Nunn Made Grade, Not Weight

Michael Nunn is not his own worst critic.

After winning a majority 12-round decision over Marlon Starling Saturday night in a bout that lived down to expectations, the International Boxing Federation middleweight champion was asked to grade his performance.

“I give myself an A,” Nunn said.

What the crowd of 3,896 at the Mirage Hotel had given him mostly, though, were boos.

“I can’t satisfy everybody,” Nunn said. “The fans don’t take any punches.”

Maybe the fans who paid anywhere from $100 to $300 to watch in person and those who tuned in on HBO were spoiled by the recent wars between Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor.

But all three fights had something in common--inconsistent scoring.

This time one judge, Gary Merritt, scored it even, and the other two--Glen Hamada and Art Lurie--had Nunn by eight and six points, respectively.

Neither fighter revealed his card.

“What’s important is that they raised my hand when it was done,” Nunn said. “I’m happy to get it over with. I got a little lazy thinking about my manager problems and it took me a couple of rounds to get going. But after that, I was OK.”

After walking into the interview room, Starling embraced Nunn at the head table.

Starling said something about Nunn getting away with one, but then seemed to concede defeat.

“You had a better day, Michael,” said Starling, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion. “He was a little busier than me, a little more elusive. I take my hat off to him. He stole the middle rounds. I thought my performance was subpar.”

Earlier in the day, there were fears expressed in the Nunn camp that their fighter would be subpar.

Nunn had trained the last three weeks without his longtime conditioner, Joe Goossen.

The night before the fight, Nunn asked Goossen to work his corner.

But, for the first time, Nunn came in over the contracted weight for a fight. Only after a visit to the men’s room did he scale the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.

“Something has gone wrong,” said Bob Surkein, the adviser who has worked with Nunn since his amateur days. “He’s never had trouble making weight. It worries me no end.”

“Coming in heavy for a title fight is inexcusable,” said Angelo Dundee, who did analysis on international TV.

Actually, Nunn did have an excuse. “On the other scale that I used before the weigh-in, I weighed 158,” he said. “Then I drank a lot of orange juice.”

Weight was still on his mind after the fight.

“I feel like a thousand pounds is off my back,” Nunn said.