Mike McCallum vs. Jake LaMotta

What happens when an immovable chin meets an irresistable body snatcher?

To me, this is an interesting fight. LaMotta gets a lot of head-to-head love in mythical matchups because (a) you basically can't hurt him or knock him out, (b) he's strong and going to keep coming forward and (c) he managed to beat SRR (albeit with a 15-pound weight advantage, and SRR proved his superiority over the course of their series).

McCallum was underappreciated and largely avoided during his time. He's gotten more appreciation over the years, but still probably doesn't quite get the amount of credit that he deserves.

I'm wondering how they'd match up, at 160 and maybe at 165 (LaMotta fought over the middleweight limit quite often - and many times against welters who were coming up a few pounds), and McCallum transitioned fairly well from 154 to 160 and was very viable at the world-class level up to light heavy.

McCallum isn't going to be looking to crack Jake's jaw. He's going to work to win rounds and sink those trademark body shots to slow LaMotta down. And LaMotta is going to keep coming, and wade in with body and head shots of his own.

My gut tells me McCallum is too slick and wins over 15 rounds, competitive but not razor-close.

How do you see this one?

 

One thing I keep coming back to is LaMotta lost 19 fights with three draws, and it's not like he hung around forever after his prime -- lost the middleweight crown to SRR in early '52 and his last fight was in the spring of '54.

Only four of his losses came after he lost the crown to SRR, and he wasn't exactly fighting ham-and-eggers or down-and-outers.

He also had only 30 KOs in 106 fights.

LaMotta was certainly not unbeatable in his heyday. Heck, he lost a non-title fight in his next outing after winning the 160-pound championship.

McCallum wasn't untouchable either, but I think his skill set matches up well for this one and LaMotta is certainly no more likely to get a KO here than McCallum is.