23 hours Ago By George Glinski
Former WBC heavyweight champion Oliver McCall made a surprise return to the ring on Tuesday night. The 59-year-old took on 54-year-old Stacy Frazier at the Texas Troubadour Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee in a professional heavyweight contest scheduled for four rounds. McCall last fought in 2019 when he retired Hugo Lomeli on his stool at the end of the second round.
Like Lomeli, Frazier wouldn't see the third frame either as he was slumped against the corner post by a clubbing right hand in the second stanza and counted out by the referee. Boxing fans will remember McCall for his upset KO win over Lennox Lewis in 1994. At the time, Lewis was an undefeated WBC heavyweight champion, who had barely put a foot wrong in his career up to that point.
Meanwhile, McCall's title prospects had been widely discounted following defeats by Tony Tucker and Orlin Norris. After a close first round, McCall came out aggressively for the second and floored Lewis with a huge right hand. Lewis beat the count but was unsteady on his feet, leaving the referee with no choice but to wave off the bout.
McCall defended the WBC belt against Larry Holmes in his next outing before dropping it to Frank Bruno over the distance. When he rematched Lewis three years later, the Brit exacted his revenge in one of the most bizarre fights in boxing history. McCall, who had been struggling with mental health issues in the lead-up to the clash, refused to fight in the fourth and fifth rounds and had a breakdown in the ring, forcing the referee to wave off the bout.
The third man in the ring that night, Mills Lane said post-fight: "In the third round, he got in close and then seemed frustrated, and then he just backed off and put his arms down...
"I thought he was playing possum but then I saw his lips started to quiver and I thought, 'My God, is he crying?'" Rather than taking time off from the sport to get himself in order, McCall continued competing - and to the shock of many, is still boxing to this day. McCall intends to continue fighting after his latest triumph and has called out Jake Paul following the YouTuber's victory over 58-year-old Mike Tyson last weekend. “Well, next fight, I'm gonna be about 10 pounds lighter so you're gonna have a lot more technique," he said.
"And I can punch. I could definitely punch. My defence is pretty decent.
"What about if I lose about 10 more pounds, I'm ready for anybody. “I’ll knock Jake Paul out. Bring on Jake Paul and I wanna get revenge for Nate Robinson and then Mike Tyson.
That would be awesome.” *If you click on a link in this story we will earn affiliate revenue. There are more than 150 boxing and MMA fights a year on DAZN , and you can get access for less if you sign up now: DAZN currently has the exclusive rights to Eddie Hearn's Matchroom and will have Queensberry’s star-studded stable from April 2025, which includes heavyweight champions Daniel Dubois, Zhilei Zhang, Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma.
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