There are two reasons you might know Mike McCallum’s name. First, he was one of the great body punchers of all time. Certainly you aren’t going to get the nickname “Body Snatcher” in professional boxing unless you are going to the body with ferocity and regularity. Secondly, Mike McCallum is called one of the most avoided fighters in boxing.

Whenever you start talking about “ducked” fighters, you can never really get much beyond he-said, she-said. McCallum contended that the Four Kings—Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Duran—avoided him. All we can say is that McCallum was among the best in the world, and he seldom got the biggest fights. He was in the awkward position of being very good, and not very well known. McCallum got to fight for the vacant WBA super welterweight belt in October 1984 because Roberto Duran opted not to defend it against him, but Duran was doing that in order to go up to middleweight and fight Marvin Hagler for all the belts, all the prestige, and all the money. If McCallum was ducked by the Four Kings, it was because his risk : reward ratio never made sense.  

McCallum’s inability to land big fights stateside did have one interesting by-product. He was willing to travel and to fight the local favourite. This meant that when he went up to middleweight in 1988 and won the WBA belt, he was able to insert himself into the booming British and Irish middleweight scene. This was the era of Eubank, Benn, Watson and Collins, and while they always talked about fighting James Toney and Roy Jones through the early nineties, McCallum the one American champion willing to give British fighters shot. He faced Herol Graham (possibly the best British fighter to never win a world title), Steve Collins and Michael Watson, beating all three. When Collins’ went on to two wins over Eubank and Benn, and Watson fought two hard fights with Eubank, McCallum’s work against both served as an answer to the US vs European middleweight debate. Additional context was given with McCallum’s two excellent fights with James Toney in 1992.

One of McCallum’s masterpieces was his victory over Julian Jackson at super welterweight in 1986. Jackson was an undefeated prospect with a 29-0 record and 27 knockouts. He was already recognized as a sensational hitter, though pundits did not realize the young man they were watching would go on to be regarded as perhaps pound-for-pound the greatest puncher of all time. On a slow afternoon it is always worth pulling up a Julian Jackson highlight to watch him deliver knockout after show-stopping knockout with blows that just look like normal, well balanced punches. Jackson was leaving fighters on the deck with their eyes rolled back, and he didn’t even look like he was straining.  

Mike McCallum can be summed up in his toughness, his defence, his bodywork, and his willingness to take risks to land his counters. His fight with Julian Jackson lasted just two rounds, and he showed every one of these traits as if he were performing a tech demonstration.

The theme of the fight was McCallum’s willingness to draw Jackson’s booming right hand, in order to counter it. From the very first exchange, McCallum put up a forearm block, ducked below the overhand, and returned with a right uppercut to the beltline.

Rolling the Right Hand

Weaving

Rolling

High Guard

Leverage Guard to Collar Tie Uppercut

Jabbing Around