NUNN TOO SOON : Former world champion Michael Nunn is back with the Goossens and back at the Country Club tonight trying to resurrect his boxing career.

By VINCE KOWALICK

Jan. 17, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

RESEDA — Michael Nunn is back at the Reseda Country Club, back with Dan and Joe Goossen, attempting to climb the ranks of professional boxing.

But can Michael Nunn get back to being the Michael Nunn of old?

The last time Nunn fought at the Country Club, when he knocked out Ron Daniels in the second round on May 5, 1988, he was figuratively, and almost literally, “Second To” Nunn.

He was completing his rise from the obscurity of Valley-based Ten Goose Boxing Club to become, briefly, one of the best fighters in the world.

Nine years ago, Nunn’s blinding hand speed and first-class footwork had middleweight legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran looking over their aging shoulders.

Nunn, now 33 and a two-time former world champion whose record is 49-3 with 31 knockouts, admits he’s no longer the same boxer.

But that, he says, is good news.

“I’m a better fighter now,” Nunn said. “I’m older now, stronger now, more experienced now. When I was 26 or 27, I couldn’t do the things I can do now.”

Nunn should still be able to draw a crowd tonight when he steps into the Country Club ring for a 12-round main event against Rudy Nix for the North American Boxing Federation light-heavyweight title.

“I know a lot of people are looking forward to seeing Michael Nunn,” said Nunn, who was undefeated in 12 fights at the Country Club from 1985 to 1988. “It’s where I learned to fight, where I got my PhD.”

Nunn has learned even more the hard way.

The fight tonight is Nunn’s latest on the comeback trail and his seventh since reuniting with the Goossen brothers--Dan the promoter, Joe the trainer--after a five-year split. Dan signed the 21-year-old native of Davenport, Iowa, in 1984 and, with Joe steered him to the International Boxing Federation middleweight title four years later.

Nunn capped his meteoric rise by stopping Frank Tate in the ninth round in Las Vegas to win the title. Tate was an U.S. Olympic gold medalist in 1984, while Nunn was eliminated that year in the Olympic trials.

Knockout victories over Juan Roldan and Sumbu Kalambay, the latter felled by a devastating first-round punch in Las Vegas, moved Nunn, already with a few million-dollar fights under his title belt, toward an even bigger payday with Leonard or Hearns. Dan Goossen was lining up endorsement deals.

But in 1990, Nunn severed ties with the Goossens. He spent the next several years struggling under promoter Don King’s guidance and trying unsuccessfully to put together his own organization consisting of hometown friends.

“I was young at the time and a lot of people were putting bugs in my ear,” Nunn said. “But I’ve learned from my mistakes. I think when I left the Goossens, I lost my focus.”

Not to mention his title.

In May of 1991, Nunn was 36-0 when he entered the ring against James Toney in Davenport, his third pro fight before hometown fans. He exited without his title after being knocked out by a come-from-nowhere left hook in the 11th round of a fight he was winning.

Nunn rebounded to win the World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight title with a 12-round victory over Victor Cordoba at Memphis in January of 1993, then lost it in the same manner to Steve Little in London a year later.

“I was going into fights unprepared,” Nunn said. “Not going in physically prepared, mentally prepared or spiritually prepared.”

After losing a 12-round decision to Frank Liles in December of 1994--his second loss in three fights--Nunn approached the Goossens. Differences were resolved and Nunn began job retraining.

“It was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever had in this business,” Dan Goossen said of the split. “But we never talk about the past. It was kind of simple, us getting back together. We enjoyed our relationship together and I think that made it easier for us to be together again.”

Goossen is hoping to pit Nunn against Roy Jones Jr., the IBF light-heavyweight champion.

Nunn is ranked No. 2 by the WBC and was impressive in his last fight, an eighth-round knockout of Everado Armenta in Houston last June.

Leonard, 40, scheduled for a comeback fight of his own against Hector Camacho on March 1, is all but a dream of the past. But Dan Goossen believes Nunn is not done.

“I don’t think Michael can ever recapture the greatness he was to inherit,” he said. “But I do feel, he has, at least, the opportunity to be able to financially get back to the level he was at.”

Nunn, roundly criticized early in his career for dancing too much and punching too little, has become a more aggressive fighter. Years of mixing it up with tough opponents are responsible, Joe Goossen said.

“Oh, can he go to the body, take my word for it,” Goossen said. “Before, he was all instinct; even he didn’t know what he was choreographing. What he has now is a variety of moves, and his knowledge of what he wants to do is always there with him. He’s impossible to beat, and I’ll qualify that: When he’s in shape.”

Conditioning problems have plagued Nunn, a natural 160-pounder who at one time ballooned to more than 200 pounds.

Peyton Sher, a matchmaker who arranged several of Nunn’s fights when he was with King, recalls Nunn taking training lightly and often struggling to make weight.

“We used to suffer to get him to drop five or six pounds,” Sher said. “He wasn’t as dedicated as most fighters. When the time came and he had to really dig deep, he wasn’t dedicated.”

Sher also recalled friction between Nunn and trainer Angelo Dundee, who handled Nunn for several fights and was in his corner when he was knocked out by Toney.

Dundee, however, said Nunn has been given a “bad rap.” He described their parting only as a difference of opinion.

“Listen, when he gets to training, he’s always dedicated,” Dundee said. “In shape, there’s no telling who he’s going to knock off. Not too many people can mix with Michael Nunn.”

That might include trainers. With Goossen in his corner, Nunn is 41-0. And their rematch is going smoothly, according to both.

“Joe was there with me at the beginning,” Nunn said. “He knows what buttons to push, what to say to pick me up, in the ring and in the gym.”

It’s sure to seem like old times when they enter the arena together tonight.

Perhaps a return to roots is just the rekindling Nunn needs.

“I’m gonna feel 10-feet tall walking out there,” Nunn said. “And I’m gonna be ready to rumble.”