What are Mike McCallum's Top 5 wins?

[SCtrojansbaby]

McCallum's top 5 wins are in my opinion they are

1. Kalambay
2. Watson
3. Curry
4. Jackson
5. Collins

How do they compare with Bernard Hopkins Top 5 wins

1.Winky
2.Tarver
3.Pavlik
4.Trinidad
5.Johnson

and Roberto Duran's top 5 wins

1.Leonard
2.Marcel
3.De Jesus
4.Buchannon
5.Palomino

None of those top 5's are in order and use your own top 5 that's not what this thread is for.

[Scott9945]

Duran's was the best. McCallum's was second best.

[TBear]

Duran's was the best. McCallum's was second best.

I agree, it is also hard to have Duran's top 5 wins. It should be top seven or more with his career.

[them_apples]

Duran for sure. Then Hpkins then Mccallum.

Hopkins vs Mccallum? good fight.

[SCtrojansbaby]

When push comes to shove I would take Duran's top 5 over McCallum's but I think and argument can be made for McCallum. Obviously the Leonard win is HUGE and far greater than any win McCallum ever had but McCallum's wins over Kalambay Curry and Watson are IMO better than Duran's 2nd best win

[BennyST]

When push comes to shove I would take Duran's top 5 over McCallum's but I think and argument can be made for McCallum. Obviously the Leonard win is HUGE and far greater than any win McCallum ever had but McCallum's wins over Kalambay Curry and Watson are IMO better than Duran's 2nd best win

Really? In some respect I would agree that McCallum's best wins are underrated, but his wins over the guys you mentioned are in no way better than Duran's.

How do you judge a win over an opponent? You look at the best wins, career accomplishments and skill of that fighter.

Let's use your example of the 2nd place guys.

Marcel vs Kalambay.

General stats: Kalambay

Won a vacant title with a decision, in a much closer fight than the scores suggest, over Iran Barkley. Defended 3 times before being knocked out in 1 round against Michael Nunn. Was Euro champ for much of his latter career and ended with a record of 57-6-1.

His best wins are well and truly McCallum and Barkley. He also has very good wins over fighters Steve Collins, Herol Graham, Robbie Simms and Doug DeWitt. His lesser wins are honestly a bit of flaff. He is very top heavy. It drops off very quickly. Apart from that, Buster Drayton and Francesco DelAquilla maybe.....?

Of his best wins, McCallum, Barkley, Collins and De Witt were champions. Graham and Simms failed to ever gain a title, but were excellent fighters nonetheless.

Losses: early loss (ie. means nothing as still learning) vs Aldo Buzzeti. All other losses were during prime or after against Duane Thomas, champ Ayub Kalule, Nunn, McCallum in the rematch and Chris Pryatt.

General stats: Ernesto Marcel.

Won the WBA featherweight title after beating champ Antoino Gomez, but not before being robbed in a consensus terrible decision against WBC champion Kuniaki Shibata in Japan, receiving only a draw in a fight that he won very easily. Defended 4 times before retiring undefeated as champ. Lost 4 times and ended with a record of 40-4-2. Despite losing 4 times, he beat two of those fighters in rematches.

Marcel's best wins: champions (this is also back in the late 60's, early 70's) Alexis Arguello, Antonio Gomez x 2, Sammy Serrano, Alfredo Marcano. I think that's it.

Note: Bernado Caraballo. He has to be mentioned here simply because I rate him higher than any champ or fighter that Kalambay faced apart from McCallum and maybe even Barkley. Despite beating many, many great fighters, even legends (such as ATG Pascual Perez), his only two title shots came against Jofre and Harado, in their hometowns in their primes.

Apart from that he also has Jose Smecca, Miguel Riasco, and many, many others which I'm too tired to type a bout right now and will bet to later as well as his losses.

[SCtrojansbaby]

Well we definitely disagree, beating Collins and Graham twice is 1000x better than beating Barkley. Collins never gets enough respect a clean win over Collins is a GREAT win.

Also I don't know if you have ever seen Kalambay vs Kalule but I thought Kalambay was robbed.

I also think his win over McCallum ranks as one of the best wins of the entire decade no one had beaten McCallum as soundly as Kalambay beat him until Roy Jones.

[Hands of Iron]

Duran, but I consider the second fight with Toney as a W on his resume. That boosts him rather substantially as he was already in his mid-30s and Toney is one of the best fighters I've ever seen on film (as is McCallum himself).

01) Toney II (32-0) PTS12
02) Kalambay II (51-4) SD12
03) Curry (27-1) KO5
04) Jackson (29-0) TKO2
05) Watson (22-1) KO11


One of the most underrated resumes of the last 30+ years, really. There's further depth there as well with the likes of Collins, McCrory, Graham, Braxton, Kalule.

[Hands of Iron]

'Top Wins' also isn't really Bernard's thing. When you're having a trilogy with Robert Allen, your era is pretty **** honestly. McCallum buries him on the matter of top wins and (clean display) boxing skills IMHO.

[mickey malone]

His best wins were at 154 imo

Jackson, Kalule, and back to back brutal ko's over Curry and McCrory

Kalambay, Collins, Graham, Watson at 160, Arguably Toney aswell

Jeff Harding at 175