Former Boxing Champ Mike McCallum Dies Suddenly in Las Vegas
Posted on: June 4, 2025, 02:24h.
Last updated on: June 4, 2025, 03:15h.
- Former boxing champion Mike McCallum died in Las Vegas last weekend
- The 69-year-old held titles in three weight classes from 1984 through 1995
- McCallum worked as a boxing trainer in Vegas after retiring from the ring
Mike McCallum, the first Jamaican-born world boxing champion, died in Las Vegas on Saturday. He was 69.
According to the Jamaica Observer, the former boxer — who has lived in Las Vegas since hanging up his gloves in 1995 — fell ill while driving to a gym. He pulled off the road, where he was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead.
The Las Vegas coroner’s office has yet to report his cause of death.
Final Bell
Known as “The Body Snatcher” for his devastating body punches, McCallum held world championships in three different weight classes — the WBA super welterweight title from 1984 to 1988, the WBA middleweight title from 1989 to 1991, and the WBC light heavyweight title from 1994 to 1995.
McCallum made his professional debut on Jan. 14, 1981, with a fourth-round technical knockout over Rigoberto Lopez at the Silver Slipper casino. It was the first of six bouts (and six wins) for McCallum in Las Vegas. His last was a March 4, 1994, WBC light heavyweight match against Randall Yonker at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which McCallum won by a technical knockout in the fifth round.
After wrapping his career a year later with a record of 49-5-1 and 36 knockouts, McCallum became a prominent trainer at Las Vegas gyms.
Ranked eighth on The Ring magazine’s list of top-10 middleweight champs of the past 50 years, McCallum was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013.
“Goodbye Dear Champion,” the WBC posted on its website. “Sail swift on a billowing trade wind. You will forever be remembered.”
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