Assessing The Career Of Michael Nunn

[Seamus]

33 fights into his career, Michael Nunn looked arguably like the most talented fighter since Sugar Ray Leonard. He appeared to have it all, footwork, defense, handspeed, power, and as a Southpaw with a big reach, he was a potential nightmare for alot of top opponents. Starting with the Barkley fight however he began to look a little less focused than he had been previously. He showboated too much in that bout, and a guy he should have easily beaten, ended up taking him to a majority decision (actually I had Barkley winning by a point). After the Toney disaster when he fell apart with a little over a round to go, it certainly appeared he could no longer be considered one of the best in his sport. And yet, even after his big fall from stardom, Michael Nunn still had a pretty good career. He won the Super Middleweight title and successfully defended it a few times, lost a SD for the LHW title and went a respectable 22-3 (without being stopped again) over the rest of his career.

[Counter-puncher]

i'm not sure his power was that great, actually, and the kalumbay win was an anomaly for both men. he slapped a lot. agree with your basic point though, he was SRL-level in terms of his talent.

[Seamus]

He did have a tendency to occasionally throw slapping punches, but when he made the effort he hurt guys.

[orbtastic]

Someone mentioned Curtis Parker in another thread. Nunn dispatched him pretty impressively albeit he was coming to the end of his career.

Kalambay is another but as Mickey Duff said, if that fight happened a hundred times that result would only happen once (paraphrased)

[Seamus]

And that would be the case with the vast majority of one punch knockouts in the 1st round.

[littlepug]

Fell out of love with him during his cautious phase but was loving him again during the Toney fight, thought it was one of his best showings in years especially liked the attacking attitude he had adopted although it was to be his undoing that night, all in all he mixed with some good fighters and had a good career but you get the feeling there should have been more.

[palooka]

Someone mentioned Curtis Parker in another thread. Nunn dispatched him pretty impressively albeit he was coming to the end of his career.

Kalambay is another but as Mickey Duff said, if that fight happened a hundred times that result would only happen once (paraphrased)

Parker cried in the ring afterwards that he'd been knocked out by a sissy.

[palooka]

Nunn was excellent, his bout v Frank Tate is an real showcase of smooth manoeuvring and shot placement, Tate was a good boxer himself and proved over 15 rounds.

[Ambling Alp II]

He had a pretty good career. He beat several good fighters; most of them pretty convincingly. If you take a look at his losses, three were close decisions that could have gone his way. The other was the Toney fight in which he was winning until he was stopped. Too bad there was never a rematch. He did seem to get overly cautious in many fights after that though.
He probably is a little on the underrated side now. Great boxer with some power.

[elmersalsa]

The first time I saw Michael Nunn fighting was when squared off with Sumbu Kalambay. It was a BREATHTAKING PERFORMANCE! Nunn, to me, was a middleweight version of the great Cassius Clay in my view

[tiny_acres]

The first time I saw Michael Nunn fighting was when squared off with Sumbu Kalambay. It was a BREATHTAKING PERFORMANCE! Nunn, to me, was a middleweight version of the great Cassius Clay in my view

I thought he was brilliant.One of my favorites.

[elmersalsa]

He was a southpaw

[elmersalsa]

He was also very tall for a middleweight. He was listed at 6'1".

[Evander]

The Frank Tate fight put him on the map for me, from there on he fought a steady group of respected boxers.
Roldan ... Although it only went 4 he shook up Thomas Hearns a year earlier.
Kalambay ... He'd beaten a number of decent boxers and got ko'd so earlier against Nunn it almost seemed odd.
Barkley Starling and Curry as a group are more than credible going into a tough James Toney fight.
He was at his high point around those times.

[palooka]

The Frank Tate fight put him on the map for me, from there on he fought a steady group of respected boxers.
Roldan ... Although it only went 4 he shook up Thomas Hearns a year earlier.
Kalambay ... He'd beaten a number of decent boxers and got ko'd so earlier against Nunn it almost seemed odd.
Barkley Starling and Curry as a group are more than credible going into a tough James Toney fight.
He was at his high point around those times.

He was brilliant around that time; I wonder when he began to use cocaine habitually?