Matt McCallum: Record breaker.
Four words which sum up a remarkable fighter and character.
McCallum is a boxer who goes under many guises, including ‘Stark’, and emerges for fights adorning a wolf’s head.
The 35-year-old is also known as ‘King of the North’ and there can be no more suitable moniker after making history in Newcastle, where he stopped rival Adam Hepple in their light-heavyweight showdown on Saturday night.
His triumph at one minute 35 seconds of round eight made him a three-weight Northern Area champion after adding this belt go his previous successes at super-middleweight and middle.
McCallum hinted before Jobes Boxing’s Titles on the Tyne bonanza that his second battle with Hepple could be his finale.
If it is, what a way to bow out after showing further ring skills by proposing to his better half, who said “yes”. The king ended his evening with a queen.
Hepple, at 33, has it all, a beautiful family, a business, his health, and is a councillor, proudly representing his community of Seaham.
Where will he go from here? He still has plenty to offer but having proven himself a championship fighter, he would be well within his rights to have a less-demanding six-rounder next time out.
At 1-1 between him and Matt, a decider would be very welcome to fight fans after this cracker on what proved a terrific night of action courtesy of Jobes Boxing.
With no disrespect whatsoever to Hannah Robinson and Charlie Sutton, who slugged it out in a bloody battle for the Commonwealth and IBF titles in the headline affair, McCallum v Hepple was THE main event.
And the Tyne-Wear confrontation did not disappoint.
He knew it himself, but McCallum needed to produce something special to achieve something special. Remember, Hepple had taken him apart in just 119 seconds in the summer of 2023 when they collided for the super-middleweight crown.
The Morpeth southpaw, one of the principal fighters in the Jobes Boxing gym, had to get his tactics right alongside coach Matty Jobes. Matt would end up fighting a good fight, not allowing Hepple to unload the big artillery.
After a restrained first three minutes there was encouragement for Jordan Williams in the away corner when Hepple wobbled McCallum with a right to the head.
The ‘Punching Politician’ opted to target the body in the fifth and in the sixth he got through with some more rights.
While Adam carried the danger, Matt did plenty of scoring and, certainly on the punch-lines scorecard, the Geordie was comfortably up, though Ron Kearney’s tally in the referee’s back pocket was the only one which mattered.
Whether there was any doubt about the direction of a points decision in the Hepple corner, who knows, but the 33-year-old laid into his opponent in round seven with sustained assaults early and late on.
It was heavy stuff, but McCallum did not succumb and, unfortunately for Hepple, who was aiming to become a two-weight champ, it seemed he had emptied the tank.
Put against the ropes in the eighth round, Adam went down to a body shot but was able to drag himself up, just, at “eight” on Mr Kearney’s count.
McCallum quickly revisited the scene and another right to the body felled his opponent.
This time there was no getting up for Adam and a third belt belonged to the King.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Jennifer Charlton
