How good was McCallum?

To be fair Mugabi was made the number 1 contender by all title organizations. He could have fought Graham or McCallum afterwards though but Hagler basically hung up the gloves waiting for Leonard.

 

He exchanged a few words with Steward after knocking out Milton McCrory.

Steward holds McCallum in high regard still and has no hard feelings. The same can't be said for McCallum.

 

Mugabi benefited a lot from Mickey Duff and being easily hyped because of his power.I like him, but you could probably find a decent number of fighters at that time who were more deserving of a shot.

 

I never was quite sure what to make of McCallum. He was obviously very impressively skilled, but he was also one of those guys who could do a little bit of a lot of things, but didn't do any one thing spectacularly. He also fell short (officially, at least) in many of his biggest fights - ie: Kalambay, Toney twice, Jones - and most of the titles he won were either vacant or some "interim" bull****. On the other hand, I did think he deserved the decision in his second fight with Toney, although not everyone saw it the way I did.

Sometimes I think McCallum may have been overrated; others, I think maybe he spent too long as an amateur and may have been past his peak by the time he got the chance to show his stuff in big fights.

 

To be fair though, he was shot by the time he fought Jones. That one can hardly be held against him. If anything how well he hung in there at that age should count in his favor. I thought he did quite well in the middle rounds.

 

Even in the Toney fights he was past his best imo.really hit the wall physically in those fights.you can see his age catch up with him and the legs and reflexes go over the second half of the first Toney bout.That was a terrific performance against a prime opponent with all the physical edges.

 

McCallum by reports sounds like a right **** outside of the ring.

An aussie poster was telling us a story about how he was travelling the U.S on the cheap and went into a few gyms to meet some of his fav boxers.
He was at a gym once and got several signatures...I think he got Howard Davis, Eddie Mustafa Muhummed, Jeff Mayweather and a few others.

He then went up to Mike, said hello and asked if he could get an autograph. McCallum replied that it would cost him $100 US. The bloke explained he couldnt afford it because he was backpacking. So then Mike just said well you dont get my autograph.

Apparantly EMM and Mayweather were shaking their heads, looking very embarrassed by the whole affair.

 

McCallum is greedy about money, which he explains is a culture thing in Jamaica, or atleast so he says in the interview about Hagler. On another forum there's a poster who is trained by McCallum and he describes him as very friendly.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abmZoQRxRrc[/ame]

 

You think Marvin and Mike had better chins than Lamotta Jersey J?

Or am I reading that wrong.

 

Kalambay was just a bad style for him, and for most people. The only time he was convincingly beaten in his prime was when Nunn scored a one punch KO over him in one round. Didn't even give him a chance to get started.

McCallum had a great "chin" but saying his ability to take punishment was only second to Hagler is a big statement. Don't overlook his defensive skills, although his ability to take a good punch certainly complimented that.

 

This is true.Even though it's obvious that McCallum was more well rounded than Mugabi,nobody is ever going to say that McCallum hit harder than Mugabi.Hagler did not duck McCallum.That's ridiculous.He fought the harder puncher-and no1 contender as A stated-in Mugabi,fought the cash cow that was Leonard in '87 and left the ring.McCallum had fought some fights at 160,but was still living at 154 between '86 and '87,the years of Hagler's last 2 fights.In fact,McCallum fought Kalambay in '88,a full year after Marvin left the ring.If McCallum wanted Hagler so badly at that point,he should have campaigned more at middleweight instead of fighting the Donald Currys of the world.I mean maybe the others ducked him-Leonard obviously preferring to fight LaLonde at 168 for both the 175 pound title and the newly formed 168 pound title instead of McCallum,but we'll never know if anyone really ducked McCallum,except Hagler(who obviously didn't)because McCallum really wasn't on the radar yet.

 

That's funny as hell considering Jones put one of the great schoolings of all time on Toney and McCallum and Toney had life and death struggles.

No "maybe", Toney was spouting utter shyte.

 

McCallum was known as a "head case" inside the industry. I also remember early rumours he was older than stated but can't remember what came of them.