School me on Michael Nunn

A very relaxed,loose,somewhat lazy style of fighting that often saw him fighting in spurts and negating any physical advantages he held over his opponents by fighting in-close and down to his opponents level.He got the tag of being a "runner" and a "spoiler" earlier on in his career when he was coming up,but he looked great in taking apart Tate and knocking out Kalambay was a huge victory for him at the time.


His career post-Kalambay is a classic example of a fighter pissing away any previous momentum he had built up.

 

I watched Nunn from very early in his career. At one point he had a bunch of wins, all by ko, and then he ran into Carl Jones. This was on a Vegas undercard and when they fought during the afternoon the arena was empty. Jones crunched Nunn with a left hook; in my estimation he became much more safety conscious after that.
He had some excellent wins, against Tate and Roldan in particular. (I don't include Kalambay because my friend's dumb-ass wife fooled around and made us miss the fight- had to go someplace to see them then and I'm still unhappy about that.) I think that leaving Goosen hurt him as Dundee wasn't right for him.

 

I have an hour to waste and you just gave me the idea of watching Nunn vs Toney again. Good fight to watch ! He had a good career, but when you looked at him before that KO, he looked like the next big thing in boxing.

 

See the Tate fight. He was something else that night. Massive waste of talent.

 

Just watched Toney vs Nunn and I had the same surprised as when I scored Marciano vs Walcott I, I had the fight a draw up to the KO.

T-N
1.10-9
2.9-10 hard to score
3.9-10
4.9-10
5.9-10
6.10-9
7.10-9
8.10-9
9.10-9 (Nunn hurt)
10-9-10
11-KO

Toney did better than I saw the first time I watched the fight.

 

He oozed talent - never off-balance, incredibly smooth and flowing. He was the undisputed king of the southpaw left uppercut. Tall, rangey, fast, and completely took apart undefeated world champion/former Olympic Gold medalist Frank Tate in a big upset. He had Roldan down in the first round, Kalambay down in the first round... he was looking unbeatable. Then he ran into Iran Barkley. And later ran into James Toney's left hook.

 

His fight with Marlon Starling was a poor performance. Rumours were that he was a cocaine addict by then.

Never the same after the Toney KO. Victor Cordoba nearly had him out early doors.

 

Nunn was a well-rounded and versatile fighter, but IMO he wasn't great in any one area. He could box well on his toes, but had trouble sticking to it for an entire fight. He could fight well at close quarters, but not well enough to outslug the best infighters. He hit hard enough to hurt and even KO certain fighters, but others were barely bothered by his punches.

At his peak, Nunn scored a string of impressive KO wins over Tate, Roldan, and Kalambay, but IMO his subsequent fights against Barkley, Starling, and Curry revealed his limitations, especially as a puncher. Contrary to what some people might suggest, he wasn't totally "done" after the Toney fight and went on to have some decent wins at 168 and even 175. However, he fell short in his two most important fights above 160, vs. Liles and Rocchigiani.

I would compare him to Virgil Hill, both in terms of ability and career path. They both were quick, skilled boxers who showed flashes of power early in their careers, but neither one fully recovered their form or reputation after suffering their first defeat, although they both remained staples of their divisions for years afterward.

 

not totally done perhaps, but certainly done as far as being considered a p4p type.

you can count on one hand how many good performances he had after the Toney fight.

Don't see the virgil Hill comparison myself.Hill had nowhere near the same natural talent imo(which probably says as much about my so-so opinion of Hill as it doesn Nunn, to be fair) and was a vastly more dedicated fighter who remained close to his top level for a long time.He had excellent longevity.

 

He had some Hollywood backing too, early on. Michael J. Fox was connected somehow, I seem to remember. Could be wrong about that.

I don't see the Hill comparison either. Despite the longevity and work ethic differences, Nunn, for all his defensive slipperiness, wasn't necessarily shy about being in the pocket. You'd never, ever catch Hill there.

 

I think he married NFL star Roger Craig's sister, not sure if that had anything to do with Nunn's drop-off

 

To be fair, the fight was very close and Nunn arguably deserved the decision despite being clearly past his prime.

 

He beat Liles IMO.

In any case, Nunn for a period of time was awesome and considered #3 P4P behind Tyson, and Chavez.

One of the most physically gifted middleweights of all time.

He'd be far and away the best at 160 today. He'd have done a number on Martinez.