Sumbu Kalambay - How Good Was He?

He was a truly great fighter in terms of skill and ability at his peak and would be a tough proposition for any middle ever imo, though his overall career was more in the very good/near great range. Mainly because he was moved too slowly early on and lacked backing and exposure, and then because of the Nunn disaster (arguably one of the most damaging results for a fighter in a big title fight between two elite h2h practitioners).

 

Still, McCallum (arguably twice), Barkley, Graham, Collins, Sims, Dewitt, Drayton and Kalule (if we're being honest) is a fine list of scalps over a career.

 

About as good as I’ve ever seen. Like a middleweight Mayweather but slightly better.

 

He did, and if you watch the fight and the round in which he almost KOd Herol, it was a similar type of punch situation that was Herols downfall against Julian Jackson.
Great fighter was Kalambay and such a shame he is not talked about more.

 

Hang around here a while l e! He gets lots of love here, one of those "forum favorites."

But yes, for the public at large, terribly ignored.

 

Criminally underrated. He beats a lot of guys that most have as top ten even top five middleweights all time. He is one of those guys that should be in the HOF had he been promoted better. Loss to Nunn hurts him but he is one best pure boxers ever at 160 without question.

 

He got a gift decision against Collins

 

He beat Collins IMO. Even if you think Collins deserved to win, it wasn't by enough for the decision to be classified as a gift. A real more punches vs. cleaner punches kind of fight.

If you want to see what Kalambay would look like as a marauding, almost swarming body puncher, watch his Euro title fight against Francesco Dell'Aquila. It was a lot like McCallum vs. Watson but more intense.

 

It was a close fight but I thought he edged Collins IMO. The Graham rematch was a gift decision win though.

 

Dewitt was schooling him until that foul of an uppercut bailed out Sumbu from an embarrassing master's class on Doug's part.

 

Nice one.

 

That's true,Fergy. I don't think that anyone expected that.

 

Nah.