What were your thoughts going into Nunn-Toney

I wasn't even born when it happened but I'm gonna try to answer the questions.
I've read the papers before the fight and they didn't give Toney chance, Toney was a novice with only 2 years and only 26 pro fights without big names, Nunn was proved against Starling, Tate, Barkley, Kalambay, Curry, etc... so Nunn was a big favorite.
Still, if people would have known the future of Toney as a champion, probably he would have been a favorite, but people of course didn't know how good he was.
Nunn career wouldn't have changed much if he won, he wasn't the same after the Kalambay fight, he just stopped caring.
It's kinda shocking if you imagine that the young Toney took a consolidated champion by knockout, without experience against any world caliber fighter, but Toney was a smooth operator, is shocking even today because Nunn wouldn't lost by knockout besides that fight and the fact that Toney wasn't a one punch knockout artist.

 

Nunn was the heir apparent. Leonard would fite aged cheddar Hagler, he wouldnt fite Nunn no way no how. the chicken in him came out like the nite Pryor challenged him

Hell yea I was shocked when I read about in in SI

At first I thought it was another SI hoax like the time that pathetic writer had Norris - srl a 4 point fite. but then I saw photographic proof (the best kind)

then I saw the fight and watched Mike wilting rds 9 N 10, getting caught with nasty shots, when suddenly, they took their toll

that left hook ranks with the shot frazier caught Ali in with in fight 1. A classic case of how to take a championship

 

I thought Nunn would box circles around this unknown kid.

No, I didn't really think Toney had much of a chance. As I recall, I hadn't really heard much about him.

Nunn had some drug problems, so somebody else likely would have gotten to him eventually. Because of this, he really wasn't able to deliver on what he might have based on his natural ability. Michael Nunn looked like a hell of a fighter until he got beat by Toney.

 

I'd never seen Toney fight before and really he was a fairly obscure up-and-coming but unremarkable new contender/prospect.
Expected it to be a routine defence.

 

I remember watching that fight.....from Davenport, Iowa....a boxing Mecca. Toney had that female Jackie (Somebody) as manager with her ta-tas out on display. Nunn had fought/defended against an array of name fighters at MW....but this fight was an unknown quality.... it might have been on a patched together closed circuit type affair....can't remember. Toney just came on strong late and TKO'ed Nunn. Nunn then moved up to SMW, but appeared to be past his peak, and his challengers weren't the real house-hold names anymore.

 

Everyone though that Nunn would easily outbox Toney, Nunn was a huge favorite. I was shocked....................

 

I remember ordering the Holyfield-Foreman PPV on TVKO and having a house full of people over to watch it. Everyone was rooting for Foreman. After George lost, and before we turned it over to ESPN for the post-fight press conference, TVKO showed a preview for their next show, which was Nunn-Toney.

And I remember everyone asking who was James Toney? I was an avid boxing fan back then, watched all the HBO cards, Showtime cards, ESPN and USA cards, and I collected every magazine there was to buy. And I have to admit I had never heard of him.

Back then, TVKO had a PPV card a month. Some were big deals, like Holyfield-Foreman and Mercer-Morrison, and some just sucked. And Nunn-Toney looked like one of those that was going to suck.

At first, Nunn was hyped as HBO's next big star. Then Nunn started fighting with HBO over money. And he was mad he couldn't get a fight with Leonard. And he was fighting with the Goosen's over money. Putting him on TVKO against Toney seemed like they were punishing him. Because those smaller TVKO cards weren't replayed on HBO. If I remember right, they were charging less than $20 for it.

It was like HBO was saying, "You think you're underpaid, you think you deserve Sugar Ray Leonard money, well then we'll just stick you on PPV against someone nobody knows and you can just collect some small percentage after we take half the cut."

My perception at the time was "Boy, look how far Nunn has fallen. HBO won't even put him on World Championship Boxing anymore." HBO/TVKO had Joe Goosen, one of Nunn's recently fired trainers, calling the fight (and he wasn't the most objective person they could've picked). It was a setup by HBO so Nunn wouldn't be so greedy when they offered him another deal. They give him a sh*t fight on a sh*tty PPV and didn't charge much for it, so there was no money, to put him in his place.

HBO did kind of the same thing with Floyd Mayweather later on, when he was complaining about his money, and so they stuck him on their Saturday afternoon boxing show KO Nation against Emanuel Burton instead of putting him on World Championship Boxing. They liked to punish guys back then who they felt wanted too much money.

But HBO certainly didn't think Nunn would lose. It was just supposed to be a nothing fight on no one's radar - until Toney won.

Looking back at some old magazines, Toney was basically one of those unknown contenders. KO Magazine had him listed as the 12th-rated middleweight before the Nunn fight.

Nunn went to Showtime after that.

 

Interesting.And if I remember correctly the PPV was not a sucess at all.

Toney's only notable win on his record was a split decision over Merqui Sosa.But you could see prior to the fight that Toney was not your ususal challenger, arrived very confident and was provoking Nunn at the press conference and weigh in.

 

I thought Nunn would win a decision.

Toney hadn't fought many if any top guys.

I think Nunn started to fade around the Barkley fight.

I don't think he would have lasted much longer as 160 lb champ even if he won this fight.

 

that's it exactly. That Barkley fight was the start of the downhill slide for Nunn. No more scintillating performances or razor sharp versions of the guy anymore. And going into that fight nobody gave Iran a chance of doing anything against that kind of opponent. He was a bigger underdog than toney and given his scar tissue around both eyes and sloppy defense, it was going to be a case of sharpshooting in there and Nun would not even get hit. but the fight didn't go like that.

And no more A+ fights for Nunn and then he takes on toney--who had come up through efforts on ESPN. Nobody was sure how good the guy was but folks were still buying into Nunn--who had started to look like a guy ready to be taken.

Actually, the first 6 rounds of the fight were the best Nunn had looked in quite awhile. That part of things gets overlooked now, but Second to Nunn was definately sharper. But the days of using his legs a lot were gone. He stood around a lot. And he sure did get hit a lot more than the version that won the title. And that Toney just did not get discouraged in there. And he showed the ability to come from behind which a lot of fighters cannot do.

Devastatting loss for Nunn and even worse for Goosen productions who had been trying to squeeze in there with the big boys.

I would have liked to have seen Nunn work with Angie Dundee--who excelled at working with the boxer types. A little more polishing of the diamond.

 

I don't buy into that Nunn fading argument.He was getting hit against Roldan, Barley and Starling as well and also stood and trade in those fights.

The opponent has something to say about it.Toney makes you fight his fight.Nunn was definetly in shape for the bout and looked good for the first 6 rounds.Terrifi victory for Toney, maybe his career best win.