At 160lbs. They each ducked his Haile Sellassie, Rastafari, bumba claat, bludclaat, rassclaat Jamaican ass. How would each fight have panned out had they had the cojones to fight him? Vs Duran McCallum by clear unanimous decision Vs Hearns McCallum KO 5 Vs Leonard Leonard by close decision Vs Hagler McCallum by split decision
Decisions Duran, loses to the other 3. Loses to Leonard the most convincingly. Might give Hearns a few late round scares, but Hearns piles up too many rounds. Is competitive with Hagler, but Hagler remains in control overall.
Clean UD over Duran He could KO Hearns late, or even decision him but I narrowly favor Hearns Hagler UD McCallum Starling would stink the shit out of McCallum en route to a wide unanimous decision victory
At 154, McCallum is too big and strong for Starling... it'd be a good boxing match but I'd say McCallum 8-4 is a safe bet
McCallum was an excellent fighter; certainly in the same league as Hagler. McCallum had a rock solid chin himself, tremendous stamina, infighting skills, boxing skills, power.
No, McCallum was NOT on the same level as Hagler. McCallum at NO point was legitimately the P4P #1 as Hagler was in the mid 80's. Mike was an excellent fighter, a great one in fact, but not quite an ALL TIME great like Hagler. He didn't have the style to beat Hagler either. Hagler was the more versatile of the two, and his right jab would be in McCallum's face all night long. McCallum is COMPETITIVE, but no way does he actually WIN. Especially not if we're talking the early-to-mid 80's Hagler.
McCallum would have beaten every fighter that Hagler beat in the 80s....including Hearns IF Hearns had fought him the way he fought Hagler. He was never P4P # 1 because he was avoided, deliberately or not, by all the big names which would have helped his legacy. Hagler fights Mugabi, a big bomber, and takes 11 rounds to dispatch him, McCallum faces Jackson...the equivalent and wipes him out in 2 rounds. Michael Watson and Herol Graham were as good as any middleweights that Hagler beat except Hearns....and we agree that McCallum would have decisioned Duran also.
The fact that the only guy that agrees with Sly is Trplsec tells you all you need to know Trplsec would call Dan Marino the 10th best QB in the history of the Miami Dolphins before he'd say anything critical about McCallum
Hagler was not the same fighter post-Hearns, and "like I said before", I'd have picked Hearns over Hagler. And before you bring up Hagler's struggles, ask yourself would Hagler have gotten WHITE WASHED by Sumbu Kalmbay. Once again I'll say, Hagler was the more complete and versatile of the two, and the tougher and meaner. Of the four though, I think McCallum loses the widest to Leonard. Ray's speed would have put the methodical McCallum behind the eight ball all night long.
Sly hates Hagler and tries to diminish him because he loves Hopkins and wants everyone to pretend that Hopkins middleweight opposition isn't hands down the worst of any middleweight with a legit top ten claim so he diminishes Hagler's far superior comp with flat-out lies in order to make it seem like Robert Allen, Joe Lipsey, the corpse of Simon Brown weren't fucking horrible opponents Hagler was as superior to McCallum as 10 is to 7
