Oliver McCall

Oliver McCall
Data
Birth Name	Oliver McCall
Fight name	The Atomic Bull
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	April 21, 1965
place of birth	Chicago
style	Left delivery
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	74
Victories	58
Knockout victories	37
Defeats	14th
draw	0
No value	2

Oliver McCall (born April 21, 1965 in Chicago ) is an American heavyweight boxer and former WBC world champion. McCall was also Mike Tyson's sparring partner for many years .

Professional career

He began his professional career in 1985. The powerful and equipped with a world-class chin, but boxer-limited McCall was set early against opponents who were not right for him; so he lost in his second professional fight against Joey Christjohn on points. An eventful career followed with a few defeats, including against James Douglas , Tony Tucker and Orlin Norris , but also victories against well-known opponents. So he brought the later WBA world champion Bruce Seldon in 1991 his first defeat, a knockout victory in the ninth round.

In 1993 he achieved his second important victory, beating former WBO world champion Francesco Damiani prematurely.

But it was above all his signature with Don King that earned him a title fight against WBC world champion Lennox Lewis on September 24, 1994 . McCall went into the fight as a clear underdog against the undefeated Lewis, but was able to knock him to the ground in the second round. Lewis was able to get up again and tried to signal his readiness to fight, but the referee stopped the fight and McCall became the new WBC world champion.

In his first title defense in April 1995, he managed a narrow points victory against the already 45-year-old Larry Holmes , his only important point victory; in the next fight he lost the title to Frank Bruno . After the fight, he refused to go through the doping control. Then he won by knockout in the first round against the then very inexperienced future WBC world champion Oleg Maskayev .

In the rematch against Lewis on February 7, 1997, in which it was again about the now vacant WBC title, he suffered a nervous breakdown in the fifth round. He began to cry in the ring and no longer defended himself against the attacks, so the fight was finally broken off. But in this fight, as in his entire career, he was not down.

McCall continued to box and remained undefeated in the following years, but received no more World Cup chance. On November 17, 2001 he won against former WBO world champion Henry Akinwande by knockout. In 2004 he then lost to DaVarryl Williamson on points.

His point defeat on October 15, 2005 by Juan Carlos Gómez was annulled after Gómez was found in a doping test that he was ingesting cocaine . On June 16, 2007, he defeated the Turkish Sinan Şamil Sam in an elimination match of the WBC on points and thus won the association's mandatory challenger position. However, he voluntarily denied a rematch against Gomez on October 19, which he lost again on points. This won Gomez the position of the WBC mandatory challenger.

McCall was temporarily trained by WBA World Champion Greg Page , who died in 2009 as a result of a severe knockout defeat.

He is one of the oldest professional boxers in the top 100 of the current BoxRec world rankings.

Others

McCall has spent several stays in drug rehab clinics, so his career has been interrupted several times. In January 2006, he was arrested in Nashville while trespassing on a building. He tried to escape from the police and threatened the officers, and a small amount of cocaine was found on him.

Web links

• Oliver McCall in the BoxRec database
• First fight against Lewis (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Lennox Lewis	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) September 24, 1994–2. September 1995	Frank Bruno