Saw him in some good fights back in the day on both the winning and losing end. I was kinda stunned when I saw him get outboxed by Lindell Holmes on regular tv. Tate won the Olympic gold. Beat some decent guys in the pros and briefly held the IBF middleweight title . But for some reason I always thought that he was better than what he produced.
One of those undefeated guys that just don't handle a loss well. They seem to lose like 25% or more of their effectiveness and we do see fighters like this. Some guys can handle a defeat and comeback and improve and some guys do not.
I agree. He certainly seemed like he was the goods. Beat all the usual suspects at middleweight on the way up - Michael Olajide, Curtis Parker, Kevin "Killer" Watts, Troy Darrell and knocked off Tony Sibson. He'd beaten everyone was an amateur Michael Nunn (twice), Ron Essett multiple times, Reggie Johnson, Dennis Milton, John David Jackson. So it was kind of a shock he lost to Nunn in a title defense, and even more of a shock when he moved up and lost to Lindell Holmes, too. I thought he was going to get it together when he beat Andrew Maynard. But the losses to Virgil Hill (his Olympic teammate) sort of ruined him. I always thought he should've been more than he became, too. Still do.
He was one of these guys where you could actually see the potential when he was in action but for whatever reason it never seemed to fully flourish
Was seen as the next big thing at middle weight for while. Then Nunn put on that master class and Tate was never the same
Michael Nunn, at that particular time, might have been, stylistically the most difficult middleweight champ ever. 6'2" southpaw jumping bean with a decent dig? What's not to hate about having to face that. In 89 Herbert Goldman of Boxing Illustrated ranked him 10th greatest middleweight ever. Of course, history shows that, and my suggestion, to be a bit ridiculous. But at the time it looked like Nunn was untouchable if only because of his height and stance. It was a package never seen before.
Nunn was looking pretty indestructible at that time. The knockout he delivered to Sumbu Kalambay has lingered on in my mind even to this day
The pro game is just a different animal. Nunn's footwork completely baffled Tate. Who expected Marlon Starling to TKO Mark Breland?
