Former WBC heavyweight champion continues age defying comeback

Oliver McCall will return to the ring for the second time this year to fight Carlos Reyes in Nashville on the 3rd of June. 

Now, 60-years-old, McCall is the oldest former heavyweight champion to ever win a professional boxing fight. He last fought in February of this year, claiming a win after his opponent retired in their corner at the end of the first round. 

The comeback began in 2024 when McCall, who had been away from boxing for five years, beat Stacy Frazier via technical knockout in the second round.

 

In a career spanning 40 years and 75 fights, the only years since 1985 that McCall has not had at least one bout were between 2015-2017 and 2020-2023. 

The Chicago-born fighter, renowned for his durability, has shared the ring with some of the best heavyweight to ever grace a ring such as James ‘Buster’ Douglas, Tony Tucker, Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and Larry Holmes.

McCall is most famous for his second-round knockout of Lennox Lewis in 1994 in front of Lewis’ home support at Wembley Arena, which saw him capture the WBC heavyweight title. 

McCall would defend the WBC title once before losing it to Frank Bruno in 1995. 

He would go one to challenge for a world title once more in a highly anticipated rematch with Lennox Lewis, for the vacant WBC belt. The fight, which became infamous for its conclusion, saw a crying McCall pulled out of the fight in the fifth round. He had left rehab for addiction in order to compete against Lewis. 

McCall has had public struggles throughout his life with drugs and mental health. The former champion is now 4-0 in his last four fights, showing no signs of slowing down, and has suggested he would be open to fights against Shannon Briggs or Bruce Seldon.

McCall has said he has no long-term goals for his return to boxing, taking it fight by fight and is instead turning his attentions to a future managing or training fighters. 

He told One Round With George : “If I lose a fight, it’s over with as far as boxing, that’s a no brainer. That’s what makes me take it more or less fight by fight, getting to know the business more and dealing with people more. Just going through the things I’ve learned over the years and how to translate that over to the fighters [I'm training] so they can do what I want them to do, when they need to do it.”