Some would argue that James Toney’s first victory over Mike McCallum, which additionally occurred to be his remaining protection of his middleweight title, is, all issues thought of, his best efficiency. Whether or not you agree or not, you’d doubtless must rank it high 5, proper up there along with his dazzling wins over Michael Nunn, Iran Barkley, Vassiliy Jirov and Evander Holyfield.
When Toney and McCallum clashed the earlier December, it matched the headstrong however gifted champion, then simply 23, towards the masterful boxer-puncher McCallum, a veteran of 43 fights and a dozen years his opponent’s senior. Between them, they’d a file of 70-1-1, with McCallum having dropped a detailed choice to Sumbu Kalambay three years prior and Toney having drawn with Sanderline Williams in 1990.
The stage was set for a time-honoured battle: the dreaded younger puncher, just lately topped, versus the long-in-the-tooth bullfighter, who some believed knew extra about “The Sweet Science” than Toney would ever be taught. One factor was sure: Bob Arum had quite a lot of confidence in his younger cost to match him with McCallum, a supreme boxer many a marquee identify had swerved. The Jamaican was additionally on a sizzling streak: he’d outpointed Herol Graham and Steve Collins, sensationally sparked-out Michael Watson, and just lately gained candy revenge over Kalambay. However Toney oozed confidence of his personal, having dethroned Nunn in Might, turned again the problem of Reggie Johnson in June, and blasted outgunned Italian Francesco Dell’Aquila in October.
That first encounter produced memorable fireworks, with the cerebral McCallum boxing to orders early and containing Toney, just for the Ann Arbor man to roar again and stagger “The Physique Snatcher” within the remaining spherical. The judges referred to as it a draw, however whoever you favoured, you would not dispute it had been a high quality exhibition of boxing: absorbing, extremely technical and never with out late drama. Therefore the rematch 9 months later.
Within the intervening interval McCallum had fought simply as soon as, claiming a call over journeyman Fermin Chirino at tremendous middleweight, however Toney’s paymasters – little doubt eager to maintain him out of Burger King – put him within the ring thrice between February and Might. The primary of these bouts had resulted in a famously disputed cut up choice over Dave Tiberi, throughout which a sluggish Toney regarded fairly not like the laser-focused champion who’d confronted McCallum simply months earlier.
Thus, for Toney vs McCallum II, each needed to show not solely that they had been the opposite’s superior, however that they remained legit points of interest. However “Lights Out” betrayed no indicators of nerves pre-contest, telling the press he would give his rival “… no respect. He’ll get so bored with getting his butt whipped, he’ll stop.” McCallum, in the meantime, epitomized the quiet however unshakable confidence of a fighter who felt he had deserved the win the primary time round. Nonetheless, at 35, he needed to know this may very well be his final roll of the cube.
The pair traded jabs early within the opener, with Toney, clad in gold, trying sharp and aggressive. The champion additionally unloaded a handful of snappy mixtures focused on the midsection, although McCallum landed a piston-like jab and double left hook with a minute remaining. The second adopted an identical sample to the primary, the youthful man exhibiting faster fingers and extra dynamism, with McCallum preferring to busily poke away along with his jab. “The Body Snatcher” additionally detonated just a few eye-catching physique pictures underneath Toney’s elbows.
As a battle, the rematch caught fireplace within the third: Toney unleashing a looping overhand proper, planting his toes and going for the knockout. The previous sage didn’t ignore the gauntlet and discharged just a few arduous hooks in response, although he quickly returned to working behind his trusty jab. Toney appeared extra switched-on than of their first assembly, slipping, rolling and catching ammo on gloves, however McCallum nonetheless landed sufficient stable jabs to make an impression and hold him trustworthy.
Fierce, aggressive exchanges characterised the struggle’s center part, and each time you felt James had landed a game-changing blow, Mike responded along with his personal two-fisted salvo. A mixture of the champ’s famously lazy model – exploding with heavy counters and clusters then sleepwalking for 30 or 40 seconds, throwing short time blocking, calculating and admiring his work – made for shut rounds, notably given McCallum’s age-defying exercise degree, consistency and crowd pleasing physique pictures.
