I was only 7 years old when this fight took place, so I want to know what you guys (old enough to remember this clearly), thought of it and who honestly tipped Toney to beat Nunn... A truly absorbing, fascinating fight, that ended spectacularly with Toney upsetting the odds (and the Davenport, Iowa home crowd), in the 11th round with that devastating left hook. Toney was a 20-1 underdog and unbeaten, whilst Nunn was also unbeaten and held the IBF Middleweight belt for nearly 3 years and it would be Nunn's seventh defense of the title. How many of you were shocked at the result, or were not surprised and saw the potential in Toney at that point and thought Toney would be too good for Nunn?
How any fighter of Toney's ability came to be a 20-1 underdog is proof enough of just how full of tards boxing really is. I guess they just couldn't see past his short-stature. Shocking ending. It took place long before I had access to boxing materials, so I can't really express an opinion on who I thought would win or lose, but there is no way James should have been anything worse than a slight under-dog.
During the weigh in, Nunn ridiculed Toney, called him a punk and flicked imaginary fleas off his head. Toney responded in kind fashion, ''I'm going to kill you, you motherfucker! Gonna break your bones, gonna break your fucking bones!'' Well, Toney did speak with the sullen threat of a drive-by shooter, (words used by Donald McRae, incase you're wondering). ::
I was 13 and I remember it well... Nunn was a guy that was well established in the boxing world and was beginning to show signs of attracting the attention of the mainstream press, the people that know Mike Tyson and Sugar Ray Leonard and some of his opponents but not a whole lot else Nobody but the most hardcore really knew who Toney was (at 13 I liked boxing, but I certainly wouldn't say it was a high priority... I was still learning about it) ... It's easy in hindsight to be stunned by the odds, but Toney was making a giant step up in class against Nunn... Nobody knew what he had... And, like I say, Nunn had been put on a pedestal, a Pound-for-Pound guy... Toney was a nobody by comparison I didn't watch it the night it happened, but I read about it in the paper the next day and was shocked... As I think most people were, save for maybe Toney and Jackie Kallen I saw the bout a week later at a school friend's house and watching the first 6 rounds, I though "how the hell did he win this? He's getting beat up" LOL
Man I didn't realize that some of y'all were such young pups. I lived in Des Moines and this fight was supposed to be a big homecoming for Nunn. I had a chance to go but I couldn't afford the ticket at the time. I knew about Toney from the Merqui Sosa fight but I didn't think he was good enough to beat Nunn. I was shocked when I saw a friend of mine later that night and he told me Nunn got kayoed.
Anyone who says they weren't shocked at the outcome probably wasn't old enough to really remember the fight.
I was just getting into boxing in 1991. This was after Tyson-Ruddock 1 and Holyfield-Foreman. I had never heard of James Toney. I knew Michael Nunn was an undefeated top fighter. Some people in the Bay Area also knew him because he was Roger Craig's brother-in-law (both are from Iowa). Then I remember reading in one of the magazines (Boxing Illustrated?) that Toney defended his title less than two months later. Because of this, Holyfield-Cooper a few months later, and Nelson-Fenech 2 a few months after that, I remember people saying "don't defend your title in your hometown, there's too many distractions".
Like many others here, I can't stand revisionist history. There's this whole revisionist history of how Toney was totally being shutout and outclassed, and he landed a Hail Mary punch out of nowhere. That is bullshit. Toney was behind on points but had done well in the previous 2-3 rounds.
The fight was in Davenport, correct? I was surprised as well. Nunn's KO of Kalambay was exciting but for me the bloom was off the rose after the Barkley fight. HBO seemed to think he was the second coming of Ray Leonard. Too bad drugs fucked Nunn up...I forget how long he got but I'm thinking it's at least 20 years.
Definitely... Nunn was cruising for 6, maybe 7 rounds... But you could see him start to get cocky and Toney started to spot real openings for the counters and landed a bunch of right hands... they had been fighting on more or less even terms for the last 10 minutes when Toney cleverly substitued a left hook after a steady diet of right hands and BOOM!
Yes the fight was in Davenport. One of Nunn's cousins was a friend of a friend and a bunch of folks I knew from Des Moines drove over to Davenport to see the fight. They were pissed. ointlaugh:
Yea, Nunn was definitely ahead on the scorecards up to the sixth/seventh round, but Toney wasn't backing down at all. He kept in his face, taking some good clean shots and landed some beauts of his own and gained momentum in the second half of the fight. The left hook was gorgeous. You could sense the shock and disbelief of the home crowd as Nunn crashed to the canvas.
That was such a shock when I heard about his passing. I wasn't mad into rallying, but knew a few of the competitors and watched a bit of it when I was younger.
