Nunn lacked power. That and his bad habits is what kept him from achieveing more. He wasnt the full package like many on here are claiming.
Right, but he didnt have the discipline and conditioning to fight that kind of style, thats why they tried to make him a puncher which failed, because he really couldnt punch that hard.
I don't think he made any real effort to be a puncher.Not committing to many punches was always an issue, its just he became lazier/more overconfident defensively and far lazier in his movement as time went on.
The Roldan fight was a dominating performance. He didn't look ripe for the taking during that fight. The fight where started to look beatable was Iran Barkley. He clearly had his mind outside of boxing before that fight.
As I remember, it was "controversial" among people who hadn't seen the fight, and speculated that Nunn "must've" been robbed simply because he lost an SD in Germany. However, those who did see the fight generally described it as a "what you like more" kind of fight, with Nunn landing more punches but Rocky landing the cleaner, harder punches. I've seen the fight, and I thought Rocky won fair and square based on his consistently harder punching.
Agreed. Nunn was coming into the Barkley fight straight off a string of impressive KO wins. The Barkley fight revealed that he wasn't quite as hard a puncher as his previous KOs would lead one to believe, and moreover, he seemed uncertain of how to handle a quality fighter if his power alone wasn't enough to get the job done.
The problem with Nunn was he changed his style to get more attention from the public due to the fact that he was viewed as too boring along with the fact that nobody wanted to face him. The annoying thing is alot of people have no idea when Nunn changed his style and assume he always fought like that.Nunn changed his style BEFORE he fought Tate. And while Nunn wasn't known as a puncher he wasn't a pitty pat puncher by any means-he could hurt you. When Nunn beat the hell out of Tate NOBODY wanted to tangle with him. Nunns biggest problem?His hometown-he couldn't stay away and everytime he went back he got into trouble.Mix in his success as a boxer went to his head and you have disaster. Nunn vs Toney was not the best Nunn-I know people find that hard to believe but I've seen pretty much all of Nunns fights and he got tired as that bout wore on-not from Toney but from his lack of conditioning.Everyone seems to forget Nunn was handling Toney Until he started getting sloppy-Nunns biggest mistake was holding that bout in his hometown.
I've always thought that looked obvious to anyone not a Toney fanboy"patiently broke him down"crafty bodypunching gameplan!...no, he was mostly headhunting andstarted landing more to the head as the guy tired, got sloppier and sloppier then eventually was able to KO him with one of those shots.Nunn's lack of dedication was becoming well known at that time, he was probably alreadly deep into the coke habit and dealing as well. Then again i suppose it was an understandable backlash yo the idea Nunn was miles in front, which wasn't right either. I laugh at the idea of this notion of him trying to become a puncher as well.He threw about 1 quality heavy powershot for every 20 against Starling, Curry, Toney etc and they were usually to the body.He just went completely off the boil after his first few title fights, period. Tried to come back after Toney and got a gift against Cordoba.With the form he was in he was going to lose that middleweight title very soon.Probably in a Toney tiberi-esque fight to some harder working 2nd tier contender, if he had got past James.
He had a few earlier like Parker and Harris, but as i remember it was the kalambay fight that had some thinking he possessed big power as well as speed, flair etc Of his other BIG ko wins at the time, Tate was stopped by the ref because it was getting too one sided and Roldan just flat out quit, but was by no means badly hurt. It was to the body Nunn could bang.Tate was kocked out by a bodyshot but Lane blew the count and Roldan,Watts, Ashley and others were visibly hurt by his bodyshots. He's an underrated bodypuncher.To the head though?never used his punching to anywhere near his full potential, far less made an effort to become a puncher.
When he started trying to be as bigger hitter, he became a guy that planted his feet more. And he started doing things like throwing lots of uppercuts. Lead left hooks. standing and trading. Not that fight tall, move and jab style and just pepper guys. He started leaning in and fighting like he was the bull and not the matador. As a matador, the guy was almost impossible to hit clean. Let alone land a combo on the guy. He was 30-0 w/ what, 20 ko's when he fought Tate? But he hardly showed any vulnerabilities because of that defense. When he fought more offensively, his defense suffered. Addition on 1 thing but subtraction on another.
Yes Lora finally someone who speaks the truth.Nunn at one point was playing with Toney-he was dominating until he started getting tired and Toney never launched a body assault on Nunn. But the biggest Myth is that Mccallum would have beaten a prime Nunn. Nunn was too fast,slick for Mccallum and would have won a wide decision. I like Mccallum as a boxer but Nunns style is all wrong for Mccallum.