Roy Jones Jr vs Michael Nunn

If a 6ft3 southpaw with hand and foot speed close to yours and better boxing skill than you have is no threat, then why didn't he fight him....

 

Amateur and pro boxing are completely different sports.

Not to mention the non-Cuban/Russians are usually teenagers as amateurs.

 

Because Nunn turned the fight down multiple times. His manager said he wanted 50-50 like that was going to happen.

You mean the same height as Liles who I just posted a video of Jones beating up on? Nunn is nowhere near as fast as Jones, nowhere near.

 

I always thought Nunn was a heck of a fight for Jones and Roy knew it. Nunn had speed, which maybe not like Roy, but it was faster than many guys Roy fought, and Nunn was tall and I think he had a 77 inch reach being southpaw. It would have been interesting. I pick Roy to win since the year they would fight Nunn was on the downside, but I would have looked forward to this. A lot more than that Richard Frazier guy. I was hoping Roy fought Nunn at the time and he didn't.

 

Frankie Liles beat Roy Jones twice as an amateur, he gave him two standing eight counts in one of their fights.

 

Roy does deserve criticism for how he handled the situation.

He really messed Nunn around.

IMHO, I think that he found himself in a no-win situation.

If he’d have beaten him, he’d have gotten zero credit. But if he’d have looked bad, it would have harmed his reputation.

The fight brought in zero money.

At first he was going to take it, then it went to purse bids, and then he bailed altogether.

So he disrespected Nunn, and he does deserve criticism.

We do have to look at all of the circumstances though in order to be objective.

Even before Roy had rematched Griffin, he’d pondered a move to HW for the right guy. Then in the post fight interview after he’d demolished Griffin, he spoke of wanting to fight someone like Evander if the price was right.

Nunn was then officially made his WBC mandatory late 97-early 98, whilst Roy and his team were lining up a match with James Douglas at HW, for a purse which was said to be around $6m. Roy then relinquished his LHW belt and everything was agreed with Douglas. But then Roy Snr stepped in at the last minute, after not having spoken to Roy for 6 years since their split in 1992, telling him that he wasn’t going to allow it. So Roy withdrew. Then after that, Roy then turned his attention to Evander, who was obviously much smaller. Jim Thomas, who was Evander’s attorney, states in his 2005 book on Evander, that Roy and his advisor went to Atlanta to have dinner with them both to discuss it. He says that Evander wasn’t interested at the time, as he thought that he was in a no-win situation. But he did say that he’d be interested if Roy accomplished something at the weight.

Nunn and Roch then fought for Roy’s vacant belt.

Roy then ended up fighting Virgil Hill at a C-W for over $4m.

As we know, after Roy had beaten Hill, he then asked the WBC for their belt back. And in one of the most outrageous incidents in the sports history, they unbelievably agreed, despite the fact that Roch had beaten Nunn for it, and was now the champion. It was absolutely disgusting. So much so, that Roch went and sued the WBC. Even as a big fan of Roy’s, I think it was absolutely disgraceful.

Again, I can’t really argue with anyone who says that Roy ducked Nunn. But to me, the definition of a duck, is when a fighter fears losing to someone.

Did Roy actually fear losing to Nunn?

Honestly, I’m not sure.

Nunn was faded. He was still very dangerous, but definitely faded.

IMHO, if Roy feared losing to a faded Nunn, it made no sense that he’d tried to fight Frankie Liles the previous year. Yes, they had different styles. But would a guy who feared Nunn, tried to have fought Liles? There’s no logic in that. You could even make a case for Liles having been the harder fight for him, stylistically. And that fight would have happened, had Liles have not gone back and asked for more money at the last moment. Both HBO and Frankie’s ex manager have both confirmed that. So Roy was lined up to fight Liles. And we know, Roy then went on to fight Tarver 6 years later, who also must have been as hard for him as what a faded version of Nunn would have been. Would a fighter who was touching 35, have lost muscle in 2 months to drop back to LHW to fight a hungry Tarver, had they have feared a faded Nunn when they were 28? Again, to me, there’s no logic in that. Although their styles were very different, I think Tarver was just as dangerous, especially at that specific moment in Roy’s career.

Would a guy who feared Nunn, have fought James Douglas at HW?

Do you believe Roy would have gone through with that fight had his father not stepped in?

They’re all interesting questions to ponder. So I don’t know if Roy feared losing to Nunn. I think it was more likely that he didn’t think it was worth the hassle for just over $1m. But again, I can’t really argue with anyone who sees it differently.

I’d have liked to have seen the fight.

It would have been a very interesting clash of styles, and Nunn would definitely have been a threat.

It’s a shame that it didn’t happen.

 

He wasn’t media friendly.

He obviously wasn’t as popular as guys like Oscar. But the boxing world knew who he was. He was in the top P4P ratings with Whittaker, where people knew of him.

 

Eubank wasn’t a superstar.

Not globally.

 

How much was Benn getting for those fights?

Roy got $3m for fighting Pazienza in 1995 and had just signed a new HBO deal.

According to Roy, King always options back then, that he and the Levin’s wouldn’t agree to.

 

HBO said that he was offered his biggest ever purse to fight Roy, which was 7 figures.

 

Although he was faded, he’d still have been a threat.

 

They fought 3 times.

It was 2-1 to Roy.

You may find this interesting:

https://www.boxing247.com/weblog/archives/104565

 

Globally he was, just not in the US. Look at the numbers he did in Germany and SA, and his viewing figures in Asia! The US isn't global, its a bit of land.

 

He didn't get $3M for fighting Paz, I'd be amazed if he did. Warren at the time was saying how Jones was making peanuts compared to Benn, and wanted a 75-25 split in Benn's favour saying Benn was the bigger star.

He made £1.75M against Wharton which was around $3.5M then, and untaxed as he moved to LA to evade that. The Wharton fight wasn't even on subscription TV, so he would've made a lot more against Nardiello and Malinga. He'd of had to take less on the Bruno card at Wembley as the HW's take the lions share.

 

Just not in the U.S.

A bit of land?

Silly comments to make.

America was the home of boxing back then.

You know that.