McCallum vs. Curry - awesome.

Have to agree. Mac was solid and gets overated to special.

 

I think that's a bit harsh, though i'm not the biggest McCallum fan myself.Definitely a bit of a darling of the anti-Leonard\hagler \Hearns crowd though, like Pryor to an extent.

The '90s welter crop of Tito, DLH, Mosley, quartey... are the ones that really come to mind for me as far as fighters too often touted as special.Well, maybe not Quartey so much.

 

A lot of commentators always seemed to have a bias for McCallum, especially the British ones.Perhaps it was because of his struggles to get a big payday despite being very talented...not really sure.

The British calls of his first fight with Toney and second fight with Kalambay are awful.Especially the Toney one with Minter commentating.

 

I think they respected him because he had the balls to come over and take their best in their own backyard.

That might account for some of the bias.

 

True.

Both of those fights were after the Watson and Graham bouts.

 

Whilst I don't think McCallum 'set a trap', I do think he noticed what Curry was doing. Don't think he was thinking 'right, now's the time', but I certainly don't think it was a 'Hail Mary' punch either.

Probably in between the two. I agree with Pea, McCallum was a very good technician but it was his durability and stamina that got him through his fights as well as that.

A big 'Bodysnatcher' fan here, haven't seen our versions of the Toney fights so I can't comment on the supposed bias.

 

I think it was a hail mary. If you watch the first fight with Kalambay he does exactly the same thing in the last round. He feints to the body and comes up with the swinging left hook. Misses by a mile.

 

I'd say it was more out of desperation in the Kalambay fight than in the Curry fight. He tried everything he possibly could to take out Kalambay, relying more on his punching power than his boxing skills, and failed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XLEFHaBqDI
7:05

Kalambay was too slick for a trick like that to work on him, especially in the last round of a fight he was winning. McCallum learned a boxing lesson that night and became less reliant on his physical advantages from then on I'd say.

 

I don't think Curry reacted to a feint, he just got sloppy at a crucial moment. Whatever the reaction is to a feint, it isn't usually back away with your hands down (except if you're Ali). That certainly wasn't Curry's game. To me it was a lucky punch and a real shame because it would have been fascinating to see what Curry would have achieved if he'd got past Mac.