McCal-Lewis 1-Good Call or Bad Call

Just think if the referee's who handled "Holmes-Shavers 2" and "Holmes-Snipes" had stopped the fight as Holmes got up on shaky legs, etc.... Bedlam.....

Lenny Lewis was dicked by that Mexican ref in London against Ollie McCall back in 1994....

MR.BILL

 

Against Snipes, after jumping up and hitting the turnbuckle, Holmes was pacing up and down in a calculated way- walking forward, his legs were not 100% but far more more steady than Lewis.
Lewis was tottering around sideways on pure spaghetti legs, and then was falling on top of the referee.

It's like comparing a guy who has had four beers to a man that's had twelve beers and half a bottle of whiskey.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlu4R_ZobU0[/ame]

3:10

 

I think Lewis was trying to take the step forward too soon , before the ref even asked and that ****ed him over a bit.

 

It was a bit premature for me.

After all, this was for the heavyweight championship of the world, not some unimportant fight between novices.
Lewis was wobbly and not in full possession of his senses, but as the reigning champ he should have been given an opportunity to try and survive.

Obviously the ref had the best view in the house, but judging from what I could see via live broadcast, the stoppage, while not a bull**** stoppage, was a bit premature.

 

I'm ok with the stoppage but as has been pointed out others have been allowed to continue.

Foremans 2nd kd of Frazier is almost identical and Frazier was given the benefit of the doubt.

 

I think Lewis should have been allowed to continue but I also think its the best thing that ever happened to him. It allowed him to regroup and correct a lot of the technical mistakes he was making and make his dominant run as champion.
I dont think Lewis would have lost to Mcall had he been allowed to continue. Lets not forget Mcall couldnt even stop Bruno who was basically finished in the last three rounds of their title fight and probably in a whole lot worse shape than Lewis was when he got up from the knockdown.

 

What Mr Bill said.

I think LL should have been allowed to continue.

For me, what makes this stoppage suspicious is the fact that Holmes was King's man & got the benefit of the doubt vs Shavers & Snipes (especially Shavers - Larry was as drunk as a sack after that KD). Lewis' opponent McCall was King's man & Lennox didn't get the benefit of any doubt..I don't think that this is a coincidence.

 

With 'ol Don around, anything is possible.

 

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I wouldnt go as far as calling it a terrible call or anything but i do think it was wrong. Put it this way, ive never seen it happen before or since (a heavyweight champ knocked down once,beats count and fight gets stopped)

 

Someone used Foreman-Frazier as an example of being given a 'better chance' but Frazier ended up almost unintelligible in the last 10 years of his life.

How about Patterson-Johansson 1 : that should certainly have been stopped after the first KD, if safety of fighters is at all important. But Patterson was given the chance, and when he was about 60 he suddenly became extremely demented.

If given the champion every chance is paramount - Why not go back to the days of Dempsey v Willard ?
That's nice and clear - if he gets up before 10 the fights still on, unless he quits.

I think the referee is getting unwarranted criticism for this. He 'jobbed' Lewis out of the chance of being brain damaged.

When you consider the fact that McCall had been drilled into throwing that right hand through Lewis's looping right leads and had even outlined his strategy to the press before the fight, I don't see how he could even miss landing another killer punch on a spaghetti-legged Lewis - who would have fallen from a stiff breeze - within the next few seconds. The chances of that are so high, and so dangerous.

The stoppage was GOOD and RIGHT, unless we got 'old school' gladiator style.

 

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Mcall was no Foreman he couldnt stop the upright zombie Frank Bruno when he had him basically out and exhausted for three rounds straight.

 

Good call. Had the fight continued, Lewis would've taken more shots which would have knocked him out and damaged his punch resistance in the future.

 

McCall trained for Lewis with a clear strategy to smash the shorter straighter right hand inside Lewis's looping "hand grenade".
It was Lewis's biggest flaw at the time, and Steward drilled McCall with that plan.
It took Oliver about 4 minutes to get it done, he had 10 rounds left to do it some more, but lewis wouldn't have lasted another 10 seconds.

You can say McCall had poor finishing skills, but Lewis had poor recuperation abilities - the next time he got floored he didn't even manage to get himself up in time.

Anyway, the ref made his call, and I think it was a good one. If a boxer is literally falling on to the referee and his spaghetti legs and making him totter from side to side ... maybe, just maybe, it's time to stop the fight. Especially at heavyweight, where every punch is potentially lethal.

 

I dont think it was an unfair call and I agree Mcall did train to time Lewis wide open looping power shots, but the fact is Mcall was pretty **** poor at finishing guys off and Lewis was wobbly but he probably could have found a way to make it through the round and survive. Again I think it was the best thing that happened to Lewis because he realized he had to correct those mistakes he was making.