ABSTRACT
By all accounts it was a tranquil affair. The third fight between boxing legends Azumah Nelson, 49 years old, and Jeff Fenech, 44 years old, was held in June 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. After ten rounds of lackluster action, Fenech won a close decision in a fight that most observers saw as meaningless. The pair first met in 1991, for Nelson’s World Boxing Council Super Featherweight championship. The bout was hotly contested and was controversially scored a draw. Many observers felt that Fenech had held the day. The second fight was contested in 1992, in Fenech’s native Australia. Nelson dominated the second fight, knocking Fenech down numerous times and finally out in the eighth round. Azumah Nelson was known as “the terrible warrior” in his early fighting days, and known as “the professor” in the latter days of his career, as he would literally teach his opponents new tricks while beating them in the ring. Azumah Nelson is arguably the greatest professional boxer that the continent of Africa has ever produced. What many of the observers of the third fight failed to realize was that there was a purpose to the contest between two aged fighters clearly past their fighting primes. Back home in his native Ghana, the Azumah Nelson Foundation was launched so that the national hero of Ghana could give back to the people who so adored him during his pugilistic career. The primary aim of the foundation is to provide social services to the poor and needy in Ghana through the use of sports and education (Modern Ghana News, 2008). The following case discusses issues surrounding the hypothetical expansion of the Azumah Nelson Foundation (AZNEF, 2007) to include the creation of a microfinance institute under the direction of the foundation.
