career of champion Henry Nissen with his induction into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame at the MCG earlier this month.

Nissen’s induction came after three official nominations, and he was feted by the legendary Jeff Fenech at the gala event.

Nissen said the honour was equal to that of receiving his Order of Australia Medal in 2002.

“I was so happy,” Nissen told The AJN. “It was a wonderful, beautiful night. People were coming up to me asking for my autograph, the girls were kissing me and the guys were shaking my hand … it was just such a phenomenal night. It all makes you feel very humble, very special and very happy.

“Jeff Fenech said wonderful things about me and they tell me I got the biggest cheer when I went up, so obviously I’m a warm crowd favourite,” Nissen joked.

After a self-confessed mediocre amateur career -— Nissen maintains his identical twin brother Leon was a better amateur -— Nissen captured the flyweight commonwealth belt and was offered a shot at the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) world title soon after.

Believing he wasn’t ready, Nissen turned the fight down and shot up the contender rankings from 10 to 3, at which point the incumbent decided it wasn’t a risk he wanted to take.

Nissen never got another opportunity and it is a decision he still regrets today.

“I knocked it back because I thought ‘I’m not a shmuck, they’ll knock me off on my way up and I’ll never get another chance, I’ll be finished’. The shmuck that I was, I blew my opportunity.”

Nissen grew up in “various children’s homes” because his mother was sick and his father worked constantly. He began boxing after being beaten up at school and then falling in with a gang as a teenager.

It was this tough upbringing that inspired him to mentor street kids for the past 30 years.

Since his social work has been mostly unpaid, Nissen works on the docks as a stevedore to supplement his income.

“Feeling a failure in life and then getting bashed up at school, and being very scared of life … I was a very insecure young man. I didn’t know what the future was going to hold and nothing was good in my life,” Nissen recalled.

But boxing changed all that, and while Nissen concedes there have been hard times since, he takes nothing for granted.

“We’re not wealthy, but we’re wealthy in spirit and experience. We’ve been desperate at times too, but we’ve always got through. Something’s always come up,” he said.

“I’ve been a very fortunate person to have the hard knocks and wonderful successes in my life to help formulate my thinking and help make life a nicer place to live. While there is life there is hope, no matter how hopeless it seems. And that’s why I live in service to humanity.”