You make great points, except Lewis beat a TRULY and UNDENIABLY broken man. The man was pulled out of rehab, given a huge stack of dough, and left to roam the streets doing what addicts with fat stacks do. Perhaps had he finished the rehab, been surrounded by good ppl for a yr or two, then maybe he coulda been able to withstand the pressures of a camp....IDK.....but Lewis gets credit for that win on paper only. For signing to make it that is.
He certainly doesn't deserve a HOF induction. Then we may as well include all heavies who won a strap. He pulled off a major upset against Lewis, but then totally tarnished that win with the bizarre circumstances of the second fight. He was fairly dangerous and that chin is legendary, but I think he suffered too much from sparring partner syndrome.
Stallone is different though, he's in as a non-participant for his screenwriting. It's usually sportswriters who get in though rather than people who write fiction (Budd Schulberg did both).
Hell no, McCall doesn't deserve to be in the HOF. He was a career sparring partner who was a decent lower top 10 /just outside the top 10 type of contender. Manny Stewart taught him how to time Lewis, he then defended his title once and nearly gave it away through sheer listlesness and doing nothing against a 45 or 46 year old former champ, then lost it for real and barely did anything of note after that. McCall's got a legendary chin, and a few decent wins on his record, (Douglas, Damiani, a very young Maskaev, etc.) plus he knocked out that holding **** Akinwande, which is a point in his favor, but no.
