McCallum Vs Watson I,ve never seen this fight Is it close - Would like to hear views on it Just curious as I'm reading Watsons biography and he seems to think he only lost because he missed out on a warm up fight Cheers
As far as I can remember not really close.....but Watson had his moments.....very good performance by Mike......
Watson got schooled and faded badly towards the end.He was stopped more from exhaustion than from any notable heavy punching. One of the very few fights where McCallum's vaunted bodyshots took a visible toll on an opponent stamina-wise and opened them up for a stoppage. It wasn't a flashy one-sided beating Jones jr or Whitaker-esque kind of schooling, more McCallum just being old school, staying relaxed and a couple steps ahead while breaking him down inch by inch.Classic mid-range box-fighting at centre ring for the most part. Watson had his moments and landed some big right hands, but was never able to take the initiative technically,nor win the bulk of the exchanges through sheer workrate. Watson had indeed been out for a year and was relatively inexperienced.He looked pretty stiff and tense at times, but he was also just in with someone who was the better boxer-puncher.
Watson's timing was off, and he was falling short with the right and countered by McCallum downstairs. It was a very high tempo fight. Watson was 10 years younger and three weights bigger, but couldn't make it count because he couldn't find his timing and range, so just tried to out-work McCallum which you're never going to do because Mike was so gifted, such an effortless puncher.
What do you mean ? McCallum's lowest division was 154 and Watson's highest was 168. Also , McCallum was fully grown by then and was almost as big at that point. And Watson was 9 years younger not 10.
Same were Benn , McClellan , Eubank , Collins , LaMotta and whose not ? McCallum even won a belt @ 175 if you want to be so stubborn . I agree that Watson was a bit bigger by then but in no way he was 3 weights bigger.
Benn was never a light-heavy who could make middle! God. It took him years to fully grow into super-middle, and he could still make middle comfortably. McClellan sure, and Eubank sure. McCallum was podgy at 175, he had a belly.
Herol Graham actually said that he wasn't bothered by McCallum's body punching at all, but had trained very hard to make himself resistent to it. McCrory was another one that Mike ground down to the body, though.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJTw7jEmk0[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYyx3oU365Q&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVSMS208pY&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3H63dz8aoo&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh1mr6RNkwk&feature=related[/ame]
This is about it. I'd just add that it was a performance of real guts from a heroic Watson and his graduation night.
i have said it before and will say it again i was at this fight and it was like watching a man in with a boy , and i am not being disrespectful to Watson, McCallum was just that impressive
When did they day before weigh in come into effect? It's clear it was in effect in the late 80's, when giants like Barkley, Watson and McClellan was at MW. They must all have been close to 175 lbs in the ring even as MWs.
I don't think the early weigh-ins became widespread until about 1992. Watson certainly didn't benefit from them - the injuries he suffered against Eubank were partly due to the dehydration, and led to a change to earlier weigh-ins in British rings at least.