Some of what he did against Lewis wasn’t actually out of character relative to when he was ‘fighting’ … as in not having a breakdown. Look at his fight against Holmes and you’ll see him go for a stroll more than once. And also at various times just turns his head away to look outside the ring rather than at his opponent. You can see it here if you go to 26:45 (I don’t know how to timestamp) and if you keep watching you’ll see him turn his head away from the action when not completely turning his back to walk away. (Note that Bobby Czyz on commentary mentions he’s done it previously in this fight so it’s not isolated.) This content is protected Now there is a difference — McCall isn’t walking around the ring between rounds, completely disengaged and non-communicative with his corner, crying, etc., so not a breakdown and the Lewis situation is completely different … but some of what he does in that fight isn’t out of character. I figure Lewis would have studied the Holmes fight, among others, and recognized the walking away part as not unusual for McCall. Bottom line, I think Lennox was rightly cautious when facing a guy who is so out of sorts because you don’t want to walk into a trap … especially with a guy who has previously knocked you out. Pick your shots but don’t just step in with reckless abandon as McCall that night was nothing if not unpredictable.
Admittedly it's hard to be too confident about such things. Lewis fought a lot more cautious than a few of those but the times he did let loose early he demolished some pretty big men.
Good observation. Totally agree Lewis had every right to be cautious - but even when picking his shots and containing the full extent of his power - damn, he still hit very hard. Certainly hit hard enough to keep iron chinned David Tua honest and wary of charging in to land his own bombs.
McCall does have a very good chin no doubt, but most of the evidence is based on his breakdown vs Lewis. I do know Bruce Seldon hurt McCall in their fight, but I can't remember to the extent how bad McCall was hurt. The thing is with McCall is that he was quite crafty, he wasn't a fighter who'd leave his chin in the air taking full fledged shots round after round. So I do think at times people may go a bit OTT about his chin, i don't really remember him taking much punishment in a fight. Overall though he does deserve a ton of credit for never being stopped legitimately.
Remember clip of McCall sparring Tyson in preparation for Douglas fight ? McCall walked out of the ring and quit after saying Tyson was hitting him low. When in reality he was just feeling those body shots from Tyson and wasn't mentally there that day.
If he's 9.75 I'm racking my brain to think who'd have a 10.............because that chin is magnificent. Even into old age. I've only seen him really swole up once.......against Davaryl Williamson
Have to disagree with you here. A This content is protected part of the evidence for his adamantine chin is taking unprotected abuse against Lewis. Much more telling is that he was not only not stopped legitimately, but maybe you missed he was never even put DOWN. This is exceedingly rare. Especially for a long career into relative old age, & includes tons of sparring including 300 + rounds vs. Mike Tyson. Chuvalo makes that claim, never got a kd as an amateur or anywhere else & he fought forever-but at least 1 time ruled a slip seems to have been a flash/off-balance knockdown. However either way I think all would agree that Chuvalo is up there with among the greatest chins in World History. Even walking out of the ring when he was not mentally there just reinforces his sometimes fragility-it does not impeach his chin one bit. And the poster who wrote about him sparring everyone & how tough he normally was shows that overall he was Present & Brave. Now both he & McCall protected/tucked their chin, but this is the norm. Neither fighter was unusual in being great defensively, tying up a lot-as you would expect for a fighter with the mickname "The Atomic Bull". Now that was an overstatement, he was usually more conservative than that. But my main point is without any unusual mitigating circumstances, & with fighting modern big HWs... He did what almost nobody ever does, never get dropped. That is an *insane* chin.
Oliver McCall's chin sure held up against hard punching Frank Bruno on Sept 2 1995 for the WBC Title.
The win over Lennox, and bizarre subsequent loss to him, change the perception of McCall. At the time, he was mostly seen as a gatekeeper with a bit of a sparring partner mentality — lost most of his step-up fights (to Tony Tucker, Orlin Norris, Buster Douglas, even Mike “The Bouty” Hunter) but also a couple of nice wins (Bruce Shelton and the one that got him the shot at Lewis, Francesco Damiani). Mostly he was seen as a guy who would lose to the better heavyweights but test them to a degree (he had a relatively low punch output and just didn’t seem to be the type to go for broke) and weed out the pretenders. My favorite McCall story revolves around his fight with Jesse Ferguson, another gatekeeper/journeyman type. I think it was ESPN but it’s possible it was USA Network — anyway, their main event had fallen out. They were looking for a fight (to pair with a Bert Cooper bout on a ‘night of heavyweights’ type cable card, and they tracked down Ferguson and asked if he’d fight McCall. Jesse said sure. They asked Ferguson if he thought McCall would take it and Jesse said, ‘Why don’t you ask him’ and handed Oliver the phone. They were playing cards in training camp with someone acting as sparring partners, so both were in decent shape. Oliver took the fight and won a competitive but not overly exciting decision. The announcers told the story during their fight.
I’ll have to look at that one. I was high on Seldon back then because of his speed & good jab. I don’t remember him bothering McCall much & he just kind of wore down. McCall just walked through him. He might’ve been rocked though. I haven’t watched that since it aired! edit: Seldon did rock McCall a bit in the 5th & 6th. Fought much better than I remembered. McCall did just beat him down though.
Yeah I think he likely is among one of the most durable heavyweights of all time. His rematch with Lennox Lewis was listed as a “TKO” but that had nothing to do with his ability to take punch or not take one. Oliver was an emotional mess that evening. One of the strangest outcomes I’ve ever seen
Yeah, I remember Seldon shaking up McCall a bit and I also remember the incident when he walked out on sparring. I agree with the point that McCall didn't leave his chin out - certainly not as hittable as guys like Chuvalo or Randall Cobb who both tended have their chins sheerly tested by flush shots every time they got into the ring. I know it was only sparring with certain aspects of Tyson's game being worked on - but Ollie looked good in there with Mike, including working a nice jab. An actual fight between those two would've been more than interesting.
I wouldn't even say throughout history. You can argue that a few hit harder than Lewis. Maybe. But dramatically or measurably harder, I don't know.
Exactly. Not even George Chuvalo was as unshakable as Oliver McCall. Only other heavyweight I can think of who never went down, but was a heavyweight who was staggered and stunned a few times, unlike McCall. I don't think I've ever even seen McCall a slight bit dizzy. High maybe, but not dizzy.
