At the start of this fight, even though getting hit too much you really can see the intelligence of the Bodysnatcher. He throws the right punches at the right time, changing the angles of his shots to make them lands. Such a nice, fluid fighter to watch. Perfect kind of fighter to show a wanna-be boxer for me.
Good fight, though Hearns did better against the tough Italian, discounting the stoppage. Shows the levels between good and great but man McCallum was a beast. He'd beat any 154/160 pounder today thats for sure.
McCallum picked the punches very well. He seemed to react and adjust rather quickly on the offense. Sometimes it appeared that he would change the direction of the punch in the middle of throwing it. His defensive reactions weren't up to par, a tough and relentless fighter like Minchillo could still land punches on him despite McCallum definitely knowing a counter and a defensive technique for every move Minchillo made. The pressure unfortunately did not pay off as McCallum also had a great ability to take the odd punch that got through his usually solid defense. Credit to Minchillo for being an underrated tough guy, he wouldn't have been competitive at all if not for his willingness to soak up punishment. Short highlights: [dm]xhxrfc_mike-mccallum-vs-luigi-minchillo_sport[/dm]
Michillo was a tough european fighter, but matching up against Hearns or McCallum or Duran, he was in against top fighters. People saying Duran was washed up after Ray doesn't make sense. Duran easily beat Minchillo, and then Duran fought Benitez and was outclassed. It was that Benitez was a great fighter-which was the reason Duran lost to Benitez soon after he fought Minchillo.
