25 years ago today: Lennox Claudius "The Lion" Lewis vs. Oliver William "The Atomic Bull" McCall II

It's not natural is it?. Lol

 

Funny enough, lewis actually addressed this today on his FB page (it may have been yesterday but i only seen it an hour ago). He wasnt sure if McCall was playing possum or not.

 

That was incredibly sad.

 

Oliver held a press conference the next day (in an effort to get his purse no doubt) claiming he was doing ‘some kind of rope-a-dope’ and even admitted that such an explanation was almost impossible to believe.

Before it he met with a psychiatrist for an hour and she said he was not suffering from mental illness or broken from reality.

I think he knew he had no chance to win and was beset by remorse and guilt for putting himself into that situation where everything he had fought for was out of his grasp because he wasn’t physically or mentally prepared to fight. Then it was just ‘I’m going to keep acting like this until they stop it, I don’t belong in here.’

Of note he also announced before the fight that he was going to retire afterward because he had found God and didn’t think he should be in a business where he was going to try to hurt another man. A few days before the fight he recanted that and said he would continue to fight.

It was a no-win situation in a lot of ways: 1) he physically/mentally was in no shape to win and knew it, 2) he was in rehab right before the fight and knows if he pulls out of the fight he probably never gets close to a title shot again (like what promoter would trust him), 3) if he goes through with it he loses and also probably drops far back in the pack and never gets close again.

Lennox clearly approached him with caution when he started turning his back and walking away — don’t walk into a trap if this guy is trying to sucker-punch you and it is a ploy. Just keep a distance, fire straight shots when he does face you and is more of a traditional boxing stance. And don’t walk in and hit him in the back of the head when he turns around and get DQ’d. Eventually the referee did his job.

 

Oliver McCall clearly has a top notch chin but Ray Mercer got hit with more flush punches from Lewis than McCall did and Ray never flinched. Zelijko Marvoric took numerous flush punches from Lewis and didn't falter. A faded Holyfield took Lewis punches while Evander couldn't take Bowe's punches the same way.