1994 Oliver McCall vs 1974 George Foreman

Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno hit him with everything in book… but George Foreman is just gonna walk in and KO him in a round? Forgive me if I scoff.

 

-Lewis hit lots of guys with everything in the book.

-I've explained my take on the Bruno fight.

Scoff away. Foreman may not knock McCall's smile off his face with the first shot but the follow ups are going to be a different story.

 

Not only did McCall have one of the greatest chins of all time (so Foreman took 10 to finish Peralta but would finish McCall in 2?) but he had good escapability in his footwork. In his prime he didn't get trapped anywhere. And he liked a brawl. Sloppy tho he may have been, George was just as sloppy. I see McCall as a better Lyle.

I'm not only saying the Ollie survives, but I am picking him to win.

 

Big George Foreman Round Two

 

So, McCall does worse than Peralta, George Johnson and Jack O'Halloran?

Sure.

The Cult of Foreman is the most inexplicable syndrome facing observers of the sport.

 

Fair enough, McCall would hang around for a while, a Chuvalo-like stoppage was a good call as a possible scenario.

How good COLD have McCall been if he was clean & sane. And his freakish punch resistance-did he possibly have the best chin ever? I mean at least for how much punishment he could talk, not necessarily how he limited the effect of & avoided terrible punches. In a contest of just how much one could take & remain standing, can a few others even match him? Cobb, Chuvalo, Mercer, Tua...

 

Its the 1974 Foreman Seamus , McCalls heading south very quickly - never seen an all out puncher like Foreman since then .

 

We sort of had this match up a bit earlier in George's career (vs Chuvalo). I see a similar result, Foreman battering McCall into a corner retirement in 5/6.

 

-Peralta wasn't a great boxer but he was crafty and mobile. McCall was not.

-I haven't seen an opponent try to trap him, I saw Bruno send him sprawling backwards into the ropes several times but not follow up.

-McCall liked to spar, way too gun shy to be labeled a brawler or be compared with a boxer/puncher like Lyle.

 

Good point, Chuvalo actually attacks the body hard every round, instead of just passively walking around giving away points while in search of the perfect moment.

 

Everyone has a plan until they get hit.

Mcall had a very good chin, but you dont know how someone will react when theyre hit by someone likle George Foreman.

Berbick, Spinks, Holmes, Tubbs, Thomas, Biggs, had never been knocked out, until Tyson got hold of them

 

Exactly. And McCall's plans certainly went out the window once he tasted Bruno's power. He went from pressure fighter to sparring parnter in minutes.

But the difference between Foreman and Bruno is Foreman doesn't admire his work after he stuns a guy. If McCall blew back into the ropes like he did against Bruno, Foreman wouldn't stand there and wait for him to come back at his leisure, he would jump on him and keep pounding him until someone pulled him off.

 

Bernardo Mercado and Teófilo Stevenson may beg to differ...