McCall v Lewis II

I was rewatching this fight. What ever happened with McCall? Cocaine? Did he take a dive? Seems to me to be one of if not the strangest things in recent boxing history. Lennox Lewis will go down as one of the LUCKIEST Heavyweight champions of all time in terms of his biggest rivals self destructing and either not being at their best when he faced them or never facing them at all. 1) Oliver McCall - He was suffering from withdrawl from crack use as Don King pulled him out of a crack house and made him fight Lewis when he was mentally and physically unfit for the fight. I honestly think McCall had Lewis' number and would have been his bogeyman if 100% focused. 2) Evander Holyfield - By the time Lewis faced Holyfield, Evander was already 37/38 and in decline plus he was also facing marital and Child paternity troubles too. Personally i had the second meeting between them a Draw and the first fight was hardly a blow out for Lewis either, an 8-4/7-5 type of fight. If Lewis had faced a peak Holyfield in 1991, i would have fancied Holyfield to win pretty comfortably on points. 3) Mike Tyson - If Tyson had fought Lewis pre Jail, i have no doubt Tyson would have knocked Lewis out inside 4 rds. By the time they met, Tyson was shell of himself. 4) Riddock Bowe - Once again, if Lewis had faced Bowe around 1992 when Bowe was at his best, i think it would have a 50-50 fight. Unfortunately even then, Bowe was already self destructing. 5) Ike Ibeabuchi - I have no doubt Ike would have been the best Heavyweight on the planet had he not gone to Prison and that includes beating Lewis when they would have had to fight around 1999/2000. Sadly we'll never get to know just how great he truly could have been.

the most miraculous thing about this fight is that Lewis was landing some HARD shots and Mcall never even was bothered by him. Hands down the best chin in hw history.And that's not just from this fight I'm making my assumption.

It was a multitude of factors from what i remember 1) They released him out of drug rehab 2) Emmanuel Stewart(his former coach) was now with Lewis 3) His heart wasn't in it But one thing i noticed though, his "82" reach would've gave Lewis problems even in the rematch if his heart was straight and his head into it.

He knew he was going to lose and couldn't face it. He got lucky in the 1st fight and his luck ran out, I guess it was hard to accept. If he just wanted out, he could have just quit on his stool like most other fighters who don't want to continue fighting.

I like how George Foreman was sticking up for him when Merchant or Lampley (can't remember which) was being really harsh towards McCall. Foreman said something like, "you shouldn't say those kind of things, you don't know what's going in the man's life."

Yeah I agree that was weird. Boxing will forever be the theatre of the unexpected.

mental illness, he was taken to a mental hospital shortly afterwards.