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I thought that this was a pretty impressive performance by Barkley considering how dominant Nunn had looked previously. Barkley often gets a reputation as a journeyman/club fighter who got lucky but at his best he was able to trouble world class fighters and even beat them.

both very good fighters, barkley is very underated in my opinion, and as a matter of fact so is nunn

nunns knockout of kalambay was stunning

both were very good fighters! imo its a shame there were no fights with eubank/benn or watson (apart from benn/barkley)
WOW if only the middleweight scene was like that these days!!
how can anyone call barkley a club fighter?!! (only guy to beat hearns twice!)....(surley once is enough!)

Anyone who calls Iran Barkey a journeyman doesn't know about boxing end of, i watched this fight over a year ago i thought Iran Barkley done very well. But Michael Nunn pulled it out by a few rounds, i believe this fight was the beginning of the end for Michael Nunn.

Even though he didn't look bad against Donald Curry i don't think he was anywhere near his best against Iran Barkley, Marlon Starling. His last great performance was against Sumbu Kalambay, and he was pretty good in all his fights before the Sumbu Kalambay one, i don't know what happened but he seemed to go down hill after the Sumbu Kalambay fight.

Iran Barkley was no journeyman by today's standards, he fought in the deepest era ever of middleweights. It's the same reason why Ron Lyle, Jerry Quarry, George Chuvalo aren't considered journeyman.

Thomas Williams Vs. Iran Barkley


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im pretty sure his boxing skills has been put by him to good use in prison...

as punky brewster had said many years ago... "just say no..."

Berkley is a very underrated fighter. Those who don't know him well will often call him just a slugger, and at his worst he was just that. At his best though (against Duran, Hearns II, Nunn etc) he was a smart pressure fighter that actually had good boxing skills, mixed his attack very well and of course had amazing power. He had a very underrated jab.

One thing about Barkley though which I find very, very impressive and which few people have ever touched upon. He was the only fighter to ever beat Tommy Hearns by a decision. No one else even got particularly close to beating him on a decision. He would have beat Leonard the first time (obviously he didn't because he got TKO'd, but he was leading at the time. Not that it mattered) and he did beat him the second time clearly but not even Leonard's media power and darlingness were able to push that decision to a win for him. His few losses only came about by fighters who were able to break him down and knock him out. Barkley was the only ever fighter to out-fight, out-hustle and, in the end, out-box Hearns to a decision. Incredible!

I think few people also realise that he was a three weight world champion, winning the middleweight, S. middleweight and the L. heavyweight titles. Of less importance but still a very impressive feat was his knockout of the former (a very recent former champ) heavyweight champion Gerry Coetzee (who had knocked out the undefeated Michael Dokes for the WBC heavyweight championship and had also beaten such fighters as Leon Spinks, Pinklon Thomas, James Tillis, Scott LeDoux etc) for the completely irrelevant WBB heavyweight title. He would have been added alongside Jones Jr as the only recent MW to HW titlist had it been for a 'real' title, apart from Toney of course but while his drug scandal kept him from achieving it, Jones' didn't). Amazing.

He was a very, very good fighter at his best and absolutely fought everyone.

Very impressive performance by Iran Barkley. Going into this fight Nunn was 33-0 and was coming off his best ever performance getting a 1st round KO victory against world class Sumbu Kalambay who was a 9 fight win streak and wins in that streak included Herol Graham(38-0), Iran Barkley, Mike McCallum(32-0-0), Robbie Sims and Doug DeWitt.Kalambay had also captured the European Title and WBA middlweight title and made 3 defences of his WBA.

Then Michael Nunn KO'd him in 1 round in what was a real shocker. When Nunn and Barkley were matched many people thought Nunn was the far better fighter and if Nunn brings his A game, he will be to much fo Iran. But Barkley surprises alot of people and gives a ''Prime'' Nunn his toughest fight to date, losing a Majority decision.

After this fight many people were very impressed with Barkley and touted him to gain momentum fom this performance and go on to get another world title and win some big fights, but Iran in his career blew hot and cold,after this great peformance agaisnt Nunn, one dimensional Brit Nigel Benn(26-1-0) would stop Barkley in 1 round in a slugfest, which may have been stopped a tad to early.But it was still a fight many picked Barkley to win and wasn't conidered a major test as Benn going into the fight had been stopped by Michael Watson and the fight after Benn would be stopped by Chris Eubank.

