How good was Kennedy Mckinney? I'm currently in the process of obtaining his fight with Welcome Ncitia, otherwise I've only really seen his bouts with Marco Antonio Barrera and Junior Jones, both of which were very entertaining, competitive fights. From that limited amount of footage, I got the impression that although Mckinney was a useful offensive fighter, showing a good jab and decent power in his right hand, he did look relatively easy to hit, and didn't seem to take the shots all that well. Are those fair assessments? Thoughts?
He stood straight up for the most part, and wasn't particularly fast. He also fought in kind of a predictable rhythm, but his jab was accurate and strong, and he had very legit power in the right, as you say. As to his chin.......eh, I dunno. I wouldn't say it was horribly weak, probably average, but he got hit more than a well-schooled fighter like himself should have, so something eventually had to give.
That whole 122 era is quite overlooked nowadays. Some very good fighters that produced some epic fights with each other. McKinney, Jones, Ncita, Bungu, etc.
I watched the Ncita fight earlier, El. Despite a fairly dull start with Ncita proving too awkward and quick for Mckinney to really pin down, things really did hear up down the stretch. Mckinney looked all but done before finding the equalizer, and was made to look pretty ordinary through the majority. Too straight up, no footwork, and wasn't even using his jab as much as I would have thought. I didn't score it because I knew what was going to happen, but I thought Ncita had a handy lead.
I think Bungu was a bit better than Ncita. More refined to his style and not quite so herky-jerky and garbled, not quite as flawed technically. Pity about his choke-job against Hamed (although I doubt he'd have ever beaten him). You oughta watch McKinney's fights with him. McKinney was arguably the least talented of the pack, but he was perhaps the most consistent with his performances.