McCallum
Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor
MIKE MCCALLUM'S induction into boxing's Hall of Fame in Los Angeles last Saturday night was a fitting tribute to a great boxer and a wonderful sportsman.
Winner of world titles in the junior middleweight, middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, McCallum is undoubtedly the greatest boxer Jamaica has produced and his induction into the Hall of Fame underlines it.
With the induction coming in the first year that he is eligible for the honour, with the vote to put him in coming from experts around the world and not from a committee, the world has acknowledged McCallum as undoubtedly one of the greatest boxers of all time and, as they did so many times during his illustrious career, Jamaicans should once again stand and cheer yet another great Jamaican.
McCallum was a magnificent fighter, his body-punching was such that he became known as the "bodysnatcher", he was a master tactician, and although, despite a record of 36 knockouts, he was never considered a knockout artist, he packed a deadly punch.
When it came to storming an opponent and knocking him out, McCallum was not a Tommy Hearns. Not even Hearns, however, ever produced a punch like the left hook that flattened Donald Curry in one of his six successful defences of the World Boxing Association's junior middleweight title.
It was a punch that not only destroyed the gifted Curry but one that also has been talked about ever since and will no doubt be talked about by generations to come.
It was a beauty, it came out of nowhere, and it knocked the seemingly invincible Curry into oblivion.
It was so devastating that the man rated as the best pound-for-pound fighter of the time, was never the same after that.
McCallum was a great boxer - no question about that. He was, however, more than that. He was a wonderful sportsman, he was a humble champion, and that, along with his skills in the ring, is what endeared him to his countrymen and why he was so respected by everyone in the sport.
Mike McCallum was a wonderful example to young Jamaican sportsmen and sportswomen, he was a credit to boxing, and he truly deserves a place among the all-time greats of boxing.
He was a champion in the ring, he was a champion out of the ring, and today, five years after hanging up his gloves, he remains a champion out of the ring.