But Barkely's career was mostly up and down, if you look at his record you will find this out,but on a good day Barkley was a very strong, punched pretty hard, and applied good pressure.And when he turned with his A game on he was a real threat to any of the elite and could beat the elite as fighters like Hearnsx2, and Michael Nunn found out.

Barkley vs Greald Mccellan was one of the best of the 90's not to happen! urban legend has back in his kronk days gerald mccellan would take heavybags of the hindges with that straight right like it was nothink, the g man would only really spar heavyweight, which some people think was his down fall haveing gym wars with heavyweights is no good for the head. Barkley was a great amature he won a bronze at the world championships.

one dimensional Brit Nigel Benn(26-1-0) would stop Barkley in 1 round in a slugfest, which may have been stopped a tad to early.

No, you know what the problem was in this fight? Stupidly they made it with a three KD rule which is the reason Barkley lost it. I absolutely know that Barkley would have ended up knocking Benn out in this fight. Even though he was knocked down three times, he was never hurt by any of them enough to not jump up and get straight back into it. He also had Benn reeling just as much.

It was a real pity about his fight. This would have been one of the grandest wars of the nineties apart from that stupid rule. The on thing you could never do against Barkley was keep him down and in every single one of his fights he had always gotten straight back up and fought even harder.

Benn was a big front runner, especially this early in his career and he went all out against Barkley in that first round, getting battered about himself and nearly put out also. By the mid rounds he would have been dead and Barkley would have been coming on big time. Unfortunately they put in that absurd rule in a fight with guys who are known to get knocked down but get back up.

Barkley was always desperate for a rematch with Benn but never got it for some reason. He was real pissed I remember after this fight and with good reason. He lost a big fight in his career due to a foolish rule when he was still raring to go.

one dimensional Brit Nigel Benn(26-1-0) would stop Barkley in 1 round in a slugfest, which may have been stopped a tad to early.

No, you know what the problem was in this fight? Stupidly they made it with a three KD rule which is the reason Barkley lost it. I absolutely know that Barkley would have ended up knocking Benn out in this fight. Even though he was knocked down three times, he was never hurt by any of them enough to not jump up and get straight back into it. He also had Benn reeling just as much.

It was a real pity about his fight. This would have been one of the grandest wars of the nineties apart from that stupid rule. The on thing you could never do against Barkley was keep him down and in every single one of his fights he had always gotten straight back up and fought even harder.

Benn was a big front runner, especially this early in his career and he went all out against Barkley in that first round, getting battered about himself and nearly put out also. By the mid rounds he would have been dead and Barkley would have been coming on big time. Unfortunately they put in that absurd rule in a fight with guys who are known to get knocked down but get back up.

Barkley was always desperate for a rematch with Benn but never got it for some reason. He was real pissed I remember after this fight and with good reason. He lost a big fight in his career due to a foolish rule when he was still raring to go.

It also contained some of the worst fouling I've seen recently in a title fight in which nothing happened against Benn. You have to see this fight to believe it. Benn hits Barkley in the back of the head when he is down twice, he rabbit punches blatantly throughout the entire fight, really badly. The second KD is easily as bad as the punch Barrera landed on Marquez. Barkley falls to all fours, Benn waits a few seconds and then 'BAM' cracks Barkley straight to the side of the face. Nothing happens! I actually don't know how he didn't just get straight up disqualified. It was incredible. Find this fight and check it out. This is the one reason I have always really disliked Benn as a fighter. This fight is a disgrace, Benn is a disgrace. Padilla, who I've normally liked was terrible. He didn't call the first KD a knockdown but then stops the fight after the two official KD's.....? Huh? Of course Barkley was just ravenous with disgust and demanded an immediate rematch which of course Benn never gave him. This fight really gets to me.

No, you know what the problem was in this fight? Stupidly they made it with a three KD rule which is the reason Barkley lost it. I absolutely know that Barkley would have ended up knocking Benn out in this fight. Even though he was knocked down three times, he was never hurt by any of them enough to not jump up and get straight back into it. He also had Benn reeling just as much.

It was a real pity about his fight. This would have been one of the grandest wars of the nineties apart from that stupid rule. The on thing you could never do against Barkley was keep him down and in every single one of his fights he had always gotten straight back up and fought even harder.

