School me on Mike McCallum

I'm away from my computer so I don't have my notes handy.

He's one of the greatest lmw's in history and he'd have given hearns a good fight.

I had him winning the first toney fight which speaks volumes about his skill level. I had him losing the rematch however.

He has some cracking scalps about him: jackson, curry, kalambay, graham, toney, watson, collins, kalule, braxton, jeff harding and mccrory (or was it starling, I can't quite remember which one).

As a boxer he had an iron chin, great footwork and body shots as well as a very solid jab. He could fight for the full twelve also.

A great fighter of that there's no doubt. You probably need to watch a few fights to get his full compliment of skills as sometimes he's a great boxer-puncher and other times he's a bodysnatcher.

In my opinion he spent a while as the best lmw in the world and a shorter while as the best mw in the world.

Get some of his fights watched.

 

He's a highly skilled technician, strong, rangey and very smart continually out thinking his opponent. Great jab, breaks his opponents bodies

His resume is as good as many considered top10 in their respective divisions. His opposition was typically also avoided so he doesn't get due credit for beating them.

He was somewhat avoided by the Fab 5 - Hagler, LEonard, Benitez, Hearns, Duran

He was underrated in his own time but still underrated today

 

Hagler NEVER avoided him.That's nonsense.McCallum fought at middle for the 1st time in 88,a year after Hagler retired.He was never on Hagler's radar.

 

According to him he tried to get a Hagler fight and he complained to Hagler about it years later at the Hall of Fame. Hagler didn't have a problem fighting 154lbers and WWs

 

Good post apart from the bolded. His flat feet were his greatest weakness.

 

He was an aggressive fighter, usually coming forward, which makes how little he got hit solidly pretty remarkable. His upper body was always moving, sliding this way and that, never squaring up to his opponent, and he had this absolutely uncanny way of directing his punches in mid-flight; just a remarkably accurate puncher.

He patient, too. Not every punch was meant to debilitate, some he'd pull off of a little bit, either to figure range or gauge his opponent's reactions to something. Then he'd start ripping away to the head and body with both hands, yet always remaining elusive. I can't remember too many times (none come to mind, actually) where he had to take flush punches more than one at a time. And if he ever had to, his iron chin saw him through.

And no, Hagler didn't duck him; that's complete nonsense. He didn't move up to middle until after Hagler retired.

 

I saw the interview with that English boxing journalist of West Indian background.McCallum said Hagler approached him and said he respected him,to which McCallum replied,"If you respect me,why didn't you fight me?"At that time,there was never any discussion of a fight between the 2 of them.Never.Nothing.There was no discussion of it,no negotiations,no buzz,no attempt at any kind of promotion.McCallum(whom I believe was a great fighter,and who I believe may have beaten Tommy Hearns at 154),was pissed off that he never got a big money fight and was blowing off steam.But at that time,there was NO mention of a fight between them,and McCallum didn't fight at 160 until a year after Hagler retired.

 

McCallum made a **** of himself in that interview.

Not being an already established superstar if you wanted a fight with Hagler you needed to get in the thick of things at 160.

Mugabi the undeserving exception but he somehow got the high rating with his strong backing from Duff etc and fan friendly huge punching.McCallum had neither so what was he expecting.

 

I didn't mean as in fleet of foot. I thought he always positioned himself well, maybe ring iq would have been a better phrase.

 

Agreed.I was shocked to hear McCallum say what he did.There was absolutely nothing going on concerning a fight between Hagler and McCallum.Mike's just bitter because he never made the massive money.And if my memory serves me right,Mugabi was a mandatory.He was also perceived as a monster because he won all of his fights by ko,even though we all saw what happened after that.

 

McCallum didn't have great footwork but it was better than the likes of Louis, Zarate etc for his style of boxer-puncher(though he lacked the raw power of those men obviously)

He could get on his bike a bit if needed and was actually good at turning fighters and stepping out at angles after exchanging.It was when he was fighting other fighters with top textbook footwork that were also a bit quicker of foot that he struggled and could look a bit Tito\Louis-esque at times.

 

Better put than i.

 

Watson is probably the best fight for seeing him display nice footwork against another well-schooled fighter who didn't have an obvious mobility advantage.

 

Best Jr. MW and a really well rounded boxer puncher. One of my favorites to watch. Great counter and body puncher. Good defense using upper body movement and excellent ring IQ. He wasn't really a 1 punch KO artist as he relied on an accumulation of punches to the body. And as others have said his footwork really wasn't the best. He has shown to have trouble with slick mover types that make him look like a plodder. His chin is also one of the best I've seen as he was able to take a punch from guys like Julian Jackson and Donald Curry.

IMO I think he would have been able to best Duran and Hearns. Leonard, if he played the part as the mover, would have troubled McCallum but I think Mike would have been able to solve him. I don't think Mike would have beaten a guy like Hagler though.