Just how good a MW was Herol "Bomber" Graham in the latter half of the 1980s?

One of the slickest, most skilful and unluckiest British boxers of the past fifty years.

 

He was utterly brilliant and misunderstood.

The myth was that he couldn't punch, whereas he could when he wanted to, my thoughts were at the time that despite being ranked No1 at middleweight, he was never going to get a shot as long as Hagler was on the throne, I think he would have made a fight with Marvelous very interesting at that stage of his career, I'm not saying he would have won, but I genuinely don't think Hagler fancied it at that stage of his career.

He was cruising at 38-0 when he met the underrated Sumbu Kalambay, I think he would have won, but frustrated with his lack of a title shot, he was being managed by Barney Eastwood
who wanted him to be more aggressive and pressure orientated, he was caught between styles as a result, and lost his unbeaten record.

Just an incredibly unlucky fighter

 

Would have been a superstar these days

 

I always thought he was quite a bit better than Benn, Watson and Eubank who came along just a little later.
The Kalambay fight was unfortunate derailment. There's no way anyone was to know how good Kalambay had become at that time. It was really regarded as a credible but routine European title defence.

 

Kalambay was completely unknown except he was dropped multiple times by Ayub Kalule (not a known puncher) in a previous EBU title bid.

Graham then koed Kalule (though he did get hit a bit more than usual).

Then Graham left the Ingle camp (because he could not get a World title shot) and went to Barney Eastwood who tried to change him into a more aggresive fighter.

Looked terrible and still barely lost to Kalambay (the last round knockdown sealed for the Italian).

Definately won the return and Sumbu still had enough to beat a young Steve Collins.

Superior to champs like Doug DeWitt, Jorge Castro (Argentinian would be dangerous with his unorthodox swings), and I think the Graham who gave McCallum fits would beat Benn, Watson and Eubank at middleweight as long as he kept his chin out of the way.

 

****ing good!

 

Herol Graham is the most talented British boxer in my lifetime who didn't become world champion.

I still don't understand it...

 

Wasn't helped by the fact he was largely a defensively brilliant fighter, and the press labelled him "dull" and a non puncher, (he was neither).

Here's Herol being a non puncher

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He was the nearly man. Never quite good enough, always found a way to fail. Overrated.

Every single thread on Herol Graham is filled with if/but/would've/could've/should've comments. It's pathetic really.

He fought for a world title three times and lost three times. He had his chances.

He even lost in British title fights and European title fights.

He was flawed, definitely not as good as the nostalgia biased fans claim.

 

‘You have to take your opportunity with both hands, like I did last week (stopping Nigel Benn), because you don’t know if you’ll get another.’
-Eubank directly following the Julian Jackson v Herol bout in Spain