mike mcallum- how good was he?

Mike McCallum was a legitimate champ and a hell of a fighter, even at an older age, he fought a prime Toney and held him to a draw and MD.

 

Arguably the best JMW ever, one of the best fighters of the past 20yrs. Underrated, but when you mention his name, the superlatives generally flow.

 

To me Mike could have been competitive with all the so-called Fab Four.

Kinda like some of those mid-40's welters & Middleweights that never got a shot at the title when Ray Robinson and the Absentee Champs ruled during WW 2.

 

Mike "the bodysnatcher" Mcallum was once I believe going to fight SRL, but it never happened. I do remember his fights. I would have loved to have seen him fight Hearns back in the day.

 

He was a fine fighter. Really good body puncher and his chin is world class. Look at his resume and thats all you need to know about how good he was. He won the Junior Middleweight title in 84 and in 95 hes defended a Light Heavyweight Championship thats longevity right there. Beat Julian Jackson,Donald Curry,Milton McCroy,Steve Collins ETC. The Kalambay loss was bull**** and the Toney fights where close to. He never had a clear loss until he was about 38-39.

 

His chin, like him, is underrated. Julian Jackson clocked him and McCallum looked at him like a fly swatter looks at a fly.

 

To see a fantastic technical boxing match, watch his fight with James Toney. An extremely close fight which I would completely understand the case for either fighter winning. I had it 117-116 to Toney the first time I watched it, but I had 3 even rounds and literally every round save maybe a couple were hard to call. I consider it the best performance of Toney's career and one of McCallum's best as well.

 

one of the least talked about elite fighters of the 80's. definitely deserves more praise than he gets on these forums.

 

Why you say that? I've never seen their first fight, but from what I've heard, Kalambay outboxed McCallum relatively easily.

 

Incredible fight. There's enough technical boxing in that 12 rounds to last a lifetime.

 

+1
And rematch was very close. Kalambay seems to be just the wrong guy for Mike.

 

He was very good any man who can beat Julian Jackson (and walk through him as well) must be!

He would have lost to Herol Graham though, if Bomber had resisted the urge to punch him in the knackers!

 

great fighter.

2nd best jr middle ever.

arguably the best???

beat james toney (especially that rematch) twice for me.