Michael Nunn was born on April 14th, 1963 in Davenport, Iowa. Growing up in America’s corn-fed heartland, Davenport still had its mean streets and young Nunn was a troublemaker. Like so many other troubled youths, Nunn discovered boxing in his early teens and found it gave him discipline and purpose.
Nunn’s dedication and talent made him a rising amateur star in America, and he only just missed going to the famed 1984 Las Angeles Olympics. At the Olympic Trials at Fort Worth, Texas, Nunn was matched with Virgil Hill. Hill defeated Nunn, but Nunn came back at the Box-Offs in Las Vegas to beat Hill and tie their try-out record at 1-1. In the tie-breaking fight, Hill out-pointed Nunn. Virgil Hill would win a Silver Medal and later become the dominant light heavyweight champion during the same period as Nunn’s middleweight reign. Michael Nunn left the amateurs with a 168-8 record, and turned pro on December 1984.
Michael “Second To” Nunn was a 6’3″ southpaw middleweight who had the feet of a ballet dancer and a right jab like a jack-hammer. He was fast with his hands and feet, had good technique and defensive skill, and wielded decent power. In his prime, Nunn was an all-around boxer-puncher who was damn near perfect. For a while, he truly was second to none.
The Champ
Michael Nunn rose through the ranks on a steady diet of tomato cans and journeymen, earning his first title shot in July 1988 against Olympic Gold Medalist Frank Tate for the IBF middleweight title. In addition to his Olympic background and unbeaten record, Tate was making the second defense of his title. He had won it by beating undefeated prospect Michael Olajide, and kept it by beating British contender Tony Sibson. However, Nunn was undefeated as well, and he soon asserted himself over Tate. He was leading on the cards when he knocked Tate down in the 8th and out in the 9th.
It was the start of a brilliant reign as a middleweight champion. In November, “Second To” Nunn knocked out Argentine contender Juan Domingo Roldan. He then starched WBA middleweight champion Sumbu Kalambay in the 1st Round. The fight became The Ring’s 1989 Knockout of the Year. Nunn did not become the WBA-IBF champion at that point only because the WBA stripped Kalambay of his title when the African chose to fight Nunn. Nunn closed 1989 by eeking out a close Majority Decision against the rugged brawler Iran Barkley.
By 1990, Nunn was a popular sports figure in Iowa and becoming a national celebrity. Michael Nunn was often seen hanging out with Michael J. Fox, Gene Hackman and Mr. T. Nunn was a tall, handsome man of 26, and undefeated champ with 34-0 record and 3 title defenses at a time when Hearns, Leonard and Duran were all still active. Unfortunately, like so many other young and dangerous fighters of his day, Nunn would meet with nothing but frustration in trying to get one of the “Four Kings” into the ring with him. One fight with Hearns or Leonard would have made Nunn almost as much as he earned during his entire boxing career (and he made $6 million in total), but it was not to be.
In April 1990, Nunn fought another man who was shut out by the “Four Kings,” former welterweight champ Marlon Starling. It was a boring and much-booed tactical boxing match between two skilled craftsmen. Nunn then fought Starling’s old rival Donald Curry. This bout produced more excitement, with the champion overpowering the challenger and knocking him down in the 10th. Nunn followed up by chasing Curry into a corner and hammering him into submission, yielding a 10th Round TKO victory.
Too Much Fun for Second to None
May 1991 brought Nunn into the ring with an undefeated and rising contender named James Toney. Prior to the bout, Toney’s best win was a Split Decision over an 18-0 Merqui Sosa, but afterwords he would go on to great things. Still, Nunn thoroughly outboxed Toney and was leading on all cards going into the last rounds. However, he was also tiring badly from the sheer movement he had to employ to keep Toney off of him. Biding his time, Toney kept the pressure on Nunn until Nunn simply ran out of gas. Toney caught and crushed Michael Nunn with a monster left hook in the 11th, bringing Nunn’s undefeated reign as IBF middleweight champion to an end.
Perhaps Nunn’s fast-living played into his lack of stamina against Toney. He was already starting to lose his focus, and just a couple of years later he would be pulled over by Illinois police and found with open beer containers and a 9mm automatic in his car. Although he denies it to this day, Nunn was also known to have been using cocaine since he was 21, and his drug use was thought to have accelerated following the loss to Toney.
However, his drug and discipline problems were still unknown in the early 1990s, and Nunn was still viewed as being extremely dangerous. Toney never gave Nunn a rematch, and he was ducked by Roy Jones, Jr. The Jones camp offered Nunn an insulting and paltry $150,000 for a fight that would have seen Jones make $3 million. It is the kind of offer that was designed to be rejected, and was clearly made only so Jones could claim to have tried to make the fight happen.
However, Nunn was still a top fighter in 1992, when he captured the WBA Super Middleweight Title from Victor Cordoba in a close Split Decision. That led to a rematch, which Nunn won handily. He defended the title 3 times, including a points win over contender Merqui Sosa.
Then Michael Nunn lost a close Split Decision to Steve Little in February 1994. Little then promptly lost the WBA belt to Frankie Liles, so instead of a rematch Nunn got a fight with the new champion. He lost his bid for a third title reign in a close fight. Boxers like Little and Liles would have been meat on the table for Nunn just a few years before, however, so these two loses were a good sign that the 30 year old Nunn was already on the slide due to his partying. He was no longer second to none.
Nunn moved up to light heavyweight and ran up a winning streak over sub-par opposition through 1995, 1996 and 1997. Along the way he won the regional NABF belt, which made him the #1 contender for the WBC title. In March 1998, Michael Nunn traveled to Germany and challenged Graciano Rocchigiani for the green belt and dropped a close points loss. Nunn took the loss in stride, kept on fighting and was still an active boxer when his world came apart in 2002.
Jailbird
In August 2002, Nunn was arrested when he attempted to buy a kilogram of cocaine from an FBI agent. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to sell and was sentenced to 24 years. He is currently serving his time in a minimum security prison.
Sources: Dark Trade; boxrec.com; live fight footage; desmoinesregister.com/article/20080706/SPORTS14/807060338/Rise-and-fall-of-boxing-champion-Michael-Nunn; secondsout.com/usa-boxing-news?ccs=229&cs;=19968
