Nigel Benn vs Sumbu Kalambay At MW

I can almost see Kalambay outclass Benn, and I think Benn is a great fighter. Kalambay had the skills to beat anyone. The Nunn fight was a fluke of some kind. I don't think he expected that punch from Nunn and the time difference affected him that night.

 

8-4 now. Some sanity restored by the Americans checking in it seems.

 

:huhThe time difference? Was he just off the plane or something.

Best against best aside, this could have been an interesting potentiall very competitive fight circa 91-92, or maybe for the Euro title with Benn coming back from Watson and kalambay trying to re-establish himself from the Nunn loss.

Benn trying to balance his style out a bit and learn to pace himself better and Kalambay seriously lacking confidence(as shown in the Del'Aquila euro title fight) would have made for an interesting clash.

Unfortunately none of the big English 3 went anywhere the European title when kalambay held it.

 

Benn actually said Kalambay was the best in his infamous '88 interview in which he also said he'd KO Hearns and out-box Barkley.

"He's been around forever without anybody taking any notice and beat Herol Graham by a mile when he was 30. If anybody out of the three world champions wants to call themselves a true world champion, he's the man to beat."
- Benn on Kalambay, '88

"He's the best moonwalker in boxing and yes our paths are destined to cross, but not yet. Please not yet."
- Benn on Nunn, '88

 

if benn cant catch kalambay in the first three rounds then its a pts win or a past the half way tko for kalambay as the middleweight benn was not as savy as a later career time benn. But i am a benn maniac so i say kalambay gets caught cold benn early tko.

i have been out in the sun

 

I'm a Brit and I think Kalambay wins this one...so there!

 

Great work, cheers :good

 

I have a few rounds missing of the first Graham fight, 3,4,5 but judging by the commentary Sumbu may have edged those.

Do you think 'Bomber' has a shout in that one? Or did Kalambay probably nick it based on that spectacular last round and taking some of the close rounds? I found the first one pretty hard to score, Herol landed because he threw so odd, and Sumbu found space for his right hand a fair bit and didn't ship too much.

 

This.

To be blunt, Kalambay was the far superior fighter.

 

Watson and especially Eubank were far lesser fighters than Kalambay. They were both a class below.

 

Ive always thought Kalambay won all but one or two of the rounds we got shown.PLus a ten eight in the last.

Graham fought a very aggressive fight(much the same as Kalule)probably because he expected an easy tune up win, but most of his lead lefts were deflected on the right glove or slipped entirely and his jabs and combos were missing all night.

then when he did try and take the boxing role briefly later on, Kalambay had as much success on the frontfoot.

Graham did a good job getting off first and being busier throughout(as well as being tighter than usual defensively with no clowning or low hands stuff) which sort of stopped kalambay from getting his own offence going at times and which can make for some relatively close looking rounds especially if you favour the fighter pressuring and throwing more, but ive never thought he was effective with it and ive watched this one a fair few times usually when it gets brought up as a very close or dodgy decision to see if i can see where people are coming from.

imo this and the collins fight were ultimately no more close than the first McCallum bout(unless Graham wins all the rounds which we don't see).Which also had plenty of rounds with competitive sections of probing, fencing and each fighter making the other miss.

Maybe it's because in this Harry Carpenter is brutally biased and actually has Graham winning.I can see how that could influence someone just watching it casually the first time or trying to rrecall the one time they watched it 15 years ago etc. as it's not the kind of fight where one guy is taking an obvious brutal beating\ embarassing continuously one-sided schooling or with lots of easily read brawling and exchanges.More along the lines of the Canto Betulio Gonzalez fights.


Carpenter has a good few classic lines in this as well.*circa 9th* "this is the first round in a long time that Graham has got good work done, that he's really been the master".....a round or two later he has him winning the fight.:yep

 

Yeah, and then how Sumbu has lost the ability to get his right hand in :yep

As for the Collins fight, that one clearly belonged to Sumbu IMO. Seen a few bring that up as controversial and I. Just. Don't. Get. It.

Sas6789; I will upload the second as well when I get a chance.

 

That's not say i don't appreciate hearing differing takes from the posters i respect on here though.I enjoy hearing the different interpretations we all can have on fights, even if i cant get my head around some.

 

I had the rounds shown (was it six?) before the last round more or less even. Kalambay landed the cleaner shots, but Graham's aggression and workrate clearly brought Kalambay out of his comfort zone. And the times Kalambay stopped being busy with his jab, Graham clearly took over. Graham also landed the single best punch during these rounds - a perfect counter left in the second round which rocked Kalambay. I was impressed that he stood up to it actually.

I don't think it was like the first McCallum fight during the early rounds, because not only did Kalambay outland Mike more than he did Graham, he also toatally dictated the tempo in that fight. I don't think he did this in the first half against Graham.