Mike McCallum passed away at 68

mozfonky said:
cool thanks, lots of guys get in that shouldn't and vice versa, of course he should.
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True. I'm in Pennsylvania so maybe sometime this year I'll head up to Canastota and go to the Hall to see all of the displays. Fortunately Mike is immortalized there forever so he's not going anywhere. Well deserved.
 
borntoloseNOT said:
Damn, that’s fucking young to go too. Very sad, McCallum was an absolute stud and legend, and I really hate seeing names like this leave us. RIP body snatcher
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well, they do say 67 is the average age for boxers to pass, several under the national average. You'd think that the fitness might help in old age but I suppose the attrition the organs go through in that sport has consequences. The organs and the bodies ability to repair itself has a limit. I'm still always surprised when these guys go so young and still seemingly full of life.
 
mozfonky said:
well, they do say 67 is the average age for boxers to pass, several under the national average. You'd think that the fitness might help in old age but I suppose the attrition the organs go through in that sport has consequences. The organs and the bodies ability to repair itself has a limit. I'm still always surprised when these guys go so young and still seemingly full of life.
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Mike hasn't been fit for 25 years. He really let himself go after he stopped boxing. I think being pre-diabetic or actually diabetic likely caused exacerbation of health problems. The last time I saw him he didn't seem well and that was pre-covid.
 
Sinister said:
Mike hasn't been fit for 25 years. He really let himself go after he stopped boxing. I think being pre-diabetic or actually diabetic likely caused exacerbation of health problems. The last time I saw him he didn't seem well and that was pre-covid.
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ok, i see a bit of a tire around him in some photos. That's not unusual for men of that age. Hagler looked a little bit heavy in some photos too but always seemed to be in good health. No cause of death was ever given for his passing but I'd guess that in most of these cases, the in the ring attrition has something to do with it. Sugar Ray Robinson had diabetes and he probably spent most of his life living clean, Joe Louis was clean living until his later years when he inexplicably started using cocaine which may have hastened his heart issues. Ali's heart was actually the last thing to go when they pulled the plug.

Of course I wished they'd be here forever but that's not life for any of us.
 
I think there were always rumors about his actual age also, who knows how true any of that would be. They said the same about Marvelous.
 
he fought longer at the highest level than any of his contemporaries did too. Roy Jones and Toney and never being kayoed are some impressive stats. Ray was getting put down from everyone he fought in his old age, Tommy and duran did ok but they weren't fighting the top pfp'rs at no mid to late 30's. I'd hate to see what peak roy would have done to tommy.
 
mozfonky said:
well, they do say 67 is the average age for boxers to pass, several under the national average. You'd think that the fitness might help in old age but I suppose the attrition the organs go through in that sport has consequences. The organs and the bodies ability to repair itself has a limit. I'm still always surprised when these guys go so young and still seemingly full of life.
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A lot of former boxers I know get in bad shape really quick after boxing. Maybe due to restricting themselves for so long, or just needing fixes after the adrenaline of fighting has gone. I'm just talking generally of course, idk anything about Mike McCallum's health before he sadly passed.
 
Minowafanatic said:
A lot of former boxers I know get in bad shape really quick after boxing. Maybe due to restricting themselves for so long, or just needing fixes after the adrenaline of fighting has gone. I'm just talking generally of course, idk anything about Mike McCallum's health before he sadly passed.
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yes, they do. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the discipline that they had to adhere to for so long. Many of them balloon up in weight, ali was 255 or more a year or so after retiring. I could hardly recognize wilfredo gomez and a few others when I'd see pics of them in later years. Then, we have guys like Hagler and Arguello who seem to never be more than a few pounds over their old weights.

