When Mike McCallum won the vacant WBC light heavyweight title against American Randall Yonker at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada, in March 1994, he joined an elite group of boxers to win three weight divisions.

The Jamaican, who also won WBA super welterweight and WBA middleweight titles, died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 31 at age 68. Reports are that he fell ill while driving, pulled off the road and died in his car.

McCallum has been hailed by members of Jamaica’s boxing fraternity, including Leroy Brown and journalist Courtney Sergeant, who saw his progress from a promising amateur when he fought at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, to his professional career, which started in 1981.

“This comes as a great shock, a great shock. Mike and I spoke regularly on the phone and I had no idea he was sick,” said Brown. “He was one of the best in the world, definitely one of the top 10 middleweights in boxing history.”

Sergeant was a member of the Radio Jamaica staff during McCallum’s heyday of the 1980s. That radio station, based in Kingston, selected him as its Sportsman Of The Year seven times.

“He was part of the best set of amateurs we had in Jamaica, this was back in the 1970s. Mike was a humble youth, never bragged about anything,” said Sergeant. “When he was in Jamaica, he always went to Dragon Gym (in Kingston) and encouraged the young fighters.”

Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, also commented on McCallum’s passing.

“It is with utter and complete sadness that I learned of the death of Jamaica’s three-time World Boxing champion Michael McKenzie McCallum,” she wrote on Facebook. “We hope [his family and friends] find strength in this time of bereavement. I urge you to keep them in your prayers.”

In 1987, McCallum demolished American contenders Milt McCrory and Donald Currie in defence of the super welterweight title he won three years earlier against Irishman Sean Mannion. Two years later, he won the vacant WBA middleweight title, beating Britain’s Herol Graham at Royal Albert Hall in London.
Mike McCallum, who retired in 1997 with a record of 49 wins, five losses and one draw, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.