revisionist myths series 1: mike mccallum fab 4

So glad you’re still about mate.

 

Here’s a little insight into why McCallum was never able to force his way into the discussion of fighting the Fab Four:

When Duran and Hearns fought for the 154-pound title, they split more than $3M.

When McCallum fought for the vacant junior middleweight crown, Bob Arum won the purse bid for $70K. That was the total for purses for McCallum and Sean Mannion. Not one promoter in the entire world thought it was worth putting up $100K even to have McCallum in a title fight, which tells you what they thought they could draw and what kind of TV deal/site fee money could be generated.

He was playing in the minor leagues financially and they were the majors.

 

LMAO - and on on point!

 

I agree that for the most part, the timelines just didn’t match up. I do think that he was desperately unlucky though.

Manny Steward had huge respect for him. He had him at the Kronk and he saw his daily sparring wars with Tommy Hearns. He said they were better than most fighters pro fights. In my honest opinion, he wouldn’t have wanted Tommy to have faced him. You could say that a fight with Duran was obviously bigger, but Manny engineered Mike’s fight with Mannion so that Tommy could fight Duran instead of McCallum.

You say that Mike blew the fight with Hearns by losing to Kalambay. But I don’t believe that at all. Again, I don’t think Manny wanted the fight.

Hagler was winding down and retired in 1987.

Maybe Mike could have moved up to MW earlier.

I don’t think Duran would have begged to have fought him.

Ray came back out of his many retirements and fought a pointless 3rd fight with Duran. He then fought Lalonde. Ray knew that they were very winnable fights. He wouldn’t have wanted to have fought Mike at that point. There was no point in him doing that. He then came back for Norris as he’d seen him get taken out by Jackson a few years earlier, before going on to fight a few lower level guys.

I think Mike is a bit bitter. But I think we’d all feel aggrieved in his shoes, because he was definitely as good as what they were.

 

He was unlucky though.

I don’t think Manny wanted Hearns to fight him, and it had to hurt when he saw Ray fight Duran III and Lalonde.

 

They were really. Ray was never a proper SMW. He just wanted the glamour of another title. But fighting Mike back then wouldn’t have made any sense.

 

I don’t think so.

They were all past their peaks in the mid 80’s.

 

Good post, but I can’t envisage any version of Marvin putting a beating on him, and the version of Duran from his third fight with Ray, wasn’t the version who’d fought Marvin 5 years earlier.

 

There was no need for that.

That’s unfair. But he must have been so frustrated watching Marvin fight a guy like Mugabi, knowing that he was on another level.

 

I really don’t see what difference it would have made if he hadn’t have lost to Kalambay.

Ray would still have preferred Duran III and Hearns II fights.

I honestly don’t think that Manny would have wanted Hearns to have fought him.

 

Great post.

I think he saw that Norris was vulnerable after the Jackson fight and like you say, he was more his size.

He was never going to fight Nunn.

Absolutely pointless with his age and Nunn’s great ability and size.

Nunn was great and had a 77” reach.

 

Mugabi was nowhere near their level.

 

I agree. In hindsight he definitely should have turned pro earlier. He could also have moved up to MW earlier. But he was unlucky not to get the fight with Duran. It should have been Duran instead of Mannion.

 

Oh it makes no difference on if he could beat anyone, it has to do with marketing. If he wanted to demand to fight the fab 4 then beating Kalambay in 1988 would have been a good message to give. When he lost, his momentum was slowed down. I don't think the fab 4 were going to fight Mike McCallum.

 

We know that on a P4P basis, Ray was on another level to Nigel Benn. But in a H2H fight in the early 90’s, Benn would have jumped on him and hurt him. I’m glad that that didn’t happen.