Michael Nunn vs Bernard Hopkins

Nunn styles on him. Horrendous stylistic match up for a workman like technician such as Hopkins.

 

Hopkins, Nunn is overrated as talented as he is

 

Agreed. Hopkins ring intelligence and superior determination carry the day. It may not be pretty but Hopkins would be effective. Whatever adjustments he needed to make he would do it.

 

If he fought an absolute prime Nunn he isn't going to do anything but follow Nunn around and get out pointed.
Nunn last prime performance was vs Kalambay. After Kalambay Nunn ceased to really train as he once did.
Knocking out Kalambay actually backfired on Nunn because none of the legends at the time wanted anything to do with him which frustrated Nunn.
It was known that Nunn begun to cut corners and it frustrated his management at the time (Goosens) who even tried to have someone sit down and reason with Nunn but it didn't do any good.
Now Toney beat Nunn fair but I remember watching the fight and Nunn would look good only in spots and never really used his lateral movement.
And Nunn was still winning the fight going into the 11th round even with that performance.

 

Hopkins is a better technically sound fighter than Nunn. But Michael could pose some big problems for him. He was very fast at 160. And while they were both 6’1”, I think nunn had a little more arm reach. I think this goes the distance and I wouldn’t be surprised with either man getting a close decision

 

Your saying Nunn lost some hunger and desire after Kalambay? That knockout was so sensational it created unrealistic expectations for Nunn. I remember Nunn fighting Barkley and getting hit more than i expected him to. Nunn certainly poses a difficult picture for any middleweight.

In my view Hopkins at his middleweight best had good speed, size 6ft. He was physical but also versatile enough to break through Michael's comfort zone. One of the smarter fighters that have come along in the last 30 years.
Ray Arcel described it as 'mental energy'. The ability to think on your feet and find an opponent weakness.

 

Of course, anybody can make all sort of claims. A lot of speculation but the best we have is Hopkins record.

Based on his record, when you get thoroughly dominated by a still green Roy Jones, chances are you will lose to a prime Nunn. the opponent closest to Nunn is Jones on the record. certainly Hopkins never beat anybody as good as Nunn at 160.

 

Actually Hopkins won about 4 rounds vs Jones which was better than anyone else managed to do for years. He made Roy look ordinary which also wasnt easy to do.

Hopkins had 20 title defenses on his record so there's that. He didnt duck anyone that im aware of. Ofcourse he moved up and had even more success taking out bigger name guys like Pavlik and Tarver in dominant fashion

 

When Michael first started boxing you could hardly hit him and he was so good that he simply altered his style to become more of a draw.
Now he first did this vs Knox and he looked very sloppy but he got the stoppage.
The problem is none of the big names wanted to face a 6'3 southpaw who had blazing speed so Nunn kind of got frozen out of the bigger fights.
If you think Hopkins had problems with Roy Jones movement Nunn was on a different level with foot speed- some of his early fights I swear he never got hit clean more then 3 times in 10 rounds.
But people do not want to see that and I think it lead to Nunn being in a no win situation- labeled too boring for the big fights.
Nunn had problems with training in the amateurs and it was well known he cut corners.
The Gossens got him right for the pros and coming up he was always in the gym even after winning the title.
But what happened was nobody could secure a big fight for Nunn no matter how well he did and this got Nunn frustrated.
So he is criticized for being boring and in his biggest fight knocks Kalambay out in 1 round in a sensational manner.
That win was suppose to open up all the avenues for bigger fights but what happened?
He got Barkley. Then Starling. Then Curry. These are not big fights and if you watch the Curry fight Nunn is literally going through the motions.
By the time of the Toney bout Mike while still a very good fighter had lost interest in boxing and was not even close to the boxer that embarrassed Frank Tate or wreaked Kalambay.

 

He wanted Leonard. Ray wasn't gonna go that route.

 

Yeh only cause Jones took his foot of the gas in the later rounds. It was still a thorough domination by a green Roy Jones.

He did make 20 defenses but beat nobody as good as Nunn. Actually Hopkins record at 160 is not that impressive. More quantity than quality.

 

I like Nunn in this one. Long reach and speedy hands makes it awkward for X.