Thomas Hearns (Shuler fight) vs Michael Nunn (Tate fight)

I think Sumbu had some vulnerability to southpaws. He stepped right into the pocket vs Nunn with his lead foot inside Nunn’s left lead foot — straight into the wheelhouse with a big target on his chin — he actually did it a little bit before and you can see Nunn not quite pull the trigger so he was waiting on it when it happened again. This wasn’t just a lightning bolt out of the blue, it was a clear tactical error.

In the immortal words of Randall Cobb, “You make a mistake in tennis and it’s 15-love. You make a mistake in boxing and it’s your ass, darlin’.”

This was a baseball hitter sitting on a fastball waist-high down the middle, ready to swing for the fences because he knows it’s coming.

Sumbu made the same error throughout the Ayub Kalule fight. He got nailed clean a few times but mostly he was fighting off the back foot and moving away so not coming into the force of the punch. In the latter half of the 12th round he took a more aggressive stance and walked right into a straight left on the button and went down — and Ayub was a natural junior middle moved up to 160 and neither a big nor sharp puncher … Nunn was a sharp puncher and Kalumbay presented him a golden opportunity of which he took full advantage.

As for Hearns of Shuler, it’s hard to say. Thomas was, as always, a devastating puncher but may have been just as vulnerable as he was against, say, Barkley … only Shuler wasn’t the guy who could wade through the big punches and wing his own haymakers like Iran to find the equalizer.

Everybody looks great in a one-round blowout, but we don’t know if Hearns’ legs would have betrayed him had that fight gone longer rounds with meaningful exchanges (i.e. Kinchen) that surely would happen somewhere along the way with Nunn.

 

Been back and forth on this one and honestly I see this as a 50/50 fight. Hearns can win this either by decision or knockout since he was hard to outbox and obviously has the power to win by stoppage but Nunn's boxing skills and power isn't something to overlook. Nunn's slippery style, well rounded skills and sharp punches can give Hearns a very tough night.

Flip a coin and there would be no wrong answer here.

 

I think Nunn stops him after a several shaky moments. I never thought middleweight was the best fit for Tommy….i liked him at light middle and light heavy more. Nunn was tremendous when he fought Tate..he seemed to have more gears.
Regardless, I’d love to have seen it.

 

Hearns speed, precision and power wins the day. I think he still had enough left at this point. Nunn burst onto the scene and had quite a few twitchy after pole axing Kalambay but people went lukewarm on him not many fights later after it was shown to be an anomaly. Steward was one of them.

 

Hearns is perhaps my favorite fighter, ever. Big fan of Lewis too. The rest i can take or leave.