Also, I do think so many fighters end up bitter and angry, even guys like Hagler and McCallum have bitterness, it's competition and things happen that aren't fair in competition and leave these guys dissapointed, at least that's always been my suspicion. I always thought Arguello was traumatized by the Pryor losses, of course I don't really know but it's a lot to lose when you're at the top one minute and demolished the next. I also think Joe Frazier carried his Ali hatred to the grave, none of that can be good to carry around or good for the health. Hagler had to be bitter even though he denied it but he also said he never put on gloves again after Leonard, had to be something going on.
 
Minowafanatic said:
A lot of former boxers I know get in bad shape really quick after boxing. Maybe due to restricting themselves for so long, or just needing fixes after the adrenaline of fighting has gone. I'm just talking generally of course, idk anything about Mike McCallum's health before he sadly passed.
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He was very heavy the entire time I knew and trained with him.
 
Sinister said:
Earlier in his career Mike was actually pretty affable, theres a few really good interviews of him where he is presenting an upstanding ambassador of the Sport. His career was just fraught with both misfortune, and the problem of not being in his home Country and thus, never being the most important guy in whatever stable he was part of. From the Duva faction, to Kronk, to Futch. No one had a negative thing to say about him in retrospect, but each of those guys always had someone who was far more important than Mike despite Mike turning in great performances during his tenures with them.

He did get bitter and jaded as things went on. When I met him he had choice words for a lot of people.
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appreciate the insight; would you share a few of the choicer words on the worst people? unless you mean promoters, in which case, meh 'promoter is a knt this news just in'. but if he respected/didn't respect a fellow-pro as a fighter i'd be interested to hear
 
StopDucking said:
Mike McCallum vs Julian Jackson is still my favorite fight to this day and my second favorite is Leonard vs Hearns 1. Probably the most textbook old-school boxer.
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I told this story in an interview with Fayz boxing, but Mike always said he was going to fire Georgie Benton in the corner of that fight after the 1st round. He didn't fully know and trust Georgie, and after Julian buzzed Mike pretty bad, Georgie told him he had to go right at him. He said if Mike stayed at the end of the punch Julian would kill him, he had to go in, roll under the shots, tap the body, then come back up to the head.

When I asked Mike about Julian's power he said the most surprising thing about it was his punches didnt hurt. He would hit you, you'd think you were ok, but then your legs dont work. Lol He also said Julian was faster than he thought he would be. So Georgie tells him to go right at Julian and Mike says to Lou Duva "Lou dis guy f*ckin crazy." He said he wanted Georgie to leave, he wanted to try to out-box Julian. But something told him to give Georgie's advice a chance so in that second round you can visibly see him fighting the urge to back up, his rear foot propped like a kickstand. He rolls under and it starts to work. He said he landed a good body shot and he heard Julian kinda whimper, he said that's when he knew he had him. "Oh, you can dish it out but you can't take it. I gotcha now."

Re-watch the fight with all that information in-mind:

 
IanEdwards said:
appreciate the insight; would you share a few of the choicer words on the worst people? unless you mean promoters, in which case, meh 'promoter is a knt this news just in'. but if he respected/didn't respect a fellow-pro as a fighter i'd be interested to hear
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He told Hagler to go f*ck himself at the HOF induction ceremony because Hagler told him he always respected him. Mike told him how Jamaicans say "Nuff respeck" to the tourists who come to the island because they spend money and give the people an economy. He said if Hagler respected him he would have given him the same chance to make the big money that Hagler was always complaining about never getting himself.

He said Emmanuel Steward was a scumbag because Steward signed step-aside papers on his behalf with no pay, this had to do with Hearns eventually fighting Duran. Then he knocked out two Kronk fighters in Braxton and McCrory, and told Steward he wanted Tommy next. Steward gave him a picture of Tommy with the belt and said "that's all the Tommy you're gonna get."

He didnt care for Freddie Roach. He seemed to feel like Freddie wanted to capitalize a lot on being Futch's understudy whereas Thell Torrence got buried. Mike stayed with Thell after Eddie passed.

He disliked Roy for claiming he went easy on Mike because he didnt want to knock out a legend.

That's just a few.
 
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