McCline had a few good wins and made some decent money but I think he could have done much more. Nobody really knew who he was until he stopped Michael Grant in 2001. McCline was already 25-2-3 and had been fighting as a pro for almost 6 years. His best win was a 10 round decision over Al Cole. He was stopped in his 2nd pro fight by Gary Bell... KO1. He dropped Grant in the first round with the very 1st punch of the fight. When Grant went down he broke his ankle and could not continue. In his next two fight he beat Lance Whitaker W12 (Whitacker had a nice winning streak going) and Shannon Briggs W10 (a near shut out). He took on Wladimir Klitschko in 2002 and was stopped in the 10th. I don't think he could have ever beat Klitschko but he was not ready for a fight like this. He came back with 3 wins by KO and took on Chris Byrd for the IBF HW Title. Byrd was dropped in the fight and won by questionable split-decision. He went 7-3 (4) in his next 10 fights over the next 2 years. It looked like what ever could have been should have already happened. His losses were to Calvin Brock (close fight, L10), Zuri Lawrence (very bad performance by McCline L10), and Nikolay Valuev (knee injury, LKOby3). He seemed like a safe opponent for Sam Peter but he gave Peter hell. He dropped Peter 3 times but managed to lose by decision. The fight was for the Interim WBC HW Title. He gave John Ruiz a few problems but came up short. The fight was a WBC Title Eliminator. He beat Mike Mollo W12 in his last win. The fight was a WBC Title Eliminator. In his last fight he was beat easily by Chris Arreola... LKOby4. My question is this... had McCline had the right people behind him could things have been better for him? Also, if he could have just gotten wins over Byrd and Peter (like some feel he deserved)... what would that have done for him?
He had size and some decent skills, but he was a bit timid and held himself back when he got his opponents hurt. He basically lacked the killer instinct, and should have been champion when he had Peter basically out. No I dont think the right people would have done any better for him. It was within him that was the problem. He had a very good trainer.
I agree with lefthook31. If he had more killer instinct, he may have had a more successful career, perhaps winning against Peter, Byrd and Brock.
