Mike McCallum | Techniques & Strategies

McCallum was a brilliant old school adherent. His first bout with toney is amazing.

 

What do you mean by old school? Just about everything he did is what is taught in boxing today, he just did it at a very high level.

 

It depends what you class as old school.
I was referring to the way McCallum slips, rolls and holds his stance, not unlike a fighter from the 40s or 50s, like Joe Brown or Henry Hank.

 

You are right on the money with this. When a lot of fighters will back out and reset, Mike was there to counter to the body. He is underrated and most forget he was 35 and 36, 11 years older against the much younger coming into Prime Toney. Overall, his skills easily equal the Fab 4 as a whole … Not his fault, he was avoided.

 

He did that beautifully. That's why he's probably my favorite fighter.

I was curious, because I'm often unsure what people are referring to when they say old school. Pre 30's, to me, is characterized by hands at the waist and often the upper body square. 30's-50's, the guard is a bit higher, at chest level or under the chin in most cases, but the head often off center. Right hands are rolled rather than blocked or slipped on the outside. Benton was one who really pronounced the shoulder roll, even though it had been used for a long time, and more modern fighters like Toney and Floyd Mayweathers are clearly from that school. Ward wasn't a "Philly Shell" fighter, but he utilized quite a bit of the off center roll defense, so these three guys can be called old school to that extent.

McCallum to me was essentially modern, in that he usually had the head in center and guard at chin level and slipped straight rights on the outside mostly. But he also lowered his left quite a lot (from fatigue of always being active with the jab, is my guess) and rolled overhand rights. He had fantastic upper body movement and wasn't that reliant on his guard, but still had a pretty disciplined one with the exception of the left often getting lower as fights progressed.

 

True and Mike when engaged, kept his left elbow tucked tight to his body protecting it with his glove protecting his chin when he was in the pocket rolling. And his right was often free to block and parry punches. He didn't back out much

 

Although Mike was lucky to get the draw

 

I agree

 

Cuevas, Palomino, Benitez, SRL, Hearns, Duran, Hagler, & McCallum, .....the true Big 8 of that era.

 

The way he rolled the right hand and came back with his right uppercut to the body, he learned that from Eddie Futch. That was kind of his signature move, Futch that is. He taught it to Alexis Arguello, too.

 

Cotto, Barrera and JMM are some recent fighters that really worked the body. Mikey Garcia and Canelo two current.

But Chavez might be the best ever at it. He really took guys' souls.

 

Mccallum was a brilliant fighter in his prime, and is one of the most underrated fighters of the 80's. He may have been too workman like, personally, I don't think he defeats Hearns, Leonard, Hagler, Benitez, or a motivated Duran . But its a damn shame he didn't get a chance to try. He was too dangerous of a opponent for the money that would be gained. Politics of boxing, and his own ego also was at fault.

 

Yes it is a shame we didn't get to see Mike fight the bigger names. In fact, there can be a comparison drawn what happened to Burley, happened to Mike. Both were high risk, low reward guys where others were making more money fighting the bigger names