Nelson’s comeback short, but a success at Madison Square Garden

June 8, 2014 at 12:05a.m.

It turns out there wasn’t much ring rust for Youngstown boxer Willie Nelson to worry about. It’s a good thing, because he didn’t give himself much time to knock off any rust that might have accumulated.

Fighting for the first tine since last June, Nelson dispatched Darryl Cunningham in a first-round TKO Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. The junior middleweight bout was part of the undercard of the middleweight title fight between Sergio Martinez and Miguel Cotto on HBO pay-per-view.

“Willie was really ready. I don’t think this guy was on our level, but Willie’s been out for a year and it is what we needed,” said Nelson’s trainer, Jack Loew of the South Side Boxing Club in Youngstown. “We needed to get the rust off but he showed no rust at all, Willie totally dominated him.”

According to BoxingScene.com, Nelson dropped Cunningham (29-7, 11KOs) with a right hand midway through the round. The bout was waved off 2:43 into the round after a second knockdown.

Nelson (22-1-1, 13KOs) had elbow surgery just after Thanksgiving, wiping out a fight scheduled for Dec. 7. He then had some other potential opportunities that fell through in 2014.

Those missed opportunities have resulted in a change in Nelson’s camp. Loew confirmed Saturday that Nelson has signed with manager Cameron Dunkin.

“We are not breaking from our promoter (Lou DiBella),” Loew said. “We’re just adding a manager in Dunkin.”

Nelson was fighting without a manager previously. The 27-year-old is from Cleveland but now fights out of Loew’s South Side Boxing Club. He has won six fights in a row since a loss in 2011 to Vincent Arroyo at welterweight.

Regarding his potential next fight, Loew said HBO has shown an interest.

“I talked to Peter Nelson of HBO and he loves Willie,” Loew said. “He said they would like to put him on HBO, probably in September or October. There is no talk of opponents yet. It depends on what opens up. But it should be much more significant than this fight.”