Tough hombre. Had it all, Could box, brawl and take a hit. His ability to fire back while being hit was incredible. He had the heart and will of a champion, and was an all around good boxer. Only the Very elite beat him in his Prime, and he did take Out ATG Hearn's twice.
He had so many all-time brawls (Hall, Sims, Williams, Hearns, Duran, Benn etc) and would take out younger, more naturally talented faves (Olajide, Van Horn etc), gave Nunn his toughest, closest fight when Nunn was top of many lb4lb lists, fkd up James Kinchen etc. Awesome counter left hook. A huge guy, fk knows how he made 160.
And he could actually box! As shown in Duran and Hearns II fights. He was actually a senior world championship medalist as an am, believe it or not.
Although beaten by Kalambay, I thought he gave a better performance against Sumbu than the more fancied Mike McCallum did the first time against Kalambay. I was always a bit of a Barkley fan and was disappointed when he lost narrowly to Duran in a fantastic fight.
A bit of a MW version of Ron Lyle. Tough, strong, hard-hitting and decent skill. A guy who probably could spring nasty surprises against more fancied opponents in most eras, like he did against Hearns. Gave Nunn his toughest fight pre-Toney.