Benn was a big front runner, especially this early in his career and he went all out against Barkley in that first round, getting battered about himself and nearly put out also. By the mid rounds he would have been dead and Barkley would have been coming on big time. Unfortunately they put in that absurd rule in a fight with guys who are known to get knocked down but get back up.

Barkley was always desperate for a rematch with Benn but never got it for some reason. He was real pissed I remember after this fight and with good reason. He lost a big fight in his career due to a foolish rule when he was still raring to go.

It also contained some of the worst fouling I've seen recently in a title fight in which nothing happened against Benn. You have to see this fight to believe it. Benn hits Barkley in the back of the head when he is down twice, he rabbit punches blatantly throughout the entire fight, really badly. I actually don't know how he didn't, either get a few points taken off, or just straight up disqualified. It was incredible. Find this fight and check it out. This is the one reason I have always really disliked Benn as a fighter. This fight is a disgrace, Benn is a disgrace.

I tend to agree with what you said although I wouldn't call Benn a disgrace. He was just a very aggressive fighter that some referees couldn't keep under control.

The refereeing in Barkley-Benn and McClellan-Benn was terrible.

Barkley vs Benn would've been a great war if not for the 3 knockdown rule.

I tend to agree with what you said although I wouldn't call Benn a disgrace. He was just a very aggressive fighter that some referees couldn't keep under control.

The refereeing in Barkley-Benn and McClellan-Benn was terrible.

Barkley vs Benn would've been a great war if not for the 3 knockdown rule.

One thing I just remembered was the weird part about this fight. You know though, I kind of agree with you on Benn being a highly aggressive fighter but this is still a sport with certain rules to keep fighters safe etc etc. There are many fighters who get DQ'd but have never been big on fouls. Case in point Jones vs Griffin 1. That was not nearly as bad as this fight. Or you have another guy Norris who got DQ'd multiple times because he was overly aggressive against the rules of boxing, which Benn also was. He broke DQ rules and should have been severely penalised.

Anyway, enough of my rant. The one problem in the fight is the first supposed KD. The ref doesn't actually call it. So how then does the second official KD count as the third? I really dislike this fight.

I think it's gets me a little because of what Barkley had been through just prior to it. A long layoff in which he then had to scrape off nearly fifty pounds to get in shape and his father dies just weeks before the fight. Then he gets screwed over in the fight as well. :nonono:

He might never have won. The only problem is he never got a chance to show that he couldn't. I personally believe that he would have lasted until Benn was shot and then beat him down. Benn lost his power rather quickly when he came out this aggressive. By the third or fourth he was exhausted. Barkley kept his power through most of a fight.

On the aggression of fighters though quickly. It's all good to be aggressive. Few fighters have ever had the insane aggression of Duran yet if ever an opponent had his back turned or fell down in front of him, he would always stop and give them time to get back in place or wait until they had stood back up etc. Guys like Benn, Norris etc should be DQ'd for that type of stuff. Just because they are more angry doesn't mean they should get away with more because of it. Well, Norris never really did get away with that much. He got away with a lot sometimes, but whenever he did it that blatantly, he was DQ'd.

On the aggression of fighters though quickly. It's all good to be aggressive. Few fighters have ever had the insane aggression of Duran yet if ever an opponent had his back turned or fell down in front of him, he would always stop and give them time to get back in place or wait until they had stood back up etc. Guys like Benn, Norris etc should be DQ'd for that type of stuff. Just because they are more angry doesn't mean they should get away with more because of it. Well, Norris never really did get away with that much. He got away with a lot sometimes, but whenever he did it that blatantly, he was DQ'd.

How about the uppercut to Ken Buchanan's niagaras which ended their fight? I think Duran would have beaten him regardless, but it was still no way for a fine fighter like Buchanan to lose his title. Ken never got a rematch either. Jack Sharkey was DQ'd for an alleged low blow on Max Schmeling, yet Marciano repeatedly fouled Don ****ell in their fight and never got so much as a warning. Riddick Bowe committed a similar foul on Buster Mathis to the one which got Jones DQ'd versus Griffin, but Bowe's fight was ruled a no contest. These things have always been dealt with unevenly in boxing, it all depends on the referee, the location, etc. Not really fair, it's just the way it goes.

Both were under-rated. Great post.

http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Gans-Biography-American-Champion/dp/0786439947/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239462188&sr=1-1

I also tend to agree thats it shound't of been a 3 knockdown rule. And i also wound't of been surprised if that rule wound't of been instated, Barkely may have come back and got the victory.