Heavyweight warrior Oliver McCall, who sparred powerful rounds with Mike Tyson, who KO’d Lennox Lewis and who, famously, was by no means as soon as knocked down in a single struggle – McCall going 59-14 – 2 no contests (38 KO) throughout his 1985 to 2019 professional profession – has some story to inform.
The powerful man from the powerful streets of Chicago confronted a who’s who of the heavyweight division: Orlin Norris, Bruce Seldon, Tony Tucker, Francesco Damiani, Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, Frank Bruno, Oleg Maskaev, and others. And Oliver, some time again, kindly afforded this ESB contributor an over the cellphone interview.
McCall spoke about his boxing heroes and different issues:
“Joe Louis is my [boxing] hero. He was world champ for 12 years! And he was champ out and in of the ring,” McCall mentioned. “I like him a lot, he gave donations to the warfare effort. Additionally, I like his preventing type, his six-inch punches and his combos have been superior, particularly for the Nineteen Thirties and the Forties.”
“The best struggle I’ve ever seen needs to be the Marvelous Marvin Hagler versus Thomas Hearns struggle. I watched it reside on TV…….I additionally love the Ali-George Foreman struggle, and the rematch between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. That was particular.”
“The hardest man I ever fought, that was James “Buster” Douglas. He beat me, by determination, method again in 1989. Buster had an excellent, nice left jab. The very best I ever confronted or encountered.”
On his rock for a chin:
“I thank God for it. I used to be blessed. I had the facility, and I additionally had the facility to take an excellent shot (laughs). I by no means fought any pushovers, and a lot of the guys I fought had punching energy.”
To today, loads of us marvel what might need occurred had McCall fought Mike Tyson. As it’s, “The Atomic Bull” has a reasonably particular place within the minds of all these struggle followers who noticed him do his factor.
In the present day, McCall is closing in on his sixtieth birthday, and, boy, ought to a documentary be made on Oliver. Has any heavyweight ever had a better, more durable, extra shock-reliable chin!?
Mcall will not be checked out as an excellent, however his chin completely was nice. No man ever managed to place a dent in it.
The ten best chins in heavyweight historical past:
1: George Chuvalo
2: Oliver McCall
3: Rocky Marciano
4: Muhammad Ali
5: George Foreman
6: Randy “Tex” Cobb
7: Marion Wilson
8: Ray Mercer
9: Tommy Farr
10: David Tua