Nonetheless, it had been a fast-paced match and that absolutely favoured the 24-year-old Toney as they got here down the stretch. One thing else favouring Toney was Joe Cortez’s wholly indefensible choice to dock a degree from McCallum within the eighth, for hitting and holding. The injustice compelled the Jamaican to work tirelessly to overturn the deficit, and his work fee paid dividends as he drove Toney onto the back-foot for the primary time.
The ninth noticed Toney execute a robust lead left hook, adopted shortly by one other cleaner shot as McCallum backed into the ropes. Commentating for HBO, George Foreman referred to as it one of the best punch of the struggle however whether or not true or not, the iron-jawed Physique Snatcher was going nowhere; a second later he pummeled his man’s ribs with a four-punch flurry. It was, like lots of the stanzas right here, a spherical that would have swung both manner.
The championship rounds usually illuminate a fighter’s greatness, although right here we had not one however two masterful operators: the older man coming to the tip of his finest days, the opposite – although we didn’t but comprehend it – hovering near his pure peak. Toney began the tenth on his toes, fitfully pumping the jab and loading up his proper. McCallum, dog-tired, largely skirted the fringes of the ring, flicking out his personal jab, although with much less authority now. Nonetheless, because the spherical continued, the wily previous fox took benefit of Toney’s resting phases to win some close-quarters exchanges.
McCallum’s 80-year-old coach Eddie Futch knew it was tight, telling his cost after this spherical, “It’s very shut, Mike. You’ve bought to get the subsequent spherical … You gotta have this one and the subsequent one.”
The penultimate spherical, although hardly clearcut, arguably belonged to Toney, the champ touchdown a booming proper halfway via, a left hook/proper uppercut mixture with a minute left, and stalking the weary however defiant challenger all through. Within the remaining spherical each left all of it within the ring, throwing mixtures, loading up, urgent arduous. Neither, it appeared, might dismantle the opposite, and for the second time in a yr it could be left to the judges to separate two gallant warriors.
Surprisingly — certainly, considerably ridiculously — two of them scored it extensively in Toney’s favour, posting tallies of 117-110 and 118-110, these playing cards rendering a 3rd, and far more smart 114-114 tally, redundant. Scoring for HBO, Harold Lederman agreed with the decision however had it a lot nearer at 115-112. And identical to that, Toney’s middleweight days had been over.
Toney was stuffed with reward for McCallum within the years afterwards. “Mike McCallum is one of the best man I’ve fought,” he advised Donald McRae, as documented within the latter’s good e book, Darkish Commerce: Misplaced in Boxing. “He was trickier than Roy Jones; he hit more durable than Jones.”
And “Lights Out” reiterated the sentiment when talking to The Ring in 2009. “McCallum was a grasp boxer who wasn’t afraid to face his floor. Earlier than him I used to be simply runnin’ in on everybody, however he made me decelerate and suppose for the primary time.” Toney additionally credited McCallum as having one of the best defence, finest jab and finest boxing mind of all his opponents.
Regardless of the salty style left by the choices in each fights, McCallum returned the praise when interviewed by The Ring himself, naming Toney because the best overall fighter he faced: “He was somebody who might do all of it, struggle inside or outdoors, work offence and defence on the similar time – identical to me after I was youthful.”
Toney and McCallum met once more, 5 years later and a few 20 kilos heavier, and like The Godfather III the third instalment didn’t fairly reside as much as its predecessors. As a postscript, McCallum was inducted into the Worldwide Boxing Corridor of Fame in 2003, the identical yr Toney gained ‘Fighter of the 12 months’ – his second such honour – for his heroics towards Jirov and Holyfield. Nearly twenty years later, in 2022, “Lights Out” entered Canastota’s hall of immortals alongside one other previous rival, Roy Jones Jr. — Ronnie McCluskey
