Marvin Hagler vs Mike McCallum at 160

At their best, Hagler. But, there was a short window where McCallum may have squeaked out a decision against a declining Hagler.

 

early 80s Hagler wins no sweat

1987, Mike would beat Hagler

 

I picked Hagler

 

Prime Hagler slaps McCallum silly.

McCallum manages to beat late 80s faded Hagler, but so do a lot of other fighters.

 

I would still take Hagler in "87 of the Ray fight to UD Mike. Mike didnt move like Ray with the lateral movement. McCallum would be right in front of Hagler slipping and countering in the pocket. I like Marvins chances against a more stationary McCallum.

 

Hagler all day long by solid decision.

McCallum would be awkward and somewhat competitive tho at various points. He's better than what Hagler was mostly beating.

 

Hagler takes this in a tougher and closer fight than some might expect.

 

Going on what I've read about Mike in Classic, Hagler is SOL here and gets slapped around easily before getting crumpled in the 10th from a vicious body punch.

 

Proper 'blue collar' fight with both guys putting an old school shift in, both punching their time cards after twelve and both getting a bonus for their workrate.

 

This is a much closer fight than it appears, Hagler cleaned up in a weak Middleweight era, other than Hearns and Duran, who weren’t particularly great at Middleweight, who did he beat that was great at Middleweight? Hearns got chinned by Barkley and Duran was a natural 135lbs.
I made a thread on Bob Foster cleaning up a very weak Light Heavyweight era and how it could mean he’s not as good as people think and the same applies here, people seem to think Hagler was in a strong era because of the ‘Fabulous 4’, but 3 of them weren’t natural Middleweights, Hagler was the only one who was, Hearns may have been eventually, but he certainly wasn’t great at Middleweight and was massively nerfed going from 154lbs to 160lbs.

 

McCallum had the ability to make Hagler overthink, like
Duran and Leonard did with slick countering . He also had the chin to ,
to survive Hagler's bombs when he was hit solidly.
But , Hagler still beats him behind his underrated jab,
and work rate.
Hagler by split/majority dec....
would be a close fight really.
McCallum's style would be troubling for Hagler.

 

McCallum makes life difficult for Hagler who rallies over the second half to nip a decision.

 

Hagler is so over-rated on this forum. He isn’t slapping McCallum silly with a baseball bat. He couldn’t even make Durán look bad!