McCallum vs Canelo at 160?

Would be a highly technical fight but I'll take McCallum surprise surprise. McCallum beat not only Collins in 1990 but also Herol Graham and Michael Watson. One year later he beat Kalambay in their rematch and drew with James Toney in a fight that a lot of folks (myself included) think he won. After watching all of McCallum's fights, I don't think Canelo can hurt McCallum and while Canelo is a great counterpuncher, he is NOT a better counterpuncher than a prime James Toney who McCallum fought 24 brutally even rounds with over a two year period. I'm not counting their third fight because Toney clearly won that one but at that point McCallum was 40 years old and at cruiserweight.

 

This.

Canelo was/is great but McCallum just that one notch above.

 

McCallum by decision.

 

There's no way McCallum would win a decision against Canelo any type of competitive fight and Canelo would get the benefit of the doubt.

 

In a neutral setting where the judges are fair I think McCallum beats Canelo convincingly in a 9-3 or 8-4 type decision win in a fascinating technical fight. Canelo's slower footwork gives McCallum better opportunities to outfox him with his upper body movement and quick counters / combinations.

 

Just curious how you scored GGG vs Canelo I and II? I had GGG winning both fights. One big difference between GGG and McCallum was activity rate. GGG for sure was a bigger puncher than McCallum but McCallum fought with way more pace and threw far more punches.

McCallum threw 849 and landed 332 against Toney in their first fight.
GGG landed 218 out of 703 against Canelo in their first fight.

This is just one example. McCallum overall was a very busy fighter and was the king of wearing down guys.

 

Here's my scorecards for both fights i just don't see McCallum getting the nod vs Canelo in a competitive fight, Canelo has pretty much got the benefit of the doubt in every close fight and even in some fights that weren't close vs Mayweather, Bivol.

Do i think McCallum could outpoint Canelo with fair scoring ? yes but i don't see that happening.


Gennady Golovkin vs Canelo Alvarez 1

1 Canelo
2 Canelo
3 Canelo
4 Golovkin
5 Golovkin
6 Golovkin
7 Golovkin
8 Golovkin
9 Canelo
10 Golovkin
11 Golovkin
12 Canelo

115-113 Golovkin

Gennady Golovkin vs Canelo Alvarez 2

1 Golovkin
2 Canelo
3 Canelo
4 Golovkin
5 Canelo
6 Canelo
7 Canelo
8 Golovkin
9 Golovkin
10 Golovkin
11 Golovkin
12 Canelo

114-114 Draw

 

I think We can take a lot from both McCallum vs Toney and Canelo vs Golovkin fights. I always thought this two rivalries were very similar and I loved them both.

Similary to Golovkin, I think Mike's relative lack of speed would trouble him a bit - making it difficult for him to penetrate Canelo's defence with power punches. Mike was a bit faster than triple G though - and I think He had a bit better variety. He could have more success in result - and I'm sure his jab would work just as well as Gennady's.
On the other hand, Mike was not as strong, at least as a Middleweight - so I think it would be unlikely for him to walk Canelo down and in this match-up He'd be more of a boxer, just as against James.

On Canelo's side, I don't think He could be as aggressive as James was against Mike, at least in the first 2 fights. James rightfully has a reputation of being lazy - in a spectrum of his entire career, but as a young, hungry fighter, in the first fight against Mike - He threw over 800 punches. To compare, Canelo only threw about 500 in the first and 600 in the second fight with Golovkin.

I think 1990 McCallum outboxes Canelo, but He'd have to be at the top of his game - and it would be a great technical fight. I think He'd be busier and Canelo's attempts to win rounds with single heavy power shots would not be succesful, with Mike's ability to stay defensively responsible even while keeping high output.
Mike UD.

 

Mc Callum by UD. He is the more skilled fighter.

 

I find a fight like this between contemporary boxer and 20th century one tough to really visualize straight up because of the changes in sports science regarding recovery over the last 15 years. Canelo we saw in the ring would probably have 10-15lbs on a barely over 160 McCallum from fight night. Viewing it as a pound for pound fight is easy enough, but that size difference can change things quite a lot in reality and give a lesser fighter more leeway to try approaches they wouldn't think twice about without it.

