...for the first time (besides getting KO'd by Toney..) Good grief what an amazing fighter.. My coach used to always tell me this, and I was too wrapped up in other fighters I was watching more at the time to check him out (+ only being familiar with him based on the Toney KO).
Nunn from the Frank Tate fight was his peak performance. An absolute astounding fighter when fully locked in. Very slick and gifted fighter all around. Prime Nunn came around in the late 80s. At that time I would have have favored him to beat Duran, Hearns, Leonard, Hagler, McCallum, Jackson. That’s how good Nunn was. I would have loved to have seen him take on a young Roy Jones Jr or Bernard Hopkins as well.
Nunn was excellent technically, especially at middleweight; he was one of the best of his era, but I find people either overrate him or underrate him. He looked average when he moved up to super middleweight, lost to some pretty mid-level opposition. I don't think any version of him beats Leonard, Hagler, or McCallum, but he has some incredible wins, too. A great fighter who had an excellent career.
From when Michael Nunn beat the tough Curtis Parker in 2 rounds and then had very good wins over Frank Tate, Juan Roldan, Sumbu Kalambay, he would've been a handle for any Middleweight in history. For some reason after the spectacular 1st round KO of Kalambay he seemed to go a bit flat vs Barkley, Starling. And i don't think he ever quite rediscovered the form he had in the fights I mentioned above.
He's a bit so-so imo: The trifecta composed by his matches with Starling, Curry and Barkley bouts are snoozefests yet you got him icing Kalambay, the bouts with Roldan and Tate that are just so entertaining and pleasant to watch.
Did you watch the Toney fight? Neither were willing to engage lots of posing etc. it was a super boring fight. Basically the same for the first Hopkins fight as well. Crowd was booing at several points in that stinker. Roy had no Chin. None.