Oliver McCall having a mini-"breakdown" in the Holmes fight

Famous for his so-called "breakdown" against Lewis in 1997, McCall exhibited similar behaviour in his first and only defense of his title against a geriatric Larry Holmes.
Hopelessly frustrated by Holmes's superior skill. McCall acts like a child who doesn't really want to play this game any more.

Starts in round 5, i think, continues a bit in 6th and at points thereafter.

This content is protected

 

*

 

Yeah, they can call it a breakdown if they want but I don't think it was necessarily due to any special emotional damage caused by his drug habit. Not saying he wasn't a mental case.

I think he was just a very easily frustrated boxer on the big stage. He was probably okay on undercard fights and as a complere underdog but he got very sick being schooled in fights in which big things should be expected from him.
His pride was really wounded against Holmes and even more so Lewis, because he'd built himself up as better than he was. It turns out these boxers weren't at all intimidated by him and at times made him look and feel extremely foolish.