Just how good a MW was Herol "Bomber" Graham in the latter half of the 1980s?

Extremely talented guy.
Shame he didn't get that elusive title.
Came so close against Jackson.
One of the most skilled middles this country has produced.

 

Odd that he’d choose to move up in weight when he was sitting on a mandatory where he’d get a shot or at least step-aside money for a bit by some point the next year.

Maybe they saw it wasn’t in the cards for him to fight Thomas Hearns or Roberto Duran as Herol wasn’t established and those two were out for bigger fish/bigger paydays.

Anyway, on a realistic basis he wasn’t considered (outside the WBA) to have done enough to merit a title shot (as noted, he wasn’t beating contenders). The Ring rated him 10th in its annual ratings for 1983.

 

Well he beat Kalule I guess. And Holmes.

 

Yes, he wasn't 'unlucky'. He was still about in his prime when he faced McCallum and arguably Jackson.

 

I was talking about him deserving a junior middleweight title shot in1983.

He beat Lindell Holmes in mid-1984 (his first fight that year) and Ayub Kalule two years later. Both those fights were at middleweight.

Herol abandoned junior middle at the end of 1983 and moved up permanently from that point, fighting at middle and sometimes above.

 

I think the WBC always liked to give the Brit/Comm/Euro champ a shot. Stracey, Magri, Conteh, Honeyghan etc

 

Being based in Sheffield probably didn't help. Never seemed to have much backing in getting
fights he could of won .got very little exposure in the state's and seemed to just wait for things to happen. Could of beaten plenty of decent middle weights but never got the chance.