Herol Graham: I don't get the love

You are using 24 years of hindsight with modern technology to boot.

Hardly anyone in Britain would of seen Kalule/Kalambay at the time, plenty saw Kalule/Graham, thus Bomber/Sambu was a mismatch. Of course we know that is not boxing, but it was very easy to make that assumption at the time, and thus Graham rightly got called on it...

 

I take hindsight over ignorance. I'm sure that's how it seemed to be at the time but we know better now. Graham was really good, he just happened to face two elite opponents.

 

Its his own fault if he does not get no love.

When he really had to win, he didn't.

And he COULD OF, but inside of the ring had bad judgement at times.

 

So you are revising history!!!

Which is fair enough, but always should be put in that context, as it is unfair otherwise.

 

He gets the sympathy vote for coming agonizingly close to winning a title on 3 occasions.

 

Kalule only had a handful of sharp performances left in him when he came out of a year and a half's retirement after the McCallum bout.He was briefly rejuvenated Hopkins style by coming back at a higher weight, but not for long.

Booze is completely right in saying what the view on graham losing to kalambay was at the time, in fact i'd probably say it's one of the biggest upsets in modern british boxing history...from a BRITISH perspective at the time.

However this is one of these cases when you actually see the fights you didn't at the time, imo you can pretty easily see the mighty effort given against Kalambay took most of what was left out of Kalule.I've got both up on youtube btw for anyone interested, though the kalambay fight is a bit ****ed up, but all the early rounds are there(wich were kalule's best imo).

He could still slip punches really well against Graham, but that's because the guy was extremely well schooled fundamentally.Offensively and reflexively he had nothing and could barely get any punches off.

Against Kalambay he was sharp as he had been since the early 154 bouts; threw more lead lefts and put more combo's together inside 3 rounds than he did in ten against Herol.

There was likely minimal effort put into considering Kalule might not have had much left when he fought Graham, or checking out Kalambay outside of the brief writeups in the boxing mags or his deceiving larocca'esque record.

Confidence in Graham was high and Barney Eastwood was a dodgy promoter/manager imo.Not exactly thorough or safe with any of the fighters he had.His choice of opponent for Graham on the McGuigan Cruz undercard when he was trying to showcase him as an opponent for Hagler was another disaster.


As for Graham himself, i agree he's been overhyped on message boards at times and for the wrong reasons imo(defensive technical master etc).he was still more or less a very good fighter that would be a tough puzzle to solve if you aren't a genuinely top-notch fighter.

 

It may have been, but it was defintely shown live (or maybe an hour or so behind with transmission) the actual night of the fight. It took place in the week.

 

100% true, using hindsight in these situations is ridiculous in my opinion. However, the boxing press felt it was a high-risk fight vs. a very capable opponent- and so it proved.

 

Eurosport showed it live if i remember rightly.

there's a Reg Gutteridge solo call as well.

I've always wondered if McCallum's fights with Graham and kalambay(2) were given an american broadcast incidentally.

 

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Yes, it was definitely shown in full that night, likely a live transmission, I watched it in the booozer. I didn't think it was Reg though, either Harry on Sportsnight or Steve Holdsworth on Euro or Screensport.

Not sure. I think Mike-Sumbu I was broadcast in the US, maybe that's why you didn't mention it.

 

Graham is VASTLY underrated.Yes Jackson startched him in 4 but Jackson also starched TERRY NORRIS IN TWO.


You do realize that if Graham would not have had a point deduction he would have DRAWN with Mkie Mccallum??The same Mccallum who beat the hell out of Michael Watson and a host of others.


And Graham beat Kalambay the second time-the decision was a disgrace.

He also beat a young SanderlineWilliams who gave NIGEL BENN hell.

And he knocked out a young Lindell Holmes who YEARS latter and WAY past his best took Eubank the distance.

 

Cobra, he stopped Holmes on a cut.
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soft point deduction in the mccallum fight as well.

ref was well harsh. :roll:

agreed on the 2nd kalambay fight as well.

 

I don't get the love either not because he wasn't as good as people say but because he had an ugly ass style.