Darrin Van Horn vs Herol Graham At 154

This.

 

Perhaps, but what’s Graham’s biggest win?

 

Graham was good....he was real good...if he just came razor close once...thats 1 thing...but 4 times...?...and blowing it all 4 times...that maybe speaks of a pattern of poor boxing IQ at certain crunch moments?

He was very very unlucky...for the most meaningful part of his championship level career 1982-1987 he was poorly connected ..............he had the log jam of Hagler only fighting twice a year...at 154 ...where he shoulda stayed imo he still wouldahad to go through...benitez,duran,mccallum and hearns....my gut says he wasnt gonna beat them...but my gut is wrong...but he couldve taken moore...and he did handle duran with ease in sparring maybe he takes him ......mccallum he pretty much fought to a draw at 160. .he couldve beaten him at 154... graham was desperately unlucky.....1 stupid pts deduction and its a draw with mccallum.....robbed vs kalambay in a rematch...the pointless initial match vs kalambay in 1987......

 

Awful match making by Eastwood using Kalambay as an easy warm-up for the big Barkley title fight already signed.

I thought Graham beat McCallum.

 

Well, he for one, he destroyed Ayub Kalule, who was past it but still better than Van Horn.

 

I’m not asking it in the context of whether he could beat Van Horn, but in the context of could he win a big fight. He never beat anyone of consequence with any high stakes and lost whenever the level of the game was raised.

Kalule was a good fighter but, as you said, past it and not a cut above either. I would put him and Graham and Van Horn on roughly the same level of accomplishment, but the caveat that Kalule in his absolute prime was probably the best of that lot.

 

Darin Van Horn isn't a "big" fight my friend.

Van Horn was a guy of limited skill and ability. I know Graham choked on the big stage, but the gap in ability is too wide for him to choke here.

Calling them the same level is absurd.

Van Horn would never in two million years hang with McCallum.

 

Never said he did but his heroic losing efforts in fights against McCallum,Jackson and Brewer when he was over the hill does not suggest his head was in a tailspin

 

Van Horn achieved far more than Graham, obviously. He was nowhere near as good.

Boxing is strange sometimes

 

No Graham moved too much against McCallum, it stopped him from landing enough counters.