Lewis-MCcall II-Major disgrace

The win was retribution on Lewis part, however it's not the way he'd have wanted it to turn out. McCall shouldn't have been allowed to box given his mental state, but that's not Lewis' fault.

Lewis was maybe right to have been as cautious as he was- not initially knowing whether it might have been a ploy or otherwise. It wouldn't have looked good had he got caught by a desperate punch thrown by a guy in the middle of a breakdown. :good

 

http://www.thering-online.com/ringpages/readastory5.html

• What happened to former WBC heavyweight titleholder Oliver McCall in his February 7, 1997, Las Vegas, bout with Lennox Lewis is an example of how boxing has repeatedly let a fighter down. Most people recall how McCall had an emotional breakdown in the fifth round when he stopped fighting and began to cry. But how many are aware of the huge pressure brought upon the commission from the sanctioning organization and promoter to go ahead with the bout, even though McCall had just gotten out of drug rehab? Medical arguments proving that McCall was not ready to fight were ignored, but when he broke down in the middle of the fight, those same people who had ignored the warnings pretended they had no idea it would happen.

 

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

 

I don't think Lennox was convinced of McCalls state, until during the 4th round- McCall didn't appear to seem too distressed up until then, although we all know now that he was; he actually fought back until Round 4 or so.

Lewis actually rocked him with a hard right hand and from that point on McCall totally unravelled psychologically failing to throw anything or defend himself.

 

Lewis wasn't pissed off at McCall, plus McCall was much more a threat and proven than Rahman was. Plus, McCall never tried to circumvent Lewis' immediate rematch clause.

 

He was aggressive in the first three rounds, but when McCall stopped punching, Lewis just got confused (a pretty natural reaction) and maybe thought (a) McCall was going crazy; (b) McCall had some crazy strategy; or (c), LEWIS was going crazy/dreaming/suffering under a malign deceiver.

If McCall hadn't broken down, Lewis would have continued his approach of the first three rounds and knocked him out of Lewis's ring.

 

To be fair though the man was having a nervous breakdown in the ring and when that hapens he is not even going to be able to hold his hands up.

He should not have been there.

 

I would be a little concerned as well if I was fighting someone who was seemingly falling apart mentally as the fight was going on.

Lewis did what he had to, and without hindsight, McCall should not of been in the ring. If I and 99% of the watching fans could see that, then surely there must of been someone in the McCall camp who was more concerned with the health of a friend than the money that could be made?

:think Perhaps I am being a little naive with my last statement

 

This is what SHOULD be the central issue when this fight is discussed - how the heck was a fight like this even ALLOWED to happen. The signs that McCall was not mentally ready to get in the ring were all there - he'd just gotten out of rehab and then had that incident where he threw the Christmas tree in a hotel lobby, I believe. It was really a CRIME that his fight was even allowed to occur, and for Lewis partisans to suggest this in any way wipes away his getting taken out by McCall in '94 is ludicrous when the fight itself is examined.

 

Well, Lewis dominated the first three rounds and when McCall realised he wasn't gonna re-produce that knockout but eat hard punches instead, he couldn't handle it anymore. Can't really blame Lewis for that, he did what he was payed to do.

I think this was Lewis' peak performance by the way.

 

Oh, please. If you're gonna go by that then you might as well stop 50% of all fights because a lot of boxers are crazy or on drugs and do stuff like that often enough. You won't hear anyone say that Ibeabuchi shouldn't be in the ring (before his final lock up) but he's done a little bit more than throw a Christmas tree.

Plenty of fighters in 80's were coke addicts before, during and after fights. Not many of them had a break down like McCall did. I think the blame should be sought more in McCall's head than merely writing it off as "he was on drugs"; most fighters are or were.

 

This is pretty typical for Lewis fans to try to justify the unjustifiable. McCall was an OBVIOUS basket-case going in to the fight. This isn't even debtable. Read The Ring report posted in this thread. McCall had JUST gotten out of rehab, he'd had that incident in the hotel which demonstrated his instability, MANY observers were criticizing King and the commission for moving ahead with the fight when he was so CLEARLY unstable.

And what happened in the fight bears this out. People react differently to drugs - McCall is clearly a guy who has PRIOR mental issues, which the drugs exacerbate. And this was clear BEFORE the fight. The fact that other guys did drugs without experiencing these kinds of severe symptoms of mental instability is IRRELEVANT.

The bottom line is that Lewis beat a mental cripple in that fight - and this is clear to anybody who watches it. To call such a match "fair," or to suggest that it somehow is equivilant to McCall's crushing two round punch-out of Lewis is ridiculous. And any boxing fan who knows the background of this fight knows this.