Greater fighter: Mike McCallum or Juan Manuel Marquez

I'd say Marquez has a big edge in terms of resume, on the strength of his wins over Pacquiao & Barrera.

 

Juan Manuel Marquez

3 weight division world champion at Featherweight, Super Featherweight, Lightweight.

10-5-1 in world title fights.

Best wins.....

Manny Pacquiao
Marco Antonio Barrera
Joel Casamayor
Juan Diaz x2
Michael Katsidis
Mike Alvarado
Rocky Juarez
Orlando Salido
Derrick Gainer
Manuel Medina
Robbie Peden

Mike McCallum

3 weight division world champion at Jr Middleweight, Middleweight, Super Middleweight.

13-3-1 in world title fights

Best wins.....

Sumbu Kalmabay
Jeff Harding
Donald Curry
Michael Watson
Steve Collins
Herol Graham
Milton McCrory
Julian Jackson
Ayub Kalule

Some good arguments for both fighters.....

McCallum has a better strike rate in world title fights, and also has the most impressive display at a single weightclass going 32-0 at Jr Middleweight.

Marquez has the best single wins by far over Barrera, Pacquiao, and has the only win over a top 10 P4P fighter.

It's a close one but i think Marquez's wins over Barrera, Pacquiao, gives him the edge for me.

 

McCallum was more consistent and doesn’t have those earlier career losses like Marquez did against Freddie Norwood and Chris John but he doesn’t have as many marquee wins as Marquez.

Neither fighter was ever stopped but McCallum was only put down once officially and that was a flash-ish kind of knockdown against Tiozzo. He was probably hurt more against Toney at the end of their first fight and when he was wobbled by Julian Jackson. Marquez went to the floor multiple times and was very close to being stopped in the first round against Pacquiao but thankfully was allowed to continue (great refereeing by the way) and showed extraordinary recuperative powers.

I’d probably say McCallum was better overall but Marquez might edge it in the greatness stakes because he beat a guy who was one of the two best p4p fighters in the world by one punch KO and beat guys like Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor who were much bigger then him and did it by stoppage too. He went from Featherweigrht to Welterweight when he was a natural featherweight - hell, he looked undersized as a lightweight - which was remarkable. I think he almost certainly did that with the benefit of PEDs so if you believe that, it clouds the debate further.

Excellent comparison thread.

 

Marquez disqualified for mine as a drug cheat.

 

You have to give it to Marquez. You’re talking about a guy who moved up from 126 to eventually ko the pfp 1 at 147 pounds.

 

McCallum

 

RJJ sat McCallum down at the end of round 10. Curry had him hurt two times from memory.

In the second round Curry buckled McCallum's knees with a right to the head. McCallum slumped and then steadied himself. "It was a great hook," the champion said. "It was the closest I've ever come to being knocked down."

 

Wow. Journey pits Toney and Patterson up to torture my favouritism and now I find JMM and McCallum up against each others' legacies. Why the forum do this on me?

 

Wow,I didn’t remember either of those moments at all - had to go back to both fights to watch them. Thanks for the correction JT.

 

Curry and Toney are the only two guys that I recall ever really hurting McCallum. The Jones knockdown was at the end of the round and more of an off balance shot. McCallum was 40 years old against Roy and just could not deal with Roy's speed at that age. Roy had so much respect for McCallum and wanted to give him a good payday at the end of his career.

 

True all round.

Edit - i'd add Jackson to that.

 

Anytime Jel. Not often you miss anything mate.

 

He also had a ruled KD against Graham. Looked more like a slip to me and he certainly wasn't hurt.

 

Marquez...a very tough decision to make. Both are ATG fighters and a pleasure to watch.