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Leroy Brown Remembers Mike McCallum: “He Was Jamaica’s Greatest”
Written by Leighton Levy. Posted in Boxing. | 02 June 2025 | 1552 Views
Tags: Boxing, Mike McCallum, Leroy Brown

Leroy Brown, General Secretary of the Jamaica Boxing Board, is still coming to terms with the passing of Mike McCallum, one of Jamaica’s greatest-ever athletes. For Brown, the loss is not just a national tragedy—it’s deeply personal.

“I was with Mike from he was a little boy starting in Waterhouse with Ashton ‘Teelie’ Taffe,” Brown recalled. “I watched him mature and travelled all over the world with him as manager of boxing teams. Aside from “Teelie” and Emilia Sanchez, I don’t think anyone was closer to him than I was.”

Taffe, Brown explains, helped a number of young boxers from the Waterhouse community “back in the day.”

Brown was in McCallum’s corner for many of the defining moments of his amateur career, including the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Montreal, where McCallum won gold, and the 1979 Pan American Games, where he lost to Cuba’s Andrés Aldama—still the biggest disappointment of his amateur career.

“He had the Cuban beat in the first round, but got careless in the second and decided to mix it up instead of boxing as we told him. He got caught. That loss haunted him,” Brown revealed.

McCallum was gearing up to redeem himself at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but fate intervened.

“We were in the village in Moscow, and he came down with appendicitis. That was the end of his amateur career. He never got that Olympic shot and decided to turn pro after that,” Brown said.

From that moment on, Brown served as a quiet consultant throughout McCallum’s professional career. Even when he wasn’t physically present in his corner, they would speak before every major fight.

“I helped him analyse opponents, watched tape with him. He always wanted my input. There was no boxer I was closer to,” Brown said.

Brown was there when McCallum won his first world title against Sean Mannion. “I told him, ‘You can’t lose this fight. You’re better than this guy.’ And he went out and proved it,” he said.

But perhaps more than any title win, it’s the legendary knockouts of Don Curry and Julian Jackson that stand out for Brown.

“Curry actually hurt him early, but Mike came back with one of the greatest knockouts of the century. Same with Jackson. Everyone thought Julian was going to take him out, but Mike laid him flat. Those are two of the best knockouts of his career,” the veteran administrator remarked.

Behind the triumphs, however, was a fighter who struggled with being avoided by many of the biggest names in boxing.

“Sugar Ray Leonard didn’t want him. He was supposed to fight Roberto Duran, but Emmanuel Steward gave that fight to Tommy Hearns instead—because Hearns was his guy. That broke Mike’s heart. He was sure he’d knock Duran out. That was one of the biggest disappointments of his life,” Brown mentioned.

Brown believes McCallum could have ended his career a little earlier—perhaps after his 1996 loss to Roy Jones Jr.

“I told him after that fight, ‘Mike, this is it.’ He was too slow, the weight didn’t suit him anymore. His best days were at middleweight. After that, he wasn’t the same fighter,” Brown observed.

Despite the late-career struggles, McCallum’s legacy is firmly intact. He was a seven-time Jamaican Sportsman of the Year and, in 2003, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame—an honour Brown shared with him in person.

“He was thrilled, but he knew he belonged there. It was one of the best weekends of his life,” Brown said.

Reflecting on McCallum’s impact, Brown was unequivocal: “He’s the best professional boxer Jamaica has ever produced. No one else comes close. In the world, I’d still put him in the top ten middleweights of all time.”

Though shaken by the news of his passing—news that reached him only after a media call—Brown remains grateful for the decades-long friendship they shared.

“We spoke all the time. I still can’t believe he’s gone. Mike was more than a champion. He was my friend.”