In his prime, was Michael Nunn a more talented boxer than Joe Calzaghe?

Yes, and come to think of it, there really aren't any excuses for Nunn losing that fight, or at least none that I can see on the surface. Toney hung in there for 11 rounds, taking Nunn's best and produced the right course of action at the right time.

The other thing that I find really incredible about Toney, now that I look back on his record, is how astonishingly off the charts is activity was during the early 90's. He was fighting 5-7 time per year and mainly against top rated opposition. In 1991 for example, he fought like 6 times including matches against Nunn, McCallum, Sosa, and Johnson. It was like something you'd see back in the 1930's and almost unheard of during that period. Julio Cesar Chavez had similar looking schedules, though I don't think he fought as many RATED opponents within a calendar year.

 

They had Toney fighting that often to keep his weight down and to keep him focused, or so I've heard in many pre-fight bits before Toney's matches.

Seems like they knew he was a powder keg waiting to explode from the start.

 

Whatever the reason may be, its still a mind boggling acheivement. For a champion to fight 6-7 times in a single year and mostly against upper tier opposition with exception of a few second raters, was unheard of in the 90's. Chavez was an extremely active fighter too, but a lot of his matches were merely " stay busy " fights, and nor did he ever have a year like the one Toney had in 1991, where he fought two all time greats just months apart ( McCallum & Nunn. )

I don't know where most people rate Toney these days, but I'm guessing that he's probably underrated to some degree. This is a man who compiled a hall of fame quailty record in a very short time, fought in 82 pro fights, was never stopped, and won world titles in some 4 or 5 divisions ( alphabet or not. )

 

I agree completely, I was just stating the reasoning behind it.

Tyson actually fought at a similar level of activity for a short peroid of time. Again, I think everyone but Tyson himself knew he had a very clear expiration date and that they needed to get him into the ring as many times as they could before the train leapt off the tracks.

 

Nunn is very over-rated on this forum.

 

He may be, then again, maybe not.

As someone who posts here on a fairly regular basis, I can testify that there aren't very many threads started on him, and nor do many go around claiming that he would have beaten household great names..

I for one think that he does make the all time great ranks by at least a narrow margin. He lost very few times in many fights, had titles in two divisions, was undefeated in his first 36 pro fights or so, and had devastating wins over men like Sumbu Kalambay and Frank Tate. His first loss came against James Toney in a fight that he was handely winning, and I really see no shame in it. Toney was an all time great by all standards.

 

I remember reading that before one of his fights, Jackie Kallen had put him somewhere in the deep south, to keep him away from bad influences.

One day James was in the front garden, and his neighbour sees him and says: "Hey ni**er, I'm gonna burn me a cross."

I hope he was joking.

 

Yes

 

Every time i've read duran about drugs he also maintained he wasn't ever taking any, seems pretty sincere about that as well and maintains an any drugs stance, is there anything out there saying he did?

 

I'm sure Toney took that well. :-(

I've just heard general things regarding how they went alongside his massive indulgence and gluttony involving food, that he had some other vices as well.