BoxRec

I think these fights are old enough to qualify putting this thread in this section.

Having watched these fights again rather recently, I felt McCallum should have won both fights agiainst Toney. The first fight was close, but I thought with his jab in the middle rounds he was able to out point Toney. In the second fight Toney barely did anything, throwing one punch at a time and throwing few punches at all, while McCallum seemed to me to out box him and out work him for most of the fight. Thoughts?

The third fight was also pretty close from what I remember, but McCallum was pretty old by then and there was no important title on the line, the first two fights were more important.

Toney won the 1st one . . .the 2nd one could've been a draw but I had James winning close. I've never even seen their third fight.

dempseyfire wrote:Toney won the 1st one . . .the 2nd one could've been a draw but I had James winning close. I've never even seen their third fight.

I suppose you can make the case for Tonney winning the first fight, which ironically was the draw, but why did you feel he won the second fight?

Personally, I would have no complaints with McCallum winning both. In fight one, you can say Toney hurt McCallum, but McCallum had Toney exasperated and exhausted stuck on the end of the jab at times.

Yeah, I don't think McCallum ever hurt Toney once in their fights, while Toney had McCallum hurt a few times... especially the 12th of their first fight. But besides those big rounds for Toney, I felt McCallum out worked him in most of the rounds in their two fights, and was able to control much of the first and most of the second fight with his jab. That's how I saw it, anyway.

I Feel Fine wrote:Yeah, I don't think McCallum ever hurt Toney once in their fights, while Toney had McCallum hurt a few times... especially the 12th of their first fight. But besides those big rounds for Toney, I felt McCallum out worked him in most of the rounds in their two fights, and was able to control much of the first and most of the second fight with his jab. That's how I saw it, anyway.

I agree. I felt the difference was that Toney's shots had more power and were hurting Mike. Mike may have outlanded, not by much, but Toney scored the most effective and harder shots throughout the fight and seemed the stronger towards the end. I think he deserved the first fight.
Fight 2 was closer, maybe McCallum should have got it

I Feel Fine wrote:

dempseyfire wrote:Toney won the 1st one . . .the 2nd one could've been a draw but I had James winning close. I've never even seen their third fight.

I suppose you can make the case for Tonney winning the first fight, which ironically was the draw, but why did you feel he won the second fight?

It's been years. I'll have to re-watch it.

Walsh... yeah I agree, the thing is though that Toney didn't throw enough. If he had been more aggressive like he was against Nunn he would have beaten McCallum clearly both times, I think. People often think of Toney not throwing enough punches against Jones, but I think he did the same with McCallum. He was probably weight drained already at 160. Good fights though, especially the first fight which I'm pretty sure won Fight of the Year. But I think McCallum's activity was the difference. I could see how the first fight was a draw though, and I don't think it's out of the question that Toney won that one... to me the second fight though was clearly McCallum, Toney didn't do much. It reminded me of Holmes-Spinks II where Holmes didn't so much put on a great performance, but to me he should have won because Spinks didn't do anything... I thought it was the same in the McCallum-Toney rematch.

I Feel Fine wrote:I could see how the first fight was a draw though, and I don't think it's out of the question that Toney won that one... to me the second fight though was clearly McCallum, Toney didn't do much.

That’s clearly how I remember the two fights as well. Another thing I remember was the puzzling commentary from the announcing team during the second fight, as they made it sound like Toney dominated, while McCallum was much more active and landed a lot more punches.

The Great John L wrote:

I Feel Fine wrote:I could see how the first fight was a draw though, and I don't think it's out of the question that Toney won that one... to me the second fight though was clearly McCallum, Toney didn't do much.

That’s clearly how I remember the two fights as well. Another thing I remember was the puzzling commentary from the announcing team during the second fight, as they made it sound like Toney dominated, while McCallum was much more active and landed a lot more punches.

Oh definitely, but you know how HBO is, they always do that with their marquise fighter (De La Hoya for example) and they seemed to like Toney at that time, until Jones came along at least. After Toney-McCallum II Merchant said that Toney could be the next Hagler... even though maybe 4 of Toney's 6 defenses were disputed decisions...

Don't get me wrong though, I like Toney a lot. Great fighter.

On the flip side, the British commentators were usually very biased towards McCallum.

You would think he had won by a country mile against Toney in the first fight.