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While it would be a few years
still before he took on the
ring-name, Rob Calloway
decided in 1992 to become the
“All-American Prizefighter”,
after forty amateur bouts and
winning the Kansas City Golden
Gloves three times, turning
professional as a Light
Heavyweight at the age of
twenty-three.
Charles Robert Michael Calloway
was born in the summer of ´69
(so must be younger than Bryan
Adams), and took up boxing
relatively late as a seventeen
year old, when he was inspired
by watching Mike Tyson beating
Trevor Berbick on TV in November
1986.
Six years later he got paid to
beat Kenny Brown (12-12), a
former welterweight from Fort
Wayne, Indiana, by unanimous
decision, on a small show
consisting of five four-rounders
at the Mid America All Indian
Center in Wichita, Kansas.
It is not out of line to say
that Calloway was moved up the
ranks quite carefully. Some
would say too carefully, as the
debut-victory over Brown was
arguably his best victory until
he stopped an over-the-hill
Frank Minton (28-28)
three-and-a-half years later.
Calloway beat some decent
opponents between 1996 and 1998,
mainly headlining cards in his
home-town Saint Joseph,
including Ray Domenge (21-7),
Tyler Huges (14-3-1), Lonnie
Knowles (16-4) and Dominic
Carter (26-6).
But his first real step-up in
competition didn't come until
April 3, 1999, when he had
developed into a Cruiserweight,
taking on Darrell Spinks (14-1),
the son of former world
heavyweight champion Leon
Spinks, for the IBA Continental
Americas title at Saint Joseph´s
Civic Arena.
Calloway, 30-2 (23) at the time,
handled tricky Saint Louis
southpaw Spinks well, and won by
unanimous decision, setting up a
crack at IBA World Champion, and
former WBF World Champion,
Kenny
Keene (46-3)
later that year.
Obviously Keene, making his
third title-defense, was on
another level, and much more
accomplished, than anyone
Calloway had faced previously at
that point, but the challenger
did very well as he pushed the
champion all the way before
losing a close decision
(113-115, 113-115, 112-116).
A few months later, Calloway won
the IBA World title at Junior
Heavyweight (also called Super
Cruiserweight), a fledgling
weight division between
Cruiserweight and Heavyweight
that have occasionally been used
in recent years, stopping Troy
Weida (36-5-2) in the opener.
Going full-fledged Heavyweight,
he reeled off five more
consecutive stoppages, including
one over former contender James
“Quick” Tillis (44-22-1), before
traveling to Denmark in
September 2001 for another
Junior Heavyweight / Super
Cruiserweight title fight (IBC),
losing a close call to Tue Bjorn
Thomsen (21-1).
Deciding to settle in at
Heavyweight, Calloway returned
with a third round victory over
Marcus Rhode (26-20-1) in April
of 2002, tuning up for a shot at
the WBF Intercontinental
Heavyweight title held by Otis
Tisdale (20-6-1) two months
later.
Tisdale had won nine straight,
five inside the distance, so it
was expected to be a tough
assignment , even with the
support of his Saint Joseph-fans
at the Civic Arena. But in the
eleventh round, Calloway send
Tisdale down hard with a perfect
right hand, prompting referee
Laurence Cole to immediately
wave it off.
Just over a year later Calloway
defended the WBF title on points
over 216 Cm. (7′
1″) Julius Long (10-2), “The
Towering Inferno”, back at the
Civic Arena, and two months
after that he retained it for a
second time, in the same venue,
stopping Jason Nicholson
(17-18-1) in round three.
Over the cause of his next
twenty-four bouts, only losing
to Hasim Rahman (37-5-1), Ruslan
Chagaev (18-0-1) and Jameel
McCline (35-6-3) as he went 21-3
between 2003 and 2007, Calloway
gradually, and quite unusually,
made strides towards moving back
down to Cruiserweight.
On October 6, 2007 he won the
WBC Continental Americas, NABA
and IBF International
Cruiserweight titles,
dismantling another Saint Joseph
native, Galen “Bad Boy” Brown
(29-4-1), in four one-sided
rounds of what was naturally a
big local attraction in the
city.
Now world ranked at
Cruiserweight. Calloway scored a
few more respectable victories
after Brown, but this was
arguably his last significant
win. He retained the WBC title
with a draw against Max
Alexander (14-2-1) in July of
2008, but two months later he
was stopped in three by
Alexander Alekseev (15-0) in
Germany.
After Alekseev he continued to
fight almost exclusively
world-ranked opponents at both
Cruiserweight and Heavyweight on
away soil, doing his best but
losing five more times to
Grigory Drozd (30-1), Pawel
Kolodziej (23-0), Shannon Briggs
(50-5-1), Chauncy Welliver
(49-5-5) and Mark De Mori
(17-1-2).
Calloway retired after losing to
De Mori in Australia in March of
2012, at the age of forty-two
and after almost twenty years as
a prizefighter. His final record
stands at a very respectable
71-14-2 (57), with 4
No-Decisions.
(Note: Calloway´s
record is occasionally listed as
76-14-2 (6), as some count his
four No-Decision bouts as
victories. He was declared
winner in the ring, but for
various reasons it had been
decided before those bouts that
they would enter the
record-books as No-Decision
bouts.
Also, some sources, including
the 1994 American Boxing Record
Book, have his October 23, 1993
bout with Ken McCurdy as a
victory for Calloway, while
BoxRec has it as a split
decision loss with the Kansas
City Star newspaper as source.)
Five years before hanging up his
gloves, Calloway received a
great honor when he was awarded
the Key to Saint Joseph
and a day in
his honor by Mayor Ken
Shearin in 2007, for his
volunteer work in the community,
and his accomplishments in the
ring.
Married to Robin
since 1991, they have two
kids: Daughter Riley and son
Chase. Chase followed in his
fathers footsteps and has done
well in the amateur ranks, with
around 150 bouts and even
representing the USA as a Light
Heavyweight.
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