Pound for Pound, Canelo has few advantages unless he drastically improved some things in his fights after the Kovalev one, which is the last I watched. But he's certainly good enough that being the weight bully on fight night as he undeniably would be could make things a lot tougher and hard to score in ways I don't find easy to predict.... After all, go back through the fights of either but imagine how they go if the same opponents now all have 10-15lbs on them?

I had a quick rewatch at the early rounds of Canelo vs Golovkin and Toney/Curry vs McCallum and the speed difference is marginal either way, though McCallum got visibly old in the ring by the later mid-rounds of the Toney fight where he was 35 (probably the equivalent of about 40 nowadays). Canelo's own good accuracy, slip and countering ability and, most importantly, excellent chin, would make for a classy, competitive fight, but he doesn't really have any physical or technical advantages....his reflexes are similar, footspeed similar...but McCallum uses angles better, is more capable of fighting both ways, and not often so straight-ahead, centre-line in approach. His footwork is just smarter and more versatile.

Both have excellent/great chins. McCallum has a notably higher output and better stamina. I think he's harder puncher too, though I don't see either hurting the other being a likely or significant part of a fight between them. Technically, Canelo's strength is in his good punch picking, combinations and intelligent upper body movement/slipping, blocking and countering, but he's exceeded in all of those areas again, imo. McCallum has a clear range advantage and a more varied, educated jab. He boxes better on the turn at ring-centre and off the backfoot.

McCallum could get lackadaisical defensively when against an opponent that couldn't hurt or outwork him, and/or was fighting in a way that meant they were the consistent aggressor, especially if he was able to hurt them in the early rounds. He would be happy to trust in his chin and end up taking a decent amount of punches if it meant he could just wail away on you in his busy, methodical manner. You saw that quite a lot at 154, where he was huge. If Canelo had an average/below average chin, I think with all the cumulative advantages McCallum has (clear ones, even if not by large margins) that's exactly how this fight would go... Mike would be happy to take counters and just wail on this straight-line, stumpy armed, lower-output, aggressive technician with his own at least as heavy and fluid combinations while ensuring he's controlling the pace and exchanges just enough with his jab and footwork to rarely be at a disadvantage. Think the fight with a weight-drained Kalule, who had quite a lot in common with Canelo when he opted to fight on the front-foot and had no trouble regularly slipping and countering McCallum, but it didn't matter in the end. However, as Canelo has a top chin himself, I think it would settle down into a more measured technical fight after some spirited early rounds when McCallum realizes he can't hurt him regularly. He'd just stay a comfortable step ahead for a decision that would be competitive, but quite lopsided in terms of rounds won.

An actual fight with Canelo coming into the ring with a weight advantage akin to a light-heavy vs a middle is something to which I'm just not sure how McCallum would respond. Maybe it wouldn't make much difference...after all, Canelo utterly failed to exploit his size advantage against a borderline semi-retired Mayweather, who was not a great overall 154lber by any means, but the styles/experience are different here and if i remember rightly, Floyd was smart enough to get a lighter catchweight stipulation that would have affected Canelo's usual recovery ability at a time when he was already struggling to cut to 154.

 

McCallum would win about 8-4 in reality but Canelo would get the decision.

 

@lora - Excellent analysis, I enjoyed reading this.

 

I really don't think there is any weight advantage for Canelo. After all, McCallum won a world title against the very physical Jeff Harding at 175 and fought 36 brutally even rounds with James Toney who fought multiple top heavyweights and Cruiserweights. McCallum was a large framed 5'11 fighter and Canelo is really only 5'8 at best. I don't think either man will be knocked out by the other as both have more than proven their defensive ability and chins.

Even when McCallum was 40 years old he was able to go the distance against Tiozzo who was a very big light-heavyweight that ended up being a cruiserweight champion for three years. No way is Canelo bullying McCallum.

 

McCallum dominates the fight. The scorecards are a different matter. But, Canelo is not in that class as a fighter. His lack of jab, slow feet, average stamina, low output etc; also means he’d basically need a knockout and he doesn’t really have KO power and McCallum was made of rock.