This Nunn Fight Was a Mismatch

The art of matchmaking has been going on for centuries. Putting together couples who would make love, not war, used to be pretty steady work. But there isn’t much call for it anymore.

The matchmaker of today spends his time in dirty gyms and smoky arenas, looking for matches that will produce anything but love.

This is the boxing matchmaker. Although he deals with a sport known as the sweet science, his job is not an exact science. Instead of producing fireworks, he sometimes comes up with a bomb.

Case in point: The Forum on Wednesday night.

Michael Nunn, a middleweight from the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood, was paired against Randy Smith, a statue wearing gloves. Smith held those gloves in front of his face, but hardly moved throughout a boring 10-round bout. It rarely occurred to him to use his gloves for anything other than self-defense.

Nunn fired away at will, winning an easy decision but failing to win over any of the 3,995 fans. They had paid for a boxing match, but instead were witnesses to a glorified sparring session. So they booed.

The problem was, their boos fell on deaf ears. They should have vented their rage on the people behind the scenes who created the mismatch.

It actually began as two matches. Nunn was scheduled to meet Ramon Perez in a 160-pound middleweight bout. Smith was supposed to fight Lindell Holmes in a 165-pound super middleweight match.

No way, said the California State Athletic Commission after taking a look at the pairings. In the commission’s view, Smith, who had lost three straight fights and five of his last six, would have no chance against Holmes, ranked No. 6 by the World Boxing Council and No. 1 by the International Boxing Federation. The Athletic Commission also had its doubts about the chances of Perez against Nunn, now 16-0.

So it threw out both fights.

To salvage the card, the Forum then proposed matching Smith against Nunn.

“We approved that,” said Marty Denkin, a state commissioner. “We felt that even though Nunn had a much better record, he hadn’t fought guys of the quality that Smith had. Besides, Smith would be a little heavier, so that would help balance things out.”

Rather than being an advantage, though, the extra pounds may have tipped the scales too far in Nunn’s favor. The issue of whether this was a middleweight or super middleweight bout was left unresolved until the morning of the fight. Nunn came into the weigh-in expecting a 160-pound fight. Smith came in expecting a 165-pound fight.

Surprise.

As it was, Smith weighed 167 3/4 and claimed to have lost five pounds over the previous few days. He was ordered to drop another pound the day of the bout and the fight was approved.

When Smith was unable to throw his weight around against Nunn, he blamed a weakened condition because of the pounds he had lost.

It was all so avoidable.

The Forum should not have booked the mismatches in the first place. An earlier deadline for informing the Athletic Commission of upcoming fights and getting a ruling back on their acceptability should be established. Otherwise you have a situation like the Holmes-Smith and Nunn-Perez matches: The Forum was advertising and selling tickets for two fights that would never occur.

A new contract at a newly agreed upon weight should have been drawn up for the Nunn-Smith match, rather than allow the old contracts to remain until the weigh-in.

The managers should not be allowed to stick their fighters into any old weight classification just for a quick payday.

Sure, Smith might not have put on a much better performance even if he hadn’t been spending the previous few days as a weight watcher. But why give him an excuse?

Unless all concerned get their act in gear, they won’t have to worry anymore about people booing their fights.

Rather what they’ll hear is the sound of silence--from a lot of empty seats.