Griffith by a unanimous, though close decision over 15. Griffith was the consumate 15 round technician, and only the very best could top him.
I tend to agree with the consensus. I think both are pretty much capable of beating of beating the other to be honest, and I think a series may've been split. One of those matchups where it's hard to split either way, where it would've most likely been extremely competitive then entire way through, and possibly difficult to score.
realy close fight i havent saw much of griffith but i would give him a close close desicion by 2 or 3 points
Im going against the grain and saying Mike would edge this one. They are very evenly matched in a lot of departments..Griffith probably edging Mike overall. But I think Mike's size would play a big role in splitting these two in the end. If you notice in the Kalambay fight a lot of Sumbu's success came from his ability to consistently back Mike up. Never allowing him to get comfortable or set himself to deliver his body attack that helped him to so many of his wins. I cant see the smaller Griffith doing this as well. I reckon it also give Mike a buffer, allowing him that extra split second to time Emile as he comes in the engage. I also dont think Griffith is the pure defensive wizard Kalambay was, as good as he was in this department I dont think its his style nor would he have the ability to continuously thwart McCallum's attacks. Though Emile was a proven middleweight..it would be a man who was 5'7 and was still able to make near the welter limit in his late 30's vs a man was nearly 6ft and had success up to lightheavy. I think its a case of an extremely good big man against a great small man...And in the end the size issue splits them IMO....just. Mike edge it over 15.
Griffith was even more successful at MW than McCallum was, and regularly faced fighters of similar, or even greater, size. :huhPretty much all of his success came off the backfoot, which is where he stayed for most the entire fight. His constant movement/ring generalship, along with his consistent jab are what gave McCallum so many problems with not being able to set himself up for proper combinations. That and Kalambay's defensive skills were top notch, which made it all the harder. He wasn't as good defensively as Kalambay, but he was a very good in that regard due to his top notch technical skills. He was also a more versatile fighter than Kalambay, though that wouldn't neccessarily make him more effective against a McCallum type. Pretty much 50/50 the way I see it.
:admin You know what I hadnt seen that fight in years...I watched about 2 mins of it on youtube 2 days ago and because of some lag the quality of was a little grainy and the commentators comments didnt sync up with. I mixed up the two fighters..unforgivable atsch I saw what I thought was McCallums kinda short fade and the shorter hair of Kalambay which I remember now he didnt usually have..he usually had a full head on him. I was mistaken, I have seen that fight only a couple of times ( around a period where I had a slight issue with smoking the green stuff) and you are right. But what I really should have said is that Kulumbays defensive moves offset McCallums body work. I still do think that McCallum's mix of size and skill would see him edge a fight with Griffith. It is pretty much 50-50 I agree.
The potential entertainment value in this bout makes me shudder. This would make Ishtar seem like box office gold.