Result went to the right guy - McCallum, albeit in a very close fight. The frustrating thing about it being that if Herol had just put a little more workrate in he'd have got the verdict.
I remember Herol sleep walking the fight away after boxing Mike's head off early. Herol took some big shots to earn those rounds maybe he decided not to tempt fate thinking he had done enough to earn the fight.
I had it a draw, if not for the wrestling throw Bomber had it. Herol bamboozled him for the first four or five rounds. I don’t think he had a great deal of stamina in those massive legs of his, Herol.
Mike McCallum v Herol Graham Nasty fight to score and not the most aesthetically pleasing to watch either. This had me checking and double checking my scoring each round. There's no doubt that Graham's movement, erratic output and countering was a puzzle for McCallum. But did McCallum deserve the win? Yeah, I think he did. He definitely had trouble with Graham's style, particularly in the first half of the fight and he never fully solved it - Graham deserves credit for disturbing McCallum's natural rhythm. But McCallum didn't need to solve Graham's style completely, he just needed to pick up enough rounds and to his credit, he made the necessary adjustments over the second half to edge his way in front. He had the more consistent output and landed the more telling blows in my view. Graham also didn't help himself by losing a point for throwing McCallum and thankfully the bogus knockdown against Mike wasn't counted by the judges either. Not a great fight to watch but absorbing nonetheless from a scoring point of view. 1 9-10 (Graham controlled the distance well for most of the round, although got tagged a couple of times at the end) 2 9-10 (close) 3 10-9 (McCallum starting to find Graham with more regularity) 4 9-10 (another close one and tricky to score) 5 10-10 (BS knockdown call from the ref - McCallum clearly slipped on water that was left in the corner. Graham warned for throwing McCallum) 6 10-9 (close again. McCallum did the better work overall although Graham got in a couple of good straight lefts. I have Graham by 1 point at halfway point but without much confidence) 7 10-9 8 9-9 (a Graham round in terms of the action but a docked point for throwing McCallum again cost him the round outright) 9 10-9 (close. I feel McCallum edged it with the better inside work and more consistent output but Graham definitely had his moments too - this is the fight in microcosm) 10 9-10 (these rounds are being decided on fine margins. Graham's slick countering won him this round) 11 10-9 (McCallum landed the more telling punches) 12 10-9 (scrappy last round but McCallum did the better work overall) McCallum 115-113 Graham
I'll score this later, I promise - just want to point out something interesting first. If you transposed each guy's first name with the other's last, you'd end up with a very normal-sounding "Mike Graham" ...but also the very odd-sounding "Herol McCallum". Like, it actually rolls off the tongue quite nicely but it also sounds very fake. Like if somebody was being questioned by the police in a foreign country and feigned having lost their passport and had to make something up when asked.
1-HG 2-HG 3-MCC 4-HG 5-HG 6-MCC 7-HG 8-MCC 9-MCC 10-MCC 11-MCC 12-MCC I didn't include the nonsense point deduction In round eight.
