Boxing lost one of its purest technicians on Saturday when Mike McCallum, Jamaica’s only three-weight world champion and a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, died in Las Vegas at 68. Reports say the revered stylist felt unwell driving to the gym, pulled over, and never made it to the heavy bag that had been his daily ritual since the 1980s.
McCallum’s résumé speaks for himself. A 1978 Commonwealth Games gold medalist and 1977 Golden Gloves champion, he turned pro in 1981 and lifted his first belt three years later, outclassing rugged Sean Mannion for the WBA super-welterweight crown. What followed was an exhibition in textbook violence: the flash-bulb left-hook knockout of Donald Curry, the body-ripping stoppage of Julian Jackson, and gritty victories over hard men such as Steve Collins and Herol Graham. Eddie Futch summed him up best - “He can slip, slide, and roll” - yet McCallum also possessed a finisher’s spite those words barely capture.
Frozen out of the ’80s superstar carousel featuring Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Durán, McCallum simply kept winning, climbing to middleweight and then light-heavyweight, where he toppled Jeff Harding in 1994 to become a bona-fide three-division champion. Across 55 professional bouts he was never stopped, closing at 49-5-1 (36 KOs) after trilogy wars with James Toney and a respectful 1996 meeting with rising phenom Roy Jones Jr.
In retirement he became the sage in Vegas gyms, passing on the dark arts of body punching and distance control to the next generation. This week’s International Boxing Hall of Fame festivities in Canastota will lower its flags and toll ten bells for a craftsman who made the difficult look effortless. Mike McCallum may have chased recognition in vain during his fighting days, but in death the consensus is clear: the Bodysnatcher was one of the finest who ever laced them up.
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