I happened to perform a Google search yesterday about some boxing topic, which I can't remember right now, and it brought me to this forum. I was hooked! For me my boxing interest started in the Tyson era, but really blossomed in the late 80s/early 90s. I taped pretty much anything I could find, and back then there was a lot -- weekly USA, ESPN, and other sports networks we could get on the satelite, the various NBC/CBS boxing series, HBO, and the monthly PPVs. I had a big gap where I went to college, got married, got into MMA (still enjoy, but I have a soft spot for the sweet science), and now I've got 5 kids, no money, and living off YouTube to get me some boxing these days! Not sure why this is the first topic I thought to post, but I was thinking about the Michael Nunn-James Toney fight. As I recall, though it's been some time since I watched my tape, Nunn dominated throughout before Toney caught him in the 11th round. What I always found interesting is that it seemed like Toney went from being dominated to being someone in consideration for a p4p great fighter in a very short time.** Can you think of other examples like that? Where a fighter seemed to quickly become almost a superstar after maybe a less than spectacular or come-from-behind victory? **When I thought this, I did forget that he wasn't entirely dominate -- with SDs, and draws, plus that fight with Tiberi where he did next to nothing.
Hey there, welcome aboard! This is without question the best Classic boxing forum on the net, bar none. Some amazing boxing analysts here, you've probably already got a flavor for a lot of them. As to the post, I guess Foreman against Frazier could qualify. Joe wasn't yet known to be slipping and Foreman was considered big and powerful but green. Then he bounced Frazier around like a basketball and instantly became Thor.
Welcome to the forum. I think Toney was gradually turning the tide of the fight before catching Nunn with the final blow. He stuck it out, began to find his mark, and ultimately sparked the very highly rated Nunn out to capture the Middleweight crown. I'd say it was impressive. Toney wasn't a particularly dominant Middleweight champ, but he was in there with real high quality guys. Nunn, McCallum 2x, R. Johnson, and technically undefeated (obviously he got a gift against Tiberi though). Then he steps up to 168 and looked sensational against Barkley. That's top P4P level stuff he was doing, and even so, I'm fairly certain Whitaker was still hanging on to the top spot during the whole time.
The first name that came to my mind was Rocky Marciano, but it's probably a wrong answer. Reading old articles, the feeling that I get is that Marciano was already hyped before his KO of Walcott for the HW crown.
When Toney first came on the scene, I got the impression he symbolized what many in the biz wanted so badly in a middleweight champ but hadn't gotten with Nunn; a tough, scowling hunter who instilled a bit of fear. Everyone missed Hagler. Nunn was of course stupidly talented, but was prone to lazy, subpar efforts. With Toney, folks weren't that sure up front, I'd say. The Johnson fight was razor close, then the Tiberi thing, the Glenn Wolfe outing was awful.......they WANTED him to just flat-out destroy guys, but he had to move up and crush Barkley before people started talking breathlessly about him.
Well, shame on me then. It's easy to pick Marciano in hindsight, but at that time and without having seen Marciano vs Charles and Moore I'd never have picked Rocky.
Thanks for the replies so far! The Cobra -- you make excellent points. I think I may be guilty of a few things -- 1) Underrating Nunn and the MWs that Toney defended his title against (just noticed that he won the title in May 1991, and had title defenses in Late June, mid October, and December of the same year -- WOW); 2) overrating Nunn's initial performance -- hey I drank the Harold Lederman kool-aid in Chavez-Taylor 1, and it wasn't until re-watching that I finally gave some more rounds to Chavez -- not enough to win without the KO though; 3) Overestimating how quickly Toney rose to prominance. Maybe it was the McCallum performances that started to solidify him, and it was the SMW dominance (pre-Jones) that did it.
