A fine 11 stone man. Was competitive with, but was never going to beat a prime Sugar Ray Leonard. A bout between Kalule and Maurice Hope would have been a good one.
Kalule was always going to be well geared to give Kalambay trouble imo, or any other boxing-orientated, pure boxer defensive type. Technically smooth, able to punch in volume in tandem with slipping punches and moving his feet. And a southpaw to boot. Good timing, good punch variety etc, a good straight puncher. It's always going to be a good way to tackle a fleet-footed slickster who falls into defensive patterns. Kalambay was a bit green too and inexperienced at that level, his management brought him along at a glacial pace. Kalule was very sharp too for a final time and briefly rejuvenated by moving up from 154 despite being past his best. His problem other than being weight drained at 154 was that he was neither durable nor a big hitter, and despite being very well-schooled and refined, he didn't have exceptional defensive reflexes either. He was already weight drained against Leonard but managed to be very competitive in that fight as I recall it by dint of his technical ability and work rate. He kind of showed how Leonard wasn't always the greatest at rolling defence into offence and Ray was basically just forced to take one to land one and rely on his greater speed and power to give him the edge along with his great chin and Kalule's mediocre one and unexceptional athletic ability in comparison. Premature stoppage too iirc.
This is true. His older brother was a natural southpaw, and not knowing any better, Ayub simply copied his style.
Very highly regarded in his day, Kalule went into the Leonard fight with an unbeaten record, a 154 lb title, and a reputation for being very tricky to fight. He was a southpaw with good boxing instincts. He beat some of the best middleweights before moving down to 154 and easily beating Masashi Kudo for the title. He made a number of title defenses, but there was concern at the time that he was slipping to the level of his opposition. I seem to recall he was hurt pretty badly by Marijan Benes in a successful title defense. When the Leonard fight was announced, I remember that I did not jump to an immediate conclusion that Leonard would win. Most of my friends and acquaintances had no idea who Kalule was, and I found that there really wasn't much excitement surrounding the fight. But I knew of his reputation and thought he would be a tough match. Leonard pounded Kalule in the early rounds. I was really surprised how much Leonard was getting to him. But then Kalule came on and won a number of rounds. If you look back at the fight, I think you'll see somewhere around round 7 or 8 where Kalule hits Leonard with quite a few successive flush shots. Fortunately for Sugar Ray, Kalule was never a big puncher. Just when it looked like Leonard was fading, Leonard dug down deep with some power shots and took Kalule out. I recall that not many people gave Leonard much credit for that one. A lot of people talked about how much better Tommy Hearns looked that same night against the overmatched Pablo Baez. I found that most people had no idea of the complete difference in class between Kalule and Baez, so the Leonard/Hearns comparison was useless. I don't think Kalule was the same after that night. He got KO'd a few more times against good opposition. But I do believe that up to the Leonard fight, he was a real quality champ who was far better than history regards him.
This is how I remember the fight. I'm surprised that so many people seem to consider it close or competitive. Pretty sure I only gave Kalule 1 round (2 at most).