Is Mike McCallum the greatest 154 fighter ?

Not many great light middles that were better than McCallum, not a lot of depth at 154 historically.

 

Seriously?! Name ten great light middles.

 

Maybe but Hearns would have beaten Floyd at 154 and beat Benitez, Duran lost to Benitez at 154 and was a natural lightweight with a 68 inch reach, McCallum hadn`t proved himself at 160 when Hagler was champ and Marvin fought Leonard in 1987, when was he suppossed to fight McCallum? McGabi v Hagler was a huge fight in 1986 and Mugabi was naturally bigger than McCallum and punched far harder than him.

 

that's actually a fair point.

 

Damn shame he couldn't get the big fights until it was too late. He'd of won some.

 

Mike Mccallum is beyond a shadow of a doubt the greatest JMW of all time. He was perfect at the weight, he was 32-0 at JMW. His armor didn't kink until MW and even then it was the tiniest of kinks.........................not to mention he avenged that loss. Hearns was great at JMW and beat two ATG's at JMW but was 7-0 at the weight, it was a pit stop. Also, I've gone on and on that no one could outbox Hearns (and it in fact never happened even once), but if I had to stretch and pick someone that could, Mike Mccallum would be the only name that comes up (modern era).

Someone mentioned Floyd at JMW..................be ****in forreal

 

YES!

 

Ain’t nothing wrong with being number two.

 

Yeah, that's way overblown. Especially when it comes to Hagler, I doubt McCallum even was on his radar.

Hearns is the one with the clearest opportunity to fight him. He went down again to 154 for one more fight after Hagler, a defence of his WBC belt. He probably could have gone for unification against McCallum instead, but there wasn't much money in that fight and Steward and Hearns had trained with MIke and knew just how good he was. Leonard stated clearly that he thought McCallum was too big a risk for too little award, and he didn't stay at MW anyway after Hagler so there was no natural meeting point for him with McCallum.

Hearns is the one who did have a natural meeting point with Mike, but it was a pretty brief window.

 

I'd say Hearns, with his wins over Benitez and Duran plus a few other defences.

 

Where was McCllum rated in 1982 when Hearns beat Benitez?

 

Top 5 but it has to be said McCallum had fought total nobodies at that point his first notable name was Kalule right at the end of 1982 and he didn't win the Jr Middleweight title until 1984.

 

I should not comment because I am a huge Tommy Hearns fan, but I think Tommy at this weight and boxing was the best ever. Mike was great, but I don't think he ever reached the level of Tommy on whom he fought and how he won. Curry was a great win months after the Honeyghan fight. Curry wanted to get back where he was and thought he could just beat Mike and get there just like that, and Mike was an amazing fighter. Tommy beat Benitez and Duran at the weight and if his whole career is put under the microscope and then this being probably his best weight as far as experience and maturity, Tommy comes out on top.