Athletes - Mike McCallum

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	Athletes - Mike McCallum

One of boxing's greatest champions, Mike McCallum (born December 7, 1956) was from Kingston, Jamaica, but fought almost exclusively in the USA. He first became a world champion in 1984 by defeating the granite-hard Sean Mannion to win the WBA junior middleweight title, but came to prominence by knocking out two contenders that had been very highly regarded welterweights- Milton McCrory and Donald Curry.

In 1988, he moved up to middleweight, suffering his first defeat in an attempt to win the WBA midleweight title from Sumbu Kalambay. In 1989, He defeated Herol Graham to win the vacant WBA middleweight title. He defended the title several times, defeating Steve Collins, Michael Watson and Sumbu Kalambay, avenging his earlier loss.

His two fights with James Toney in 1991 and 1992 were exciting & full of excellent boxing on both sides. The first fight, which was a draw, was named "Fight of the Year" by Ring Magazine. After losing the Toney rematch by a majority decision, McCallum moved up in weight and won the vacant WBC light heavyweight title by knocking out former champion Jeff Harding.

He was now in, at least, his late 30s (some said his 40s) & unsurprisingly did not hold this crown long, losing the title to Fabrice Tiozzo. He attempted to regain the title from the fantastically talented Roy Jones Jr, but lost by decision. In his last fight, McCallum lost his rubber match to James Toney in an attempt to win the lightly regarded WBU cruiserweight title.

McCallum was known as "the body-snatcher" because he specialised in body punching, but unlike most other body punchers did not take head punches in return because he was defensively so adept. His greatest professional problem was that the great welterweights and middleweights, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, and Roberto Duran, knew how dangerous he was and declined to face him without pecuniary rewards that his own promoters were unwilling to meet. Hence he only achieved stardom at the tail-end of his long and illustrious career. He retired with a record of 49-5-1 (36 KOs). He was never knocked out.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mike McCallum ]

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