Michael Nunn

BrooklynBomber

BrooklynBomber

The Champ is Here
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Has anyone ever been a bigger dissapointment?

He had the potential to fill the void Marvin left at 160, but lost to James Toney. Thats okay, those things happens. He comes back as a super middleweight and gets a gift victory over unheralded Victor Cordoba for the WBA version of that title.

He seemingly coasts through defenses putting in a lackluster effort against Merqui Sosa who was really his only challenger of note, before losing his title in an upset to journeyman Lightning Steve Little.

He gets another title shot and loses it to Frankie Liles, then beats a series of cans and John Scully, and while campaigning as a light heavyweight manages to get a title shot at Graciano Rocchigiani only to once again lose by SD, before beating some more cans and former light heavyweight beltholder William Guthrie ending his career rather sadly.

Nunn's drug habit, mental weakness, and laziness took his life on a downward spiral the same way as his career went, and he's now serving a 24 year prison sentence for possesion of cocaine with the intent to deliver.

He had all the talent in the world. He had physical gifts that the majority can only pray for. And he pissed it all away because he was insecure and had a love for nose candy.

Has there ever been a bigger waste of talent than Michael Nunn?
 
I never regarded Nunn as some super waste of talent, because (like Zab Judah) he was always missing something that I regard as talent; the ability to find a way win under true pressure. Thats something you don't teach. It's reactionary, IMO.

Nunn had almost all the physical skills in the world though and had the technical skills to go with it. His chin was pretty shit though and his power not really up to it either.

That said, he was good fun to watch. I loved his fluid style.
 
Tam-Tam said:
I never regarded Nunn as some super waste of talent, because (like Zab Judah) he was always missing something that I regard as talent; the ability to find a way win under true pressure. Thats something you don't teach. It's reactionary, IMO.

Nunn had almost all the physical skills in the world though and had the technical skills to go with it. His chin was pretty shit though and his power not really up to it either.

That said, he was good fun to watch. I loved his fluid style.
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I think his chin was somewhat better than it gets credit for. I mean its an assumption from people who haven't seen it that against Toney he was hit with one flush left hook and never got up, in both the literal and figurative sense. He was being worn down over the course of the fight because of how many punches he was throwing because of the psych job Toney did on him pre-fight, did in fact manage to get up only to be pounded out. He took shots from guys like Barkley and Roldan among other guys who could hit and wasn't stopped or in some cases even visibly hurt.
 
Nunn didn't react well to getting hit and tended to panic in those situations. That's a sign of a dude who's struggling internally and upstairs with the fear of being hurt. Can be because he has a suspect beard or simply because he doesn't like the contact and associated pain.

He didn't take any shots from Roldan either. Did Juan even hit him?
 
Tam-Tam said:
Nunn didn't react well to getting hit and tended to panic in those situations. That's a sign of a dude who's struggling internally and upstairs with the fear of being hurt. Can be because he has a suspect beard or simply because he doesn't like the contact and associated pain.

He didn't take any shots from Roldan either. Did Juan even hit him?
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In round one Juan got in early and clipped him on the chin with a left hook. Nunn made sure it didn't happen again.
 
Yeah, Nunn beat the stuffing out of Roldan. Granted, Juan was seriously on the slide by then, but Nunn's paint-job was basically perfect. Uppercut city.
 
Tam-Tam said:
Yeah, Nunn beat the stuffing out of Roldan. Granted, Juan was seriously on the slide by then, but Nunn's paint-job was basically perfect. Uppercut city.
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One of the only good habits Nunn had was knowing how to exploit any opening he was given, at least while he was sober. For example Kalambay's tendency to carry his right hand low in order to throw a snapping upjab.
 
I remember a fantastic boxing performance out of Michael Nunn the night he took the Middleweight strap from Frank Tate.
I remember Nunn using beautiful lateral movement, counter-punching, beating Frank to the punch, excellent head movement skillfully slipping Frank's punches, hitting on the slip.
1-sided rout. I don't remember Frank Tate asking for a rematch, but maybe he did, I don't know.

Nunn later dropped the slick boxing and lateral movement basically becoming a runner.
The running brought criticism.

Against a 22 year old, 160 lb James Toney, Nunn stood and traded more that night even trash-talking Toney, "C'mon boy, c'mon boy."
Nunn went away from his defensive style and got knocked out that night.

At the time, James was nothing like the skillful boxer he would later become, more of a power-merchant then. I think James lost every rd until he dropped Nunn in the 11th and turned the tables. I think James learned lot from Nunn.

Nunn never seemed to get back on-track to me.


It is such a waste of talent, but it's not the worst I've seen.

.
 
bradlee180 said:
At the time, James was nothing like the skillful boxer he would later become, more of a power-merchant then. I think James lost every rd until he dropped Nunn in the 11th and turned the tables. I think James learned lot from Nunn.

Nunn never seemed to get back on-track to me.
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I thought it was one of Toney's better performances even though he was being outpointed until the KO.

He fought as well as almost anyone could against a 6'3 southpaw with great handspeed and an output of almost 100 punches a round.

