154 Leonard vs McCallum

No

 

I'd give Leonard in 1981, when he fought at 154, a pretty respectable chance of beating McCallum.

 

Now can you sound objective when you say that?

 

I would say McCallum wins a very close decision at 154 based on size alone, but it would be a hell of a chess match.

 

Or he'd simply rather sign to fight a more lucrative bout with Tommy Hearns.

 

McCallum had the misfortune of bad timing, and also, importantly, being too low of a reward/risk.

Leonard was inactive from 1982-87 save for one fight against Kevin Howard.

Duran chose to fight a more lucrative bout against Tommy Hearns rather than his WBA 154 lb. mandatory in The Bodysnatcher, which caused a fallout between Mike (who was a Kronk fighter) and Manny Steward. The title became vacant, and McCallum won it 4 months after Hearns-Duran.

Hearns defended his 154 lb. title shortly before McCallum won his 154. lb title, then Tommy moved up to middleweight to take on Hearns. He would defend this title once more, after his fights versus Marvin Hagler and James Shuler.

And Hagler and McCallum were in different weight classes. Mugabi split time between both 154 and 160, but I think he was the mandatory at 160 when Hagler fought him. Of course, Hagler had no problem fighting 154 lb. champs in Duran and Hearns. Unfortunately for Mike, he wasn't a name like those 2. The talk of Hagler-Duran heated up right after Duran beat Moore. And Hagler-Hearns had been scheduled a couple years before, but Tommy hurt his hand/finger. The Fab 4 proved time and again they were willing to fight other top fighters, so I doubt it was fear, but McCallum didn't provide as much of a reward as the other guys did. So unfortunately he got left out of the big fights, and was often known as "the guy who the Fab 4 avoided", rather than "the guy who beat Curry, Braxton, McCory, Jackson, etc...."

 

Mccallum was good fighter who can hit hard and was a pretty good boxer, the man gave jackson his first loss with a knockout in the second round I believe. He also had two close fights with James Toney, one being a draw the other a majority decision.Toney who was at or near his best, yet Mccallum was a little past his prime. Yes he didnt fight the names SRL fought but he rarely had a bad performance and always came to fight. I think Mccallum can beat him but if it went to the cards Im almost positive SRL would get the victory no matter what.