Punched to pieces. A young Liles, Czyz, Kinchen et al. They just so happen to be Roberto Duran and Nigel Benn..... not Yusef Mack, Andre Dirrell or George Groves. We can all play word games if we wish.
Watson or Littles definitely aren't in the same stratosphere in terms of talent as Nunn, Hearns and McCallum. Whatever you think of their talent, Kessler and Froch won real fights. Not fantasy match-ups on this forum, but actual fights that gave them actual titles.
Life and death with novices and basketball players in Pascal and Dirrell, life and death with novice Groves. He was great to take so much punishment, but wasn't really all that good, was he
It's no word of games to say that Barkley was the only ranked fighter above 154 that Duran beat. Or that he was the only ranked fighter that Benn KO'd in the first.
Showtime had Julian Jackson #2 on their lb4lb list going into 93, only Chavez being in front of him. McClellan, who Steward stated was the most talented fighter he ever worked with, beat him in a round. He fought Benn in his next fight. Do you think Carl Froch would lay a glove on Michael Nunn in 1989? Literally land one punch? Be honest.
Well Pascal and Dirrell are much better than the likes of Ray Close and Dan Schommer who your beloved Eubank went life and death with.
Ray Close was a very, very light puncher so it was hardly life and death. He out worked him when Eubank posed. And the Schommer fight was the slowest paced fight we'll ever see. So hardly life and death when hardly any punches were thrown. We don't know how good Close and Schommer were because Close failed brain scans after and Schommer never fought again either. They held wins over Virgil Hill (Schommer) and Dariusz Michalczewski (Close) in the amateurs. They both looked very accomplished boxers.
To be absolutely honest with you, I think he beats Nunn. Curry and Starling both won rds against Nunn the very next year. Certainly "laid a glove on him". Nunn gets some mythical status for two wins and then every lackluster performance is excused in the usual fashion. Again, it's what a fighter actually did in the ing that counts, not what you would like to think he could have done "if only...".
I actually enjoy doing this. My favourite fight to score is Klitschko vs Hide. I always have Hide winning a shutout up to the start of round 2.
Nunn was a tremendous fighter. On another planet to Carl in terms of skills. But he wasn’t the same force at SMW.
I didn't have Duran winning more than a maximum of 5 rds (if being generous). So the very best I could have done for him would have been losing 5-7 at that stage. Which doesn't mean anything, since Hagler's game plan was for 15. If it only was 12, he would have put that extra gear in earlier and won by a similar margin. Why don't don't you just for a second focus on what a fighter actually did accomplish? Duran lost to Simms and he got almost shut out by a past prime Leonard shortly after beating Barkley. He was maybe the best LW ever and a superb WW but nothing special above 154.
Carl Froch is not Curry or Starling!! Jheez. Two of the sports lb4lb very best in its most stacked era coming up with their speed, blimey. Carl Froch? ****ing hell.