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It came in two discs, on one disc was Graham, Collins and Watson. On the other disc was Kalule, Braxton and Carl Jones.
Let's get one of the discs out of the way - the fights against Kalule, Braxton and Carl Jones were repetitive, boring and completely one-sided fights. McCallum was in control of all three fights at all times, with his eery ability to make it look as though he's just punching a heavybag. He won every round against Kalule, Braxton and Carl Jones - Kalule being stopped between rounds, Braxton being stopped and Carl Jones being stopped.
The other disc was much more interesting..
McCallum vs Graham
A competitive clash between the two most avoided fighters of the 1980's
(Hagler, Leonard, Hearns and Duran avoided these two like the plague). This one was difficult to score, over the course of the fight Graham made McCallum look bad at times but McCallum kept his composure and didn't get discouraged. Graham was out-classing McCallum early on, picking up the first two rounds fairly easily as McCallum struggled to come to grips with him but Graham strangely coming out of those first few rounds with swelling around the eyes. It wasn't the usual ultra-defensive Graham here at all, he was suprisingly in McCallum's face with his hands by his side and leading - throwing a lot of leather and even rocking McCallum on a number of occasions throughout the fight (which was strange because Graham was renowned for being feather-fisted). McCallum had edged his way back into the fight more and more because he was more disciplined than Graham with better punch accuracy and landing cleaner shots, not to mention clearly superior technical ability. McCallum slipped on water in the corner in round five but it was scored a knockdown, however things were evened up in round eight when Graham had a point deducted for no apparent reason. The middle rounds were scrappy, there was more and more infighting as the fight wore on (which was strange for Graham). Graham was taking far more punches than he ever had in his life (Graham usually stayed on the back foot and didn't take a flush punch in his whole career until adopting a more attacking style against Kalambay at the end of his career), due to being on the front foot so much which was so out of charactor for him. McCallum was leading with his head a few times, and throwing a few low blows - maybe it was out of frustration because Graham was so difficult. After 10 rounds it was difficult to seperate them, but Graham looked really tired towards the end and, in the end, McCallum looked a worthy winner because he looked in better shape than Graham at the end. It was so difficult to score, but McCallum overall did the overall better work and, at the end of the day, Graham came out of it more marked up and tired out than McCallum. If the fight happened five years earlier when Graham was still young enough to rely on reflexes, Graham would of won.
McCallum vs Collins
Collins came out and tried to box McCallum, but was being edged out for the first four rounds. I scored the first four rounds for McCallum, and Collins suffered a cut eye in round four. Then in round five Collins got tagged hard and often in a one-sided round that I scored 10-8 for McCallum. Collins may of been suffering from stage fright, afterall he was only a 16-fight novice. But Goody Petronelli told him after the fifth round to forget about finesse and get rough with McCallum (reminded you of Tony Duke with Rocky just right before the Ivan Drago fight, you know I think when Duke kept saying "no pain" and stuff), Collins did the sign of the cross as he got up for round six and pulled himself together. He brawled McCallum like he did against Eubank and Benn, and to the suprise of all Collins completely dominated round six. Eddie Futch, in McCallum's corner, was giving instuctions for McCallum to box and move, counter and move, jab and move, stay away etc. But Collins continued to dominate McCallum more than he ever dominated Eubank or Benn, he clearly won three rounds in a row (round six, seven and eight - getting through often in six and seven and rocking McCallum despite everybody agreeing beforehand that "Stevie Collins couldn't break an egg"), with Futch instructing McCallum after each round to stay away from him and to box on the move. Collins became just too ragged for you to score him the next three rounds though (McCallum winning rounds nine, ten and eleven based on punching accuracy and cleaner shots). McCallum stayed out of range in the final round and made Collins miss a few times too, but you would have to score that last round of the fight for Collins because he was throwing so many punches and chasing McCallum. My final score- 116-111 for McCallum. If Collins fought McCallum from the start as he did from round six onwards, Collins would of won.
McCallum vs Watson
This was a brilliant, high-tempo fight. The pace of the fight didn't ease up until one man crumbled, it was Watson setting the pace with McCallum looking to pick his shots more. The fight was originally scheduled for November 1989, but was postponed because Watson suffered a broken nose in his last round of sparring before the fight. Even though Watson would be suffering from severe ring rust, he started as the favourite against McCallum. But Watson, renowned as a pure counter-puncher, was told to lead and pressure McCallum instead because his people felt that McCallum was at the end of the road and wouldn't cope. Everything was stacked against Watson in this fight - ring rust, applying style he wasn't used to, experience disadvatange, pressure of starting as favourite, and to make matters worse his nose got busted again early on and he was blowing hard as early as the second round. I thought Watson did good with him though, McCallum started slowly and Watson picked up the first few rounds based on workrate and blocking punches well. Then in rounds three and four, Watson started getting through with cleaner shots and wobbling McCallum. By the time round five was on the scene, Watson was still getting the better of McCallum based on throwing more punches than McCallum and blocking most of the punches McCallum was throwing back. I scored the first five rounds for Watson, with round six as a 10-10 round because Watson wasn't getting through cleanly enough. The general pattern of the fight continued in round seven, Watson doing enough to win the round despite McCallum showing more quality. Watson's work got more ragged in round eight, McCallum winning round eight based on landing harder, cleaner shots and more regularly than he done up to that point. McCallum landed a right hand-left hook combination after the bell to signal the end of round eight but didn't even get a point taken away let alone disqualified, Watson was shaken up. Watson couldn't shake off the effects of the hard punches McCallum landed on him after the bell, and in round nine his work appeared very ragged with McCallum winning round nine on pure accuracy. It was the first time Watson had ever been into a 10th round, and it showed as he was just dragging himself on with McCallum displaying a lot more accuracy than Watson. At the start of round 11, Watson's gumshield was punched out and this caused him to try to end the fight there and then or go through three minutes without a gumshield. But McCallum also wanted to take advantage of Watson's gumshield being knocked out and so they opened up on eachother - with the courageous Watson getting the better of it before collapsing in as much exhaustion as pain and being counted out. Watson was right at the very start of his career whereas McCallum was a wily old veteran who knew how to pace himself, so all props to Watson. If Watson fought McCallum like he fought in the Eubank rematch (where he appeared much sharper), Watson would of definately won.
Mike McCallum was supremely consistent, but lacked that extra something to make him special.
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