The Battle of Bettondorf: Nunn vs Toney

I was in college around 89 and in one of my notebooks, I wrote "Michael Nunn. Watch for him!" I really thought he was going to something big. Nothing won me over as much as speed and he had plenty. This fight was a surprise.

 

I remember following Nunn from very early in his career, maybe his 4th, 5th fight. There were some questions about his chin, raised when he got dropped hard by Carl Jones in a fight where he won every round other than when he went down. He fought cautiously for a spell; I think the Darnell Knox fight is when he got back to himself, if my memory is correct.

 

An excellent analysis! I'm definitely going to check out some of your other posts! You also looked at Toney vs Jirov on your youtube channel. What is your favourite performance of his?

 

Sometime's I don't get the knocks on the career and accomplishments of Nunn. He didn't seem to under perform to his potential as much as he ran into another elite, top tier fighter who was also in their prime when his was quickly getting away from his own... It's not like he has a particularly weak resume or went out of his way to avoid challenges. He also remained a skilled, capable operator while rising in weight, which seems to be all the rage in modern boxing.

 

I remember seeing that Carl Jones knockdown and it was something. I believe Nunn was against the ropes and went straight down like he was shot. He regrouped to win but that had to have given his corner a heart attack. I too thought of him as chinny after that.

 

Another masterful performance. I haven't seen it in a while. Are you still planning on uploading any more youtube fights escudo? I really enjoyed them.

 

James Toney was a relatively unknown at the time and nobody knew how
talented he was like ( Azumah Nelson in his loss to Salvador Sanchez ).
Nunn was looked as a potential great at the time . But a personal demons
and problems outside the ring meant it was never fulfilled.

 

Masterful performance by Toney.

Masterful breakdown of this legendary fight by escudo.

Seems strange that such a special fighter didn't attract more recognition considering the boxing world is pretty small and James is from Michigan and trained at the Kronk gym. I'd have assumed he was a blue chip prospect earmarked for greatness but those odds (20/1 ) obviously don't reflect that. Quite the meteoric rise from this point on though and he certainly wasn't underestimated again, wasn't he the betting favourite against Roy?

 

Scored this fight some time back. This is how I saw it for what it's worth.

Round 1: 10-9 Toney
Round 2: 10-9 Nunn
Round 3: 10-10 Even
Round 4: 10-9 Nunn
Round 5: 10-9 Nunn
Round 6: 10-9 Nunn
Round 7: 10-9 Nunn
Round 8: 10-10 Even
Round 9: 10-9 Toney
Round 10: 10-9 Nunn
Round 11: TKO for Toney

Total: 98-94 Nunn through 10 completed rounds. You have to zone out on Dan Goosen at ringside a bit because I believe he had parted ways with Nunn by this time and more times than not when Toney landed he stated that Nunn was hurt. I do think he was very shaky at the end of the 10th though, despite the fact that I gave Nunn the round. I thought he had done so much work earlier in the round that I couldn't forget it. I think the worst thing that happened to Nunn was KOing Kalambay in the first round. He seemed to think he was a slugger after that. Dundee tried everything to get him moving but he stayed in close too much. Interesting fight.

 

Nunn at his best beats Toney. Had Nunn boxed and moved he wins and rather easy.
Nunn attempted to change his style to attract viewers and it backfired.