Seemed to be an absolute freak of his division, and a very, very talented fighter. I think I've heard him brought up here all of three of four times though. Weird how Norris gets a bit of credit for beating Curry, but Nunn did the same thing to a slightly less faded Curry and he's barely ever mentioned, period. What did Nunn have going for him? How far could he of gone?
Nunn was a brilliant fighter, and going into the Barkley bout probably was third behind Chavez and Tyson in the pound for pound lists, but was one sensational win away from becoming a true boxing superstar... Nunn blew it big time and never really recovered. Beating Starling in one of the most boring fights going, made him look like a bully, and then he continued to pick on smaller fighters who had seen better days in the Cobra. Although still undefeated he was a shadow of the fighter who had beaten Tate, Roldan and Kalambay. Much like Camacho who also remained undefeated while past his best; Nunn was hated for not giving his all and showing us constantly his amazing potential.
Toney's maybe, but Nunn was damaged goods before the Toney fight. If Lights Out had not got the job done, someone else would of, Nunn's performances post Kalambay had suggested he had fallen out of love with the game in mine and quite a few others opinions.
Yes, great summation... Nunn seemed to be the new Leonard. He had the skill and speed to do it all. Leonard apparently freaked out on seeing him once in Vegas and was scremaing and cursing in an attempt to initimidate him. That tells you how respected he was. Nobody wanted a part of Nunn. The old guard were fading and of the new guys Nunn was way ahead. The Toney defeat shocked a lot of people. One thing, Kalambay is an underrated fighter. If they fought 100 times Nunn would never replicate that 1st round KO. Nunn was better but not that much better.
This won't contribute very much but one of my earliest boxing memories was Michael Nunn making me wince by brutally bodypunching Crawford Ashley to death when they fought.
I was convinced once upon a time Nunn would be a superstar, but as has been said, beating up the likes of faded Donald Curry and edging out a slow-as-molasses Iran Barkley saw his star appeal wane considerably. I'm not sure why, whether as a result of a lack og good opponents or just poor matchmaking, but after the Kalambay blowout Nunn had the world at his feet and yet failed to capitalise on the momentum of that win. The Toney loss came as a surprise, but not a complete shock to me. Earlier that day, a friend of mine who was a huge Nunn fan boasted about how Nunn was going to clean Toney's clock. I said that Nunn was ready for the taking and that a good, young fighter would give him all he could handle. To this day, Nunn-Toney remains one of my all-time favourite fights.
