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

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Now that is how you avenge your first loss in style!

From this day forth Lewis would again be able to say that he vanquished every man he stepped in the ring with professionally. At least until another hiccough in 1999, and then one more in 2001, both corrected, after which he could say it forevermore!

RIP to both Emanuel Steward and HBO WCB.

 

That he did. I wonder how much the ceiling on his career might have been elevated if things like therapy and medication (for men especially) had already begun to be destigmatized in the nineties.

 

Sheesh, you guys. Belaboring a point that doesn't really need it. Obviously the mental collapse of McCall rendered the whole thing moot and robbed Lewis of a clean untainted victory - so given that I have a brain and eyeballs, maybe assume that I was singing the praises of The Lion's form in the first three rounds, when the Atomic Bull was still kind of trying. Whatever self-belief that McCall had in rounds 1, 2, and 3 dissipated once it sunk in how on point the Lewis jab was on the night, having seen & felt it firsthand. He brought underlying issues and was a house of cards before the opening bell no doubt, but nothing has me convinced that his mind was made up to bottle it until the 4th.

My point was how confident and sharp he looked for the nine minutes where they actually fought. Even the version of McCall from the '94 upset or, better yet, a hypothetical iteration with Zen-like focus and 100% mental stability was going to lose that rematch. He sensed that, and in his despair the dam burst.

 

He never owed him one.