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Lennox Lewis is stopped in 2 rounds at Wembley making the "Atomic Bull" a World Champion.
Most boxers I suppose have to be a little crazy to do the sport in the first place , but Oliver McCall was special. Nicknamed the "Atomic Bull" he turned professional in 1985 at the age of 20, his trainer was no other than legendary heavy weight Joe Frazier.
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Lennox hitting the canvas.
Slowly over the years he progressed up the ranks and was recognized by being given a shot at the world title for the WBC belt against Lennox Lewis in London. I can recall watching the fight and the reason for this article as it wasn't normal by any means. The fight I had no problems with which McCall won on a TKO in the second round, but it was more his entrance to the ring.
Back in the 90's entrances became a thing with loud music and lights with smoke and extras. Sometimes the entrance lasted longer than the fight as promoters milked whatever they could from the event. I am not into that type of stuff as think it is wrong to leave a fighter waiting in the ring for his opponent to arrive and this took loads of time. A boxer warms up in the dressing room and then waits 5 minutes cooling down in the ring doesn't make much sense.
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Running for the hills against Lewis.
Back to the "Atomic Bull" who had a good reputation as had a high percentage of knockouts so far. He arrived behind all the smoke and lights bawling his eyes out. A boxer crying whilst walking to the ring is a first for me and one starts to imagine why. Possibly he is crying for his opponent on how much damage he is going to inflict on him and is showing his feminine side. Maybe he is just unstable and an emotional wreck and a little crazy (spot on). He said it was to get him pumped up for the fight which I find bizarre as who cries in order to focus.
Apparently this was not the first time he has shed some tears along the way and was becoming something of a normal thing with him. Once he had won the fight he was sitting on his stool in the corner and was still crying. Who knows what personal turmoil he was going through but it must have been worrying or even alarming if you were his trainer or manager.
His manager at the time was Don King so maybe the tears were for how he was being screwed along the way and was replaying signing the contract over in his head. I think knowing Don King had your future in your his would make anyone cry.
Mccall was World champion now and not a bad result for someone who was highly emotional and looked on the edge. He eventually lost his title to Frank Bruno in 1995 having basically not fought at all until the 9th round. He landed some decent punches in the last 3 rounds making Bruno hold on for the win. This was not the boxing everyone would expect from a normal champion.
In 1997 he had a re fight against Lennox Lewis and this was totally nuts. Mills Lane was the referee on that day and it threw him as well. In the third round the "Atomic Bull" lowered his gloves leaving himself unprotected and started to cry. Mills Lane said he saw his lips quivering and didn't know what to do as he had never seen a crying boxer before. The fight was eventually stopped as Mills Lane had no choice left as McCall was a sitting duck not protecting himself.
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Trainers pleading with him as his mind has left the ring.
The "Atomic Bull" was a strange character and one who promoters and trainers must have been highly frustrated with. he had the power and the skills to win fights but his emotions took over the entire show. Not surprisingly he had a run in with the law and was imprisoned for 1 year. He had turned to cocaine and God knows what else.
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Mills Lane has no choice but to stop the fight as McCall has had a mental breakdown.
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Never seen anything like this before.
The "bomb" is what he should have been called as he bombed out a lot and looking at his record he last fought in 2018 and will most likely have another fight again at some point. His record is not disastrous considering what he is dealing with and out of 74 fights he managed to win 58 of those with 37 knock outs. he had 14 losses and 2 no contests which I can imagine were down to him not boxing within the first 3 rounds of a fight. He was really a strange cat and boxers who fought him were always wary as you just never knew which person you were going to get.