Do you think Nunn's first round KO ruined Kalambay's chances to become more recognized to the public? Kalambay fought mostly in his hometown, so when he finally faced a top opponent in the US he gets blown out in a round. I think had he won or at least gave Nunn a tough fight he would have at least had more opportunities to fight guys like James Toney or Chris Eubank and possibly have beaten them. He would have had a more successful career IMO...
He fought McCallum again, looked great. Beat Steve Collins. No is my answer (not that Eubank would be on the horizon for a 'US star' anyway) but he started slipping afterwards. Compare the two Graham fights. Sumbu was a little shakey after Nunn.
I think there is a tendency sometimes for some people to rate fighters off their worst result rather than their best on here. I think it does hurt his legacy in some eyes. Wether it should or not is another matter. To me, he just got caught cold, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
He was already 31 or so when he fought Nunn.I think his decline in years after was mostly just due to that being his natural age for declining as a boxer, though it was obvious he took a year or two to regain his confidence fully and it did make him a more slow, cold early rounds starting fighter.So some damage was done for a while at least. It definitely harmed his career and damaged his reputation(which was only really getting started anyway, especially in the insular American centric and biased 80s middleweight scene), but age and a poor, slow pointless matchmaking for the first half of his pro career did just as much damage. Kalambay was an accomplished amatuer who turned pro in his mid-20s.He should have been matched quickly, toughly and purposefully.Aiming towards a title shot within 3-4 years.He had the kind of boxing amatuer background and was of the age where he would have been as good as he was going to get within 2-3 years if matched well.
He hurt him a little. He was never really the same again. He was so good he still did ok against top guys, but Nunn made him 85 percent the fighter he was before. As Angelo Dundee used to say "that kind of punch does nobody no good"
