Jesus with this nonsense. What the hell more does a fighter have to accomplish to be a “great” to you? Julian Jackson is a three-time, two-weight world champion with incredible fight altering one punch power. His highlights are a thing of beauty and legend even to casuals. Holding titles beginning in 1987 and ending in 1995 he was always a good ambassador to the sport. He was and is a great.
Well said. There's no shame in losing to a much bigger McClellan. There's even less shame in losing a two round shootout against McCallum, a fighter whom Roy Jones and James Toney, one of the biggest smack talkers in boxing have the utmost respect for. I recently re-watched McCallum/Jackson and was amazed at how many BOMBS McCallum managed to avoid by the slimmest of margins. What makes it even more amazing, in my opinion, is that McCallum wasn't avoiding Jackson's offense through defensive wizardry. Instead, he was quite fortunate, maybe even lucky, that Jackson never landed a significant punch to at least thwart McCallum's offense. McCallum seemingly employed a 'kill or be killed, go-for-broke' fight plan. The fact that it worked as well and quickly as it did is a testament to McCallum's technical ability, not to any shortcoming on Jackson's part.
McCallum vs. Jackson is the better version of Hagler vs Hearns. One of the most exciting short fights you'll ever see.
He took out Terry Norris clean when people were considering Norris one of the four best pound for pound and future all-timer.
With a serious question to the OP, and without repeating what everyone has already said which I agree 100%, in what way do you want him to be "great"?
A great guy, I was lucky enough to meet him a few years ago in the USVI when his son turned pro, who I was managing. Still rocking a killer flat top too.