McCallum. I am a huge Qawi fan but he was not as complete a fighter as McCallum was. Both won titles at 175 and with that said, Qawi was a naturally better/stronger fighter at 175 and would likely win a head to head match at that weight but the natural 154 pound McCallum was pound for pound better. The fact that he was able to move up in weight from Junoir middle to win a title at lightheavyweight is remarkable.
I wanna put something into perspective - McCallum had a deep and distinguished amateur career. He was always the consummate technician. Qawi turned pro as basically a boxing novice, and developed into one of the most skilled pressure fighters of all time. McCallum was overall more skilled and versatile. But who was more talented? I would say Qawi. He was an amazing natural talent to do what he did.
I agree 100%. To accomplish what Qawi accomplished without much of an amatuer background if phenomenal. He was incredibly strong physically and developed into an amazing defensive fighter. McCallum's brilliance was in how technically sound he was. He was on a poor Jamaican boxing team competing in an era where the USA, Cuban and Soviet boxing teams where throwing tons of resources at their national fighters. McCallum succeeded without having those benefits. He was 240 and 10 as an amateur fighter and as a pro had Eddie Futch and George Benton in his corner. Those two guys recognized how truly special he was.
McCallum was the more talented overall but Qawi was n't that far behind him. Considering Dwight only stood 5ft 6ins,what he achieved at Lt Heavy and Cruiser was quite remarkable.
I feel McCallum is being slightly overrated on these forums, it's hard to compare these two fighters as they have such polar opposite skill sets. I feel that Qawi at 175 was a better fighter than the body snatcher was at his best natural weight though.
Actually, McCallum left Jamaica after the 1975 Pan Am Games and came to America. He fought in the USA National Golden Gloves and the New York GG. He fought out of Florida, then Knoxville I think and finally out of New York. The bulk of his amateur career, and the bulk of his development, came in the U.S. A lot of people realized how special he was. That’s why they footed the bill to bring him over — in hopes of being the ones to guide a pro career after his amateur seasoning was done.
You are correct about the golden gloves but McCallum did represent Jamaica in the 76' Olympics and multiple tournaments in the 70's representing Jamaica. My point is, he came from a country that was not a boxing powerhouse. In Cuba, they take kids with athletic talent and have them in their boxing program at a very young age and groom them for international competition. He went against those guys and won more times then he lost.
Right, but McCallum’s development came largely in the U.S. It’s not really different from a track athlete representing his or her home country in the Olympics but making it to that level because they got a U.S. college scholarship and competed on the track team there and had the facilities and coaching to improve that they never would have had at home. Had he merely stayed in Jamaica as an amateur, I don’t think McCallum would have gotten to that level. He would have had far fewer fights and less able sparring and coaching, etc.
I don't know about all that. McCallum has a very underrated resume at 154 and better longevity. These two are some of my most favorite fighters. Qawi was good at 175, after that he really wasn't the same. Although he gave a young Holyfield a lot of trouble. McCallum did the same with a young Toney, but he was far more compeititve late in his career compared to Qawi.