How highly did you rate McCallums...

Mike's body shots tended to land from more distance than a Mexican or Hatton style body shot, meaning less devastating power. He would dig them in attritionally as a counter, often jabbing lightly upstairs to provoke a respond. Always well-timed.

His resume is ridiculous, really, isn't it? I don't need to list it. He beat everyone, beat Kalambay and Toney in the rematches, clearly, etc. He even won the first four rounds against a peak Jones Jr when 10 years past his best, and took a hungry Julian Jackson's best head leads before stopping him the next round. He got through a seemingly perfect guard of Michael Watson, to the body and head, often. He won a 10-8 round against Steve Collins with no knockdowns (round five)! He found a way to beat a running Herol Graham - nobody else could come close (Kalambay beat an aggressive Graham). He knocked out Don Curry, the most talented fighter in the world, with one punch. The guy was incredible.

 

^^

Well said that man!

 

I admire McCallum as much as anybody, but you're getting carried away. He didn't beat James Toney clearly, he fought well against him in a close fight, as he did in their first match.

Don Curry wasn't the dominant super champion he'd appeared to be at 147 by the time he fought McCallum at 154. The finishing punch was wonderful, but Curry had been too quick for Mike up to that point; speed was McCallum's only real weakness, but a weakness non the less.

His loss to Roy Jones shouldn't be held against him, but your claim he swept the first four rounds are comical. Jones absolutely cruised it, and Mike went the distance because Jones was in humanitarian mode, as he was several times in his career.

Mike McCallum is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, as well rounded as it gets, but not the superman you're portraying him as.

 

Love those McCallum-Toney bouts! Active and skillful. Mike's resume is tremendous, especially in terms of who he fought. Would've loved to have seen how much trouble he could of given Hagler.

 

But a few years ago there was a trend on this board to discount Mike's resume and suggest he ducked some match-ups in his prime.

I did not agree with this... still don't.

A great fighter who only came to popular notice after the bulk of his prime was past him.

 

As good a body puncher as anyone I've ever seen. Didn't have those spectacular left hooks to the liver, but in most cases laid a foundation with body work to reap later on.

He has a stellar resume, made all the better by the fact that several of his best wins came when in his 30's at a weight class above his best. His tepid performance when he lost to Kalambay hurts him, though. I agree with Bulldog that he quite clearly won the rematch against Toney (usually have him winning by 3-4 pts). He didn't sweep the first four rounds against Jones, but those that can't see that he genuinely puzzled Jones during the early stages don't know what they're looking at.

 

Had the second best uppercut to the testicles I've ever seen. An ATG, beautiful technically, skilled with a solid chin. The bodywork was subtle to an observer but vertu effective. Fought an boatload of talent and beat almost all of them.

2nd best bodypuncher of his era of the top of my head.

 

Who's your best?

 

Perfect post.

I'd like to add two things. I am in agreement with Manny Steward, in that McCallum would have stopped Roberto Duran had that fight have gone through as originally slated, circa June 1984....in about 6 to 8 rounds. Second, "The Fab Four" or whatever people are calling them these days failed on the McCallum front. Mike should have been included but he was the proverbial dark horse, reason to avoid a difficult or losing match with the great, vastly underrated Jamaican.

BTW - McCallum had only marginal respect for Marvin Hagler, whom he confronted with that feeling, at a HOF gathering over a decade ago. McCallum had nothing but respect for Don Curry, who he felt was like him, shut out and a true willing warrior willing to gamble on greatness. Got this from McCallum himself back in May 2007......

 

1) Higher than best of his day, I'd say up there all-time, even top 5, with confidence. Probably the GOAT of his own particular nationality (with the only conceivable argument coming from Hammerin' Hank; Ruby Rob was a Kiwi/Brit, JC Superstar obviously Mexican, Langford technically Canadian, and Arguello a Nicaraguan forming the very small and exclusive number that you could say belong above him globally) - clearly ahead of Rocky, Toy Bulldog, and Micky.

2) The resume's outrageous. Take away Curry and that actually still holds true, although you'd need to be a real "boxing person" to know it.

 

Id agree McCallum woulda beaten Duran, no way he would have stopped him though

 

Perhaps this one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3oyrq4Q5gM

 

Bodypuncher of that era? Chavez.

Uppercut to the *****. Pedroza.

 

McCallum's attitude with Hagler is a load of bull****.I can understand him being ****ed at Steward for favouring Hearns over him, and not getting the Duran fight at 154, but if he had really wanted a Hagler fight all he had to do was campaign at 160.

Instead he was happy to stay in the less historically prestigious 154 division, where he boiled down and mostly fought smaller men.He was a natural middleweight and should have fought there much earlier if he wanted marvin, knowing that he didn't have the star power to negotiate a fight while fighting at a smaller weight.

Note that Herol Graham and Sumbu Kalambay also fought at 154 for about the first 5 years of their career...but when things got more serious and they wanted to step up, they moved up to the more historically relevant division.Mike should have done the same.