Ghanaian boxing legend Azumah Nelson recently expressed his appreciation to former President Jerry John Rawlings for the support he received from him early on in his career

According to him, his extreme closeness to President Rawlings dates back to the early stages of his boxing career when he was an amateur.

The first President of Ghana's Fourth Republic died on Thursday at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

The demise of the enigmatic former Head of State sent shockwaves across the world, with tributes and eulogies pouring in.

Azumah Nelson, in an interview on Citi TV's Face to Face with Godfred Akoto, recounted how the former President supported him and other amateur boxers decades ago just to ensure that they excelled in their chosen sport.

The three-time World Boxing champion said when he was an amateur boxer, then-President Rawlings was so intent on helping the boxes thrive, to the extent that "he would sweep the place for us after our training"

He recalled how the Former President brought him food during training.

Azumah Nelson went on to say that he became friends with President Rawlings after those kind gestures.

"When I was amateur, he was taking care of us, and we were supposed to go to World Olympic games, there was one guy in the military who was American and he was always beating his opponents, he always took the Gold. But Rawlings realized I could beat that guy"

"Rawlings came around when we trained at Volunteer force, he comes there every day, sometimes when we finished training, he will sweep the place for us, he didn't want us to do anything. He will clean all the rooms. He would then bring food for us, beans and other things. Since then we became friends"