Greater fighter: Mark Johnson or Michael Nunn

Nunn for both and I don't think it's close for either.

I say this as a Mark Johnson fan: He's overrated. He deserves to be in the Hall, but Nunn should have gotten in before him. Too Sharp's resume was underwhelming.

Nunn had a much better resume, and the 88-89 Nunn was on a higher level than Too Sharp ever reached.

I won't argue with anyone who makes a case for Too Sharp as better (though I dont see it) but I dont think any case in the world can be made for Johnson having a better resume, because he flat out did not.

 

Mark Too Sharp Johnson, he's underrated for his popularity but overrated for IBHOF recognition, Nunn fought better guys...

 

Johnson was way more exciting he had several FOTY candidates infact I'd say he was one of the most exciting skillful boxers of all time.

But Nunn has the better names so I'd go with him but Johnson was ducked alot in his prime which is unfortunate that he didn't really get that big fight when he was at his pomp.

 

Nunn was so damn talented. The fight with Toney basically ruined him. To Toney's credit, he never stopped throwing bombs at Nunn. But, for the first 10 1/2 rounds Nunn was outclassing Toney. It wasn't a shutout by any means, but, Nunn was constantly beating James to the punch, and making him miss. James must have missed at least 100 overhand rights. One lapse from Nunn, and it was all over. Similar to Chavez-Taylor, it forever changed the trajectory of both fighters.

 

Eh yes but Toney made Nunn miss a lot too and I feel the Chavez-Taylor comparison you mentioned is fair but for a different reason: the winner of the respective fights kept eating a piece of their opponent each round

 

Nunn's dominance over Toney has always been very exaggerated just like Vitali over Byrd. Whilst Nunn took an early lead after 6 rounds by the 8th round Toney had taken control of the fight and he won the last 3 rounds fairly convincingly before stopping Nunn in the 11th.


James Toney vs Michael Nunn

1 Toney
2 Nunn
3 Nunn
4 Nunn
5 Nunn
6 Toney
7 Nunn
8 Toney
9 Toney
10 Toney
11 Toney wins by TKO

95-95 even

 

Nunn vs Toney's one of those fights where I dont think either of the two takes there often seemed to be are quite right... either Nunn dominating/being well in front and just getting caught, or Toney slowly breaking him down and executing a smart gameplan from the very start.

imo, it was a competitive fight that Nunn was a consistent step ahead in over the first half then ran out of gas and started to lose and get tagged regularly, despite not having taken much punishment. You can see his reflexes and general sharpness go to pieces very quickly after about the 7th. I suspect he wasn't in the best shape, not much different than Toney would soon get into the habit of also being, but James had a better style to mitigate that, whereas Nunn started spending time dangerously posing right in front of opponents or lazing inside/along the ropes with his head up, taunting away, and throwing very light, sloppy punches to distract and get his wind back. He did the same against Curry and Starling for about 30 second/one minute of quite a few rounds and got tagged with big shots up close because of it. The guy was actually a really impressive infighter (and at close-mid range) and a dangerous bodypuncher despite the rep he had as an outside dancer/mover, but his volume + higher quality mixed in here and there style alongside his size at that range meant he needed to be sharp throughout the fight or the chin was there to take dangerous punches flush; and his own output wouldn't gain enough respect.

 

Comparing them as fighters, Too Sharp was a bigger puncher than Nunn, P4P. Other than that, I think Nunn was better in most other areas. Nunn was notably faster and with better footwork, and had much better defensive skills and reflexes.

 

It was tough for black american fighters like Johnson and Tim Austin back then at Fly and Bantam. They had a much harder time drawing locally than latino fighters and would end up fading away struggling to make fights once they became champ if they were any good ...IBF mandatory drudgery and the inevitable slow loss of sharpness soon awaited.

 

The leverage he could get on those uppercuts and hooks to the body was brutal; he hurt and dropped more fighters to the body than McCallum did. The Roldan fight in paticular was a showcase. It's something that if he'd been a more focused, dedicated fighter once he got to the top, he could really have refined into a deadly weapon.