Mike McCallum versus FMJ at 154

You've got to be shtting me. McCallum was a big puncher, and a big puncher at light-middle and middleweight. He was not a blown up super featherweight. Outside Canelo, who mysteriously gained pop as he rose in weight, McCallum is in a different league than those you mentioned. At 34, when he first faced James Toney, he was 42-1 with 34 KO's... fighting at 154-160... and not against tomato cans but against guys named Julian Jackson, Sean Mannion, Herol Graham, David Braxton, Milton McCrory, Donald Curry, Steve Collins, Sumbu Kalambay, Mike Watson... And let's not forget his legendary body attack. He would break Floyd in half.

 

The same things apply to Canelo plus some. And go watch Canelo knock Baldomir's head off if you think he lacked power att lower weights. His body attack was/still is superior to McCallum's.

 

Heresy!!!

 

McCallum wasn't a puncher at all at 160. Average at best. He had pretty good pop at 154 which gets overblown a bit by his one punch of Curry. Even at 154 he beat Mannion 15-0 or 14-1 in rounds and he'd been KO'd twice previously. Jackson was a good stoppage but was still learning and didn't know how to back off or bide time as McCallum smartly took his time and space away and pounded him. Quickish stoppage too tho his fate was well sealed. McCrory went deep with him whereas every time Curry hit him he crumbled. The only good heavier fighter he stopped was Watson who he ground down and tired out with an excellent attack to both body and head. It was a stoppage much more due to class than power. McCallum landed a lot of clean blows on guys with his counters and kept constant pressure on them. His vaunted body attack didn't do him any harm too.

His KO percentage is still good because he fought a lot of low level guys. Even after winning the world title his next 8 fights included guys with records of 0-3-0, 12-10-0, 17-11-1 and 14-5-0. His warm up for his first title fight was a guy on debut and two fights earlier a guy 5-8-0. Even after losing to Kalambay mid career his next three fights featured records of 8-11-2, 18-14-0 and 23-10-0. There was similar even later. That sort of stuff will really pad your KO stats obviously. Duran used to do similar in his earlier days - stay busy fights vs easy beats are fine but one has to take them into consideration with things like KO percentages.

Showstopper97 was bang on in his first sentence.

 

I think his power was decent at 154, but more of the getting the opponents attention variety than fight changing. The punches he caught Jackson and Curry with was about timing and accuracy as much as anything else. At 160 his power wasn't anything to write home about.

 

I do not think so. And Mike had the reach and height advantage too

 

Mc Callum had good power at 154. for some reason, his power was not the same at 160.

 

I agree sir. I know you're a huge fan of McCallum and it's great to see you can still put things in their proper place. His strength was his superb skills and excellent durability foremost.

 

Mc Callum's jab gave Toney trouble in their first 2 fights. Without doubt, Mc Callum 's jab was more effective than Toney's

 

Yes that's pretty much what i said.

 

Both are really skilled, but McCallum is the bigger guy at his natural weight. The Bodysnatcher by clear UD.