Nunn Earns Some Advice After He Bangs Up Boston

After Friday night’s 10-round main event at the Showboat Hotel ended with Michael Nunn a unanimous winner over Charlie Boston, Boston had some advice for Nunn.

“If you ever plant your feet and put some power behind your punches,” Boston said, his weary left arm draped over Nunn’s shoulder, “you’re going to be a hell of a fighter.”

Nunn has heard that advice before but now it was coming from a man who had weathered the best that Nunn could offer, with barely a scratch to show for it.

So what are we to make of Michael Nunn? Here’s a 22-year-old middlweight who boosted his record to 17-0, including 11 knockouts, with about as dominating a performance as one is likely to see in a fight that goes the distance.

Only one of the three judges could, in good conscience, give Boston a single round of the 10 he fought. The other two had him being shut out.

Indeed, the 24-year-old Boston (12-3) looked like a batter facing Dwight Gooden on a night when the New York Mets pitcher is on. Time and again, Boston, who weighed 157 3/4 for the fight, would swing and connect with nothing but the smokey air in the arena.

And it’s not that Charlie Boston is chopped liver. He had risen as high as the No. 5 spot in the World Boxing Assn. ratings before losing a tough 10-round decision to top contender Doug DeWitt. Boston earlier beat Dwight Davison, then ranked second in the WBA.

Yet Nunn, facing his first top-10 fighter, appeared able to do what he wanted with Boston.

The problem was, he didn’t do enough. He would dodge everything Boston threw, his head looking like it had just popped out of a jack-in-the-box as he twisted his neck and used his longer reach to stay out of harm’s way. Then Nunn would wade in with a stiff jab, good body shots and an occasional right. The crowd would lean foward in anticipation. But nothing would happen.

“He wouldn’t follow up as much as I would have liked,” conceded Joe Goossen, Nunn’s trainer. “The kid, Boston, was slick, a survivor, but I would have liked to have seen Michael hit a little bit harder. He let the kid off the hook.”

Nunn, who fought at 161 pounds, admitted as much.

“I’d like to tighten up my inside game,” he said, “before I issue a challenge to the top middleweights in the division. Then I’m going to issue it to all of them.”

The crowd of approximately 1,300 wished that Nunn, who fights out of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood, had issued more of a challenge to Boston. The fans booed the lack of action over the last three rounds, then booed the decision when it was over.

Nunn shrugged his critics off as nonchalantly as he had shrugged off most of Boston’s rights and lefts.

“If they want to boo a guy with my generalship and ring ability,” he said, “let ‘em. They must have lost a lot of money on Boston tonight.”

It should come as no surprise that there were no knockdowns. Each man had been down only once in his career, and then only briefly. Boston, who fights out of Trenton N.J., was floored by DeWitt in the first round, but almost came back to pull out a decision. Nunn was knocked down in March in the first round of a fight against Carl Jones in Las Vegas, but recovered to thoroughly dominate the fight.

As a matter of fact, Nunn, an alternate on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, has dominated just about every round of his professional career.

Yet still they boo him.

What’s a fellow to do?

Charlie Boston told him.

Boxing Notes

Promoter Bob Arum continues to figure on a Bernardo Pinango-Frankie Duarte fight on his Nov. 6 card at Caesars Palace here in Las Vegas. A few things have to happen first, however. Duarte, unranked by the WBA, must crack the Top Ten before he can be given a shot against Pinango, the WBA bantamweight champion. That is considered a mere formality in light of Duarte’s victory at the Forum earlier this month over Jesus Salud, a victory that gave Duarte the North American Boxing Federation bantamweight title. Of greater uncertainty is the rest of the Nov. 6 lineup. Arum would like to feature undisputed middleweight champ Marvin Hagler, if Hagler’s threat to retire does not prove serious. Hagler’s opponent? Possibly Thomas Hearns. There is also talk of a Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney fight that night. . . . Dan Goossen, Duarte’s manager, aware that the Nov. 6 date would mean his fighter had been inactive for nearly four months, is talking about giving Duarte a tuneup match in September in Las Vegas. . . . You think boxing is a tough sport? Undisputed welterweight champ Donald Curry, in Las Vegas this week, got into a pickup basketball game with some boxing people here for the Michael Nunn-Charlie Boston fight. Curry was knocked out of the game with a sprained ankle. It’s too early to tell how long he’ll be out of the gym.