McCall was still a World Class fighter. Wilder is more successful but everyone's idea that he faced weak competiton & avoided the best guys & mandatories is correct. You can argue that Wilder is better because his one trick was so good. But saying McCall's chin is overrated is going too far lol! Almost everyone tried to avoid being KOed at some times. Some are clinchaholics also. Why does almost nobody never even get dropped in a long career? Especially at HW & fighting big modern guys. Fuhgettibout into his 50's & doing 300 + rounds with Tyson, never off his feet. You can fault him-or even better fighters-for any number of things. But what is next, Chuvalo went into a little ball against Foreman so he has no chin?
The Bull would soak up Wilders mad shots, and keep coming. If wilder elected to box careful and avoid going for the Ko he might get a decision. But I see him getting caught wildly and dropped like a bag of brick s.
He fights how he did in the first Stiverne fights, he wins. He fights how he did in the second? He gets KTFO'd.
The only thing more overrated than McCall's chin is his power. He knocked out half his opponents and a lot of really bad fighters went the distance with him -- and quite a few of them beat him.
No way Wilder stops McCall, when you looks at the guys he fought, the punches he took. He was defenseless against Lewis in the rematch and Lewis still couldn't hurt him. Bruno who wobbled the Iron chinned Tyson with his weaker left hand couldn't hurt McCall with his better right hand. Even a 49 year old shot to bits McCall couldn't be stopped in his last loss. Plus all those rounds he sparred with Tyson and never went down. But I could see Wilder out boxing McCall. Bruno did it and while Bruno had better boxing skills than Wilder with his height, reach and speed it's not inconceivable that he is able to box for 12 rounds and earn a decision over McCall. But I think McCall gives him a tough fight. He'd have Wilder on the back foot most of the fight and we know Wilder struggles on the back foot and if guys like Molina and Duhapas can make Wilder look bad then McCall definitely could. McCall would also be dangerous from first round to the last as his late KO of Akinwande proved, all McCall needs is one mistake and he can take you out.
Against Bruno, McCall came out doing his whole crying routine again. But McCall used to be Frank Bruno's sparring partner. They spent a lot of time together in the late 80s. And Bruno knew McCall wasn't anything special. So Bruno came right out and started roughing up McCall and hurt Oliver with a right hand in round 1 that started McCall's eye to swell up, and McCall immediately started retreating for the rest of the round. And McCall went right back into sparring partner mode. McCall was a sparring partner thru much of his career. He sparred with eveyrone. He knew how to survive. When he got hurt in fights, even against nobodies, he'd back way the hell off. This nonsense that he couldn't be hurt is ridiculous. Hell, Tyson hurt him in sparring, and McCall just climbed out of the ring and left. (LOL) I mean, I guess that's one way of not going down ... just leaving. (LOL) Maybe you guys have a higher regard for him because he closed his eyes and landed a haymaker on Lewis and stopped Akinwande after losing the fight for the better part of an hour. But, if you watched him against the US fighters for 20 years, he never really was anything. I even met Oliver McCall. He was just a warhorse who lost to some truly bad fighters and managed to land a big shot against Lewis one night. Good for him. But, c'mon.
Then show me a time he was ever hurt, because I can't recall ever seeing it in any of his fights. Plenty of guys know how to survive, guys like Kevin Johnson, Ross Purrity but they still got stopped or got dropped. That never happened with McCall even though he fought way, way past his prime. Yeah McCall was never what I would call a top contender hence why I didn't pick him over Wilder, but he was tough as hell and always dangerous and someone like Wilder who doesn't press and break you down wouldn't be able to grind McCall down which is what would be required to stop someone as durable as McCall.
I think Wilder would blame his shoes, the ref, his corner, the commission, racism, the weather etc; etc; Wilder gets laid out not long after he gassed out. He’d mentally break the moment he realizes a clean shot won’t win it for him.
If Manny Steward was training the Bull he'd have a decent shot here. His best bet would be to try and keep the distance short and the pressure on. If he could pull that off he's a chance of gassing him out.
Wilder would beat the crap of McCall for 12 rounds and probably break both hands in the process. McCall would go into sparring partner mode after about one minute.
