Bernard Hopkins, Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs, Kelly Pavlik, Janibek Alimkhanuly Who would you favor to beat Nunn. Can Nunn clear ?
I think BHOP stands the best chance but I like Nunn over everyone else. BHOP excelled against southpaws.
Nunn is significantly overrated. All of these guys have a good chance of beating him, especially GGG and BHop.
He's come to be a bit overrated for me. Kalambay was thought to be his coming out party and expectations were that he would explode into the stratosphere but he was never the same. His disappointing performance next fight against Barkley was lambasted and he did nothing against Starling and Curry to quieten that. He had enormous hype early and had some damn good results but during his day expectations had long flattened out by the time he lost to Toney. There were rumors he had slipped into the fast lane even before Toney and it wouldn't surprise. It's fair to say that he had declined from his previous hot form even by then, and earlier. Despite that he was an extremely good fighter early on and he'd beat his share of fighters. Hopkins and his southpaw mastery would spoil him out of the contest. It'd be interesting to watch him vs GGG. GGG would have to be aggressive all fight against an elusive guy who could hit at times. He'd have to wear with him and whether he wins or loses for me comes down to how effectively aggressive he could be. He'd beat the rest. Canelo would sit back to much.
He would fair well against all of them in both victory and defeat. And he’d likely get more wins than losses with that group.
Good analysis, John. I can remember being disappointed with the Barkley fight and Bob Arum saying after that bout that he didn’t think Nunn “ beat “ Barkley. The Starling match was an absolute snooze fest and I’ve even referenced it as one of the most boring fights I’ve ever sat through . I was shocked when he lost to Toney but probably shouldn’t have been. Still the man was a terrific boxer and made a good career for himself. Tragic how it all ended though
G and Bernard id definitely favor over him. Jacob's isn't good enough. Canelo not busy enough. Other two are 50/50
Absolutely Goo. Straight after his best win by a mile he never seemed the same. Steward did claim it a fluke KO. Many will disagree but subsequent proceedings (and prior) show it to be vastly out of character. He lost enormous stock with the Barkley performance.
He was leading against Toney but just couldn’t stay out of the way for those last several moments. Also disappointing that he never fought McCallum. The man had the potential but didn’t quite reach that summit. Another good performance for Nunn was the Frank Tate fight. That was probably his peak
Pavlik got beat convincingly by another slick Southpaw in Martinez so I see no reason why Nunn shouldn't be favoured over him. I've never seen Janibek fight. Jacobs falls under the category of being good but he's not very good and certainly not great so I see no reason a peak Nunn shouldn't outpoint Jacobs. Canelo isn't active enough with his punch output and Nunn would be too slippery and mobile over the distance. Hopkins is an interesting one he excelled vs Southpaws but I think he did struggle against quick handed athletic fighters. So despite Hopkins success vs Southpaws I still think stylistically he'd still have alot of issues with Nunn. I'd probably give Hopkins the edge though because he has more wrinkles to his game and he was more consistent but its still a close one to call. Golovkin is again an interesting one he has great statistics but his opposition wasn't that memorable. And in a H2H sense a peak Nunn would probably be the best opponent he's ever fought outside of Canelo. Again I think Nunn would give Golovkin alot of problems stylistically but maybe Golovkins power, body punching, could get to Nunn late on and maybe stop him.
I favor Nunn over all of theml. What people do not realize is that Nunn had a strong chin., Only stopped once in a 60 fights career that spanned over 3 weight classes, and that was by a Sunday Punch. Hopkins never was a puncher . I actually would give GGG the best shot because of his punch and pressure style.
