It's a shame that boxing fans MAINLY know Kalambay for getting blown out in 1 by Nunn. Honestly, at his best, he was as good as any pure boxer. The first McCallum fight has gotta be one of the top 10 best pure boxing clinics ever put on. He also hopelessly outboxed Barkley in another beautiful clinic. I think he's a borderline HOFmer. Put it this way, Kalambay was MUCH better than McGirt, who just made the Hall. Kalambay's wins blow McGirt's away.
Yeah he's a very underrated guy. Aside from the McCallum and Barkley wins, on this side of the pond he has two wins over Herol Graham and one over Steve Collins. Excellent fighter.
McGirt shut out a faded Simon Brown and makes the Hall of Fame. Kalambay shut out a prime McCallum, and will probably never make it.
Show how good Collins was that he was able to give this guy a fight. Kalamby's name rarely comes up for discussion when people discuss great Afrian fighters. Amazingly, comparative bums like Sam Peter or Sugar Boy Malingerer are better known.
Pure boxers are always gonna be underrated, man. Unless of course you're one of the LEGENDARY pure boxers like Pep or Whitaker, but how many guys are immortalized like Pep and Whitaker? I can think of another beautiful pure boxer who should be in the Hall but has been forgotten... Lionel Rose.
Part of it I think is he fought out of Italy so he wasn't going to get a lot of notice in English speaking countries
This thread needs more attention. Always a big fan and admirer of Patrizio. Till this day I will never understand why he was never considered for the IBHOF. He was one of the finest MW champs and gave a prime McCallum a boxing lesson, a feat that is very impressive especially for a fighter of that caliber like McCallum. Kalambay was a great boxing technician.
There's a long, long list of guys who deserve in the HOF, and aren't in yet - Kalambay is one of them. Sad thing is, many will never get in, and I fear Kalambay is one of em.
Never has a single loss done more to undermine a fighter's legacy IMO. It just overshadowed everything he did before and after.
Another problem is that some of his best wins came before his opponents were widely known or renown (i.e.: Barkley was pre-Hearns, Collins was pre-Eubank). If he'd managed to pull off the win in the McCallum rematch, I think he'd be a lot better remembered than he is today.
I think it's a close run thing between Kalambay's loss to Nunn and Spink's loss to Tyson on that one.
