Tell me about Sumbu Kalambay

Sumbu was a very good fighter. Sharp, countered well and really skilled and he has some brillient wins on his record. The McCallum win was his best, Mike was going through a tough private life at that stage though, which might explain his low workrate and inactivity in that period. Taking nothing away from Kalambay though. McCallum liked fighters who fought balls to the wall like Julian Jackson, Kalambay playing chess with him put him off, however he did make adjustments and figured him out.

Sumbu had a flaw. He had a big blind spot if you did the right things, punched in volume and stepped around him to his blindside. Duane Thomas did this to him and won. That blindspot is why he had problems with southpaws, to say the Nunn KO was a fluke is a load of nonsense, it's like saying Martinez' KO of Williams was a fluke. Nunn set him up perfectly. Against southpaws Kalambay had to be more aggressive and squared up.

He was one of the top fighters of his era, i do find though that some people overrated him slightly, he was very good but wasn't a great IMO. I'd put him in that Buddy McGirt column.

 

Fair. I wanted to change my avy to Hagler but I couldn't find a pic that I wanted. I still think she's pretty ya jerk lol. I should change my avy to a female pornstar to **** you off more but I won't lol.

 

He had a very nice jab. I tell you anyone who beats a prime McCallum is one hell of a fighter

 

Yeah! How many times do you see a bonifide atg, near his peak get completely schooled like that? Superb performance.

 

Have you seen the fight? I have, and had Kalambay winning by a good 2 points (most others I've spoken to thought he deserved the nod as well). Excellent chess match type bout, though.

 

I've seen it. Many years ago though so I don't really have any recollection. Funny that you have Kalambay ahead and that he didn't get the nod despite it being on his hometurf in Italy. :shock:

 

There was a very good article in the boxing news on him a few years ago , I will try and dig it out and post the article.

I think he lives in Italy , said McCallum was the best he fought , most awkward was Graham (boxing news had Graham winning).

A strange one was how easy he said the Collins fight was , not sure if this is true as I havent seen the fight.

Will post the article later.

 

Where you getting the info on the Thomas fight from?.It wasn't televised and i've never been able to find any accounts of it that go into any depth.Not trying to argue, just interested.

I've watched plenty of Thomas, and it's difficult to imagine him executing that kind of fight, or having any kind of stylistic edge.He was a short, stocky basic high-guard,solid jab-right hand Jimmy Paul Kronk type...very little in the way of lateral movement or angles and didn't fight well going backwards.

I think Kalambay either fought very poorly or improved a huge amount afterwards if he lost that fight legitimately.It may have been a product of the busy Larocca'esque constant tune-up fights his inept management had him on at the time though.

 

i uploaded the Collins fight to youtube and posted it in classic a few days ago for people to score.Didn't get much feedback, but you should be able to find the thread easy enough.I thought it was a decisive performance, though there always seems to have been some fans that think Collins was robbed against Reggie Johnson and Sumbu.

 

It's here:

http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=40

 

Gave Collins either the 2nd or the 3rd(can't remember which one) and the 12th, with the first even.The rest to kalambay.


There were a few other close rounds because of Collins workrate, but he was hardly landing anything flush and getting hit with the cleaner punches.

you have to consider the context of the fight to appreciate it though imo.Kalmbay was years past his prime, in his late thirties and had become very inconsistent..he looked almost shot in 2 of his last 3 fights, but managed to regain a measure of sharpness here.

Of course, you should watch it and judge for yourself.Scoring criterion can vary as we know.