Herol Graham: I don't get the love

He only got that chance though because Graham was never the best of ring-generals, got complacent, sloppy and needlessly went for a knockout knowing Jackson was getting told he only had a round or two before he was getting hauled out.PLenty of lesser hitters would have taken him out too if given a similar free shot with the ridiculous position Graham put himself in.The fact it was Jackson just made the KO overkill really.

I'm more of a jackson fan than a Graham one, but Julian got the **** beat out of him that night and it was damage done early in that bout that really finished his eyesight off.

An embarassing night for both fighters really.

 

Maybe someone across the pond can help me out on this one. I was subscribing to Boxing News at the time of the first loss to Kalambay and there was a bit of trouble brewing over Graham's management and his lifelong trainer Brendan Ingle. Whatever it was, Ingle was not allowed to train or be in the corner of Graham that night (was he ever in his corner again?). Regardless, Ingle was there at ringside for the fight and BN reported that as the rounds progressed Ingle became more visibly agitated until finally leaping out of his seat screaming, "Herol, use your jab!" Can anyone shed light on what happened between management and Ingle and who was in his corner that night??

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Let's not forget the Kalambay fight was Graham's first without Brendan Ingle. Barney Eastwood tried changing him into an offensive fighter for that fight, because his defensive style pre-Kalambay wasn't very crowd-pleasing. He already signed to fight Barkley for the world title and Kalambay was supposed to be a tune-up.

 

They weren't. For some reason, McCallum never had American-TV backing (that's the reason the Eubank fight never took place).

NBC chose Benn-Watson over Graham-McCallum.

 

Money matters, Graham left him but went back

 

Graham was clever but his style turned me off, that Brendan Ingle ,chin in the air stuff .atsch

 

He was going for the KO because he was mad that Jackson had knocked his new teeth out

 

Ingle didn't invent that style, Graham did, Ingle adopted it

 

A but unrelated, but I'm watching McCallum-Kalambay II again. What a peach of a fight that is! Such skill on display.

 

I know. I'm not a fan of either.

 

I'm not disputing it was an upset..or that Bomber was expected to win.

Kalambay was an unknown quantity and based on common opponents, Herol should have dealt with him.

I'm just saying when reflecting on his career he shouldn't be judged harshly for not being able to beat Kalambay..because clearly Sumbu was a lot better than people expected him to be.

 

Yes, I would say that now, but even after Kalambay's upset win over McCallum, I was still mighty ticked off that the Bomber had blown the fight, not least because Barkley looked so poor losing to Kalambay.

I think Kalambay was a very good fighter, but I am not sold on him like some round here. Graham, 24 years of hindsight or not, had the ability to beat Kalambay, but IMO, lacked the mental strength of the Italian, who kudos to him, made the most of that.

 

I think it was a fairly typical disagreement about their contract & the money. The book "Paddy And The Prince" has the details. Allegedly Ingle was so angry he had started thinking about killing Graham during a training session.

I'm guessing they worked together again then had another fallout, as they made up a few years ago on camera after not speaking for many years. They met in a cafe and Graham simply apologized for everything that happened.

 

Thanks, Joe. Don't know if it would have made a difference with Ingle in his corner that night, but Herol was on quite a run at that time and it does appear to be evident that Ingle was part of the reason he was there in the first place.

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It was Eastwood's Panamanian trainers that worked Graham's corner that night.Bernardo Checa etc guys that had worked with the likes of zapata.

They were trying to work on Graham's offense and get him a bit more technically schooled around that time(86-87), but after he lost to Kalambay there ended up being the idea pushed by some that he had lost because he had changed his style, got rid of Ingle etc