About McCallum vs. Curry. Was Curry really dominating until that last punch?

I don't really post threads here I comment on them, yet on this issue I want to ask a question people here who follow the sport as I do. There is a fight many years ago most of you know about. It is not a really old fight, but some years back. McCallum vs. Curry in July of 1987. I loved the fight I don't know why. Maybe because it was at that high level where both guys just picked their shots. sort of like Leonard vs. Hearns and finding the openings.

Many people seem to think Curry was dominating until being hit with a punch which knocked him out in round 5. I don't see that. HBO was more favorable to Curry than was warranted. Mike in my mind was stronger and hurt Donald in I think 3 rounds out of the 5 with head punches. Round 1 with a left after a body punch, in round 2 he rocked him on the inside and then Donald hurt Mike when Mike was careless after rocking Donald.

In round 4 HBO is saying how Donald is winning, but at the end of round 4 in my mind it looks like Mike is starting to walk him down and hit him to the body and back him up. So much so that in round 5 Donald goes into more of a boxing mode and Mike is moving forward as Donald backs up. I could be wrong. I seem to be the only one who sees this fight as Mike eventually stopping Donald in round 8 or 9 if not for the one punch knockout. I thought he was slowly taking over with strength. Maybe the eye swelling confused Donald, but that was due to Mike's jab. The fight was not fairly recorded by anyone especially HBO who wanted to be fair to Curry after the Leonard issues with Curry and all that with Mike Trainer, although Clancy and Ryan I think did a commentating job after the fight was over.. This fight showed how terrible Ray was at commentating. Great fighter, but terrible commentator.. Here is the fight if you guys want to watch. Everything Donald did was noticed and moreso,, and what Mike was doing was ignored even Ray saying Mike was not punching well today.. Had the commentary been fair I wouldn't have an issue, but the commentary affected the view of the fight. And I know I saw a fight Mike dominated in many ways.

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This is a strange fight for me. The commentary goes against what I think happened, and people seem to follow that commentary, even though I know I saw Mike dominating and starting to back him up, and it is not mentioned and I have never heard anyone say this. Even Donald going to his corner after round 4 ended he looks at Dave Gorman and his expression is like, what do I do now? And HBO was acting like Donald was winning. And to me, he knew the fight was almost lost. I could be wrong. And it was relatively early. I think HBO messed up trying to be fair to Curry because of the Leonard issue with Curry, and went the other way.

 

I am not sure, but I think the Clancy commentary was done after the fight so they could have the interview with McCallum after. Mike must have agreed to the interview after the fight, so they told Clancy and Ryan to commentate the fight. Which they also did with the Hearns/Leonard 2 and some others.. I didn't know it in 1989 that they did that, and I thought wow Clancy sure can predict after watching fights.They didn't say they did the commentating after, but when the knockouts happen they don't seem too surprised.. And Clancy would act like he knew what was going to happen, and it was because he already knew the result.
I would have had it even after round 4.. I gave Mike round one with that left hook- Donald round 2, although I didn't give him 10-8 since he didn't knock him down and Mike was landing. Round 3- I gave Donald barely, and round 4 Mike. .

 

It is a fight to me which has a lot of different factors in it. The eye swelling is another thing. Probably it distracted Donald and led to him making the mistake of backing up during that exchange. To me it is one of the more interesting fights ever.

 

yeah, some fights I just love to watch. I was younger and was into everything boxing then. I remember Bramble vs. Rosario was also another one.. And that one also had Bramble complaining about being thumbed.

 

I agree. Donald was landing better combinations. but Mike was always coming on. Donald didn't have anything to keep him off for the whole fight.

 

Mike was getting close to the chin at times and I thought the end of round 4 he was starting to walk down Curry a little bit, and even in round 5, with Donald landing combinations during this. And the HBO was watching another fight, or I am totally wrong. I would have curious what caused the eye swelling, but I think it was Mike's jab.