Here's a nice highlight of the fight:
YouTube - James Toney vs Michael Nunn Highlights

I'm amazed that Nunn didn't turn out to be better than he was although it's not like he didn't have a good career. It's sad that he will probably spend the rest of his days in prison for drugs.
 
bradlee180 said:
I remember a fantastic boxing performance out of Michael Nunn the night he took the Middleweight strap from Frank Tate.
I remember Nunn using beautiful lateral movement, counter-punching, beating Frank to the punch, excellent head movement skillfully slipping Frank's punches, hitting on the slip.
1-sided rout. I don't remember Frank Tate asking for a rematch, but maybe he did, I don't know.

Nunn later dropped the slick boxing and lateral movement basically becoming a runner.
The running brought criticism.

Against a 22 year old, 160 lb James Toney, Nunn stood and traded more that night even trash-talking Toney, "C'mon boy, c'mon boy."
Nunn went away from his defensive style and got knocked out that night.

At the time, James was nothing like the skillful boxer he would later become, more of a power-merchant then. I think James lost every rd until he dropped Nunn in the 11th and turned the tables. I think James learned lot from Nunn.

Nunn never seemed to get back on-track to me.


It is such a waste of talent, but it's not the worst I've seen.

.
Click to expand...

Toney really had the fight won before it happened because his psych out trick worked.

He taunted Nunn to the point where Nunn went in there not to win, but to punish Toney and hurt him, and that played into James's hands. James, as you said, was not yet the clever craftsmen he's become known as, he was more of a power-merchant.

Thus by eliminating Nunn's desire to box and move and just take the win, he had Nunn so determined that he made Nunn physically wear himself out and leave himself open for James to score, and score he did.

McCoy as usual brings up a very good point, in comparing Nunn to Donald Curry, as Curry was in almost the exact same situation and his career panned out near identically, the only difference being Curry got a few more title shots and blew them if I'm not mistaken.
 
great fight, never saw it before. I was never high on Nunn, I felt he was too much of a prima donna. He had great physical advantages as a middleweight but I don't and never have seen all the talent people rave about. He's not that fast, he's not that powerful, his defense wasn't that great and his durability wasn't that great. I remember Bob Surkein insisting that Nunn was the most talented fighter he'd ever seen, more than ali, leonard, I never really saw what he was talking about. His attitude seems to have never changed, arrogant, he basically flipped his nose at the judge before getting sentenced.
 
The 80's through the early 90's was chock full of fighters who never maximized their potential......Fighters who never measured up to the hype......Fighters who shined briefly and then fizzled.....and a few fighters who just disappeared from the scene for one reason or another (prison, drugs etc.) never to be heard from again.

Johnny Bumpus
Mark Breland
Tyrell Biggs
Mike Rossman
Michael Nunn
Milton McCrory
Gerry Cooney
Jimmy Paul
Billy Costello
Greg Page
Tony Ayala
John "the Heat" Verderosa
Kenny "Bang Bang" Bogner
Alex Ramos
John Tate


IMO Breland was the biggest let down of them all. Was there ever a more hyped amateur fighter in America than Breland ? Boxing analysts talked about Breland as though he were the next SRR and would need a warehouse to keep all of his title belts. Dude was starring in movies just out of the Olympics......Magazine covers ( and not boxing mags either).........Ahhhh, feet of clay.....

....and jaw of crystal....
 
TKDhasBin said:
The 80's through the early 90's was chock full of fighters who never maximized their potential......Fighters who never measured up to the hype......Fighters who shined briefly and then fizzled.....and a few fighters who just disappeared from the scene for one reason or another (prison, drugs etc.) never to be heard from again.

Johnny Bumpus
Mark Breland
Tyrell Biggs
Mike Rossman
Michael Nunn
Milton McCrory
Gerry Cooney
Jimmy Paul
Billy Costello
Greg Page
Tony Ayala
John "the Heat" Verderosa
Kenny "Bang Bang" Bogner
Alex Ramos
John Tate


IMO Breland was the biggest let down of them all. Was there ever a more hyped amateur fighter in America than Breland ? Boxing analysts talked about Breland as though he were the next SRR and would need a warehouse to keep all of his title belts. Dude was starring in movies just out of the Olympics......Magazine covers ( and not boxing mags either).........Ahhhh, feet of clay.....

....and jaw of crystal....
Click to expand...

Forgot Curry, Frank Tate, Doug DeWitt, Pinklon Thomas among others.
 
BrooklynBomber said:
Forgot Curry, Frank Tate, Doug DeWitt, Pinklon Thomas among others.
Click to expand...

I put Doug DeWitt in the over achievers category.....A tough guy with a good beard and some boxing basics. The first time I saw him fight, the words "world champion" just didn't enter my mind.....but Doug was able to parley his toughness into a slice of the alphabet title pie.

He got out of the game at the right time.....and with enough dough to get his nose fixed. A smart guy.
 
We could start a thread for that.

"Post career nosejobs"

We can have DeWitt, O'Grady, Cobb, even Pazienza.
 
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