Could a prime Michael Nunn be able to beat Roy Jones Jr at Middleweight?

Considering Jones had stylistic issues with inferior southpaws like De Valle even in his prime, then he would have issues here as well. I honestly think these two would be too wary of each other stylistically and would put on a stinker imo.

 

Great post. You should have seen Nunn on the way up before he tinkered with his style in order to be more fan friendly. Boxers could not even hit him at times he was soooo slick.
Kevin Watts was a pretty soild contender who gave many boxers much trouble and against Nunn he looked like an amateur swinging at air.
I always thought his bout vs Kronk boxer Knox that Nunn looked awful trying to be the aggressor and was very sloppy at times.

 

Thanks Cobra. It's been a long while since i have seen it but i seem to remember being pretty impressed with Nunn against Roldan. He was rough, aggressive, strong and quite powerful as well as being unorthodox. I could be remembering wrong but I'm thinking Nunn was pretty solid given what he was facing.

I think if Nunn had stayed on a really straight and true path both in the ring and outside it he could have had a notably better career.

 

Historically Roy had more trouble with guy's that pressed him or roughed him up.
This isn't Nunn.
Whilst I see Nunn winning the first few rounds I think Jones would soon slide into control.
Look for Roy to KO him late on.

 

Tough fight for RJJ. But i think he manages to win a close decision.

 

No but he'd give Jones one of his toughest fights.

 

If Stevie Little and Victor Cordoba are giving you all you can handle, better lay off thoughts of facing Roy.

 

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Yes he could. At 160, this is a 50-50 fight. At 160, Jones was still a bit green and Nunn ws at his best. At 168 Jones wins comfortably.

 

As much as a,fan of Nunn that I am I feel Roy never gets any credit for having a high boxing IQ and I actually think Roy would figure Nunn out and then stop him as much as that pains me to say.
And most of you are also overlooking the fact that Roy actually crushed some other southpaws.

 

Good post mate.

 

Nunn was undoubtedly an extremely talented fighter but Roy below 175 lbs was truly something else.

I don't think people really appreciate how Roy was viewed at his mercurial best. I genuinely thought that he could rival Robbi if he could keep the activity high and destroy the greats of his era when he embarrassed Toney.

Recently, seems like people want to repurpose his career like he was Amir Khan or had his chin untested in over 10 years of world level boxing.

Roy's ability to read his opponent's punch and out twitch them with his own speed and shocking power was unrivalled. He has every punch he needs to trouble Nunn, massive left hook and laser like accurate straight right. He is faster of foot and whilst not as necessarily slick with his movement is more explosive.

The best Nunn would pose questions but I see it going a similar way to the B-Hop fight. Despite the fundamentals, Nunn would find Roy to be too difficult a puzzle to solve first time around.

 

Of you listen to Roy when he did HBO commentary he would call certain things BEFORE they happened and he was extremely insightful.
People act like all he had was speed when he had much more then that.

 

It's the same for Ali and to a degree, earlier Naz - just cos others couldn't do it, doesn't mean they were lucky or just physically gifted.

If Roy retired after he came back down and beat Tarver, there would have been no room for PBF to talk about being the best ever.

The very best of Roy was at least equal to Leonard at his best.

 

I just think stylistically John RJJ did show a few weaknesses against tall rangy Southpaws that makes me believe Nunn would be a very tricky opponent for him.

Agreed Nunn's performance over Tate maybe a tad overstated because Tate is not an upper echelon fighter. But Nunn was in very good form in the late 80s stopping the tough Curtis Parker early, aswell as beating Roldan alot easier than Hearns did. And of course the shocking victory over Kalambay.

That is quite an impressive run.

I do agree with you that Nunn would befuddle and outbox McCallum I think he's a bad style match up for McCallum aswell.

Yeah I'm not sure what happened to Nunn in the 90s after being highly impressive in the late 80s he went a bit stale vs Barkley, Starling.

I also agree that Nunn is considered to be very good and maybe low tier great but nothing more than that.

I do think with his talent he could've maybe achieved a bit more than a low tier great but he had issues outside the ring as we all know.

All in all would I favour RJJ to win ? Probably but its not a fight I'd like a bet on.