Oliver McCall had boxing’s greatest chin, beat Lennox Lewis to become champion, was never knocked down and prime Mike Tyson needed him for tough sparring sessions

A record of only one successful world title defence should make Oliver McCall among the most forgettable heavyweight champions, except his rollercoaster career and outlandish endurance make ‘The Atomic Bull’ totally remarkable.

McCall had – some might argue has – the most indestructible chin in boxing history, a jaw so blast-proof even a prime Mike Tyson could not put a dent in it. He began boxing in 1985 and last fought at age 53 in 2018, racking up 74 fights. But despite facing some of the biggest punchers in heavyweight history, McCall has never been knocked down, let alone out. Only one of his 14 defeats was officially by KO – and that bizarre bout actually showcased McCall’s granite resilience.

But it was during his sparring sessions with a prime Tyson where Chicago-born McCall first demonstrated his unique toughness. Tyson was infamously brutal with sparring partners, going after them with his trademark viciousness. A young Lennox Lewis (who’d go on to fight McCall twice) recalled his first meeting with Tyson when they were both amateurs as: “First day in the gym, bell went, he came across and he was trying to kill me.”

Many of Tyson’s sparring partners found the work so painful that they quit after the first day.

But McCall was so durable, able to take Tyson’s torqued hooks and uppercuts and fire back, that he sparred between 300 and 350 rounds with Tyson over several years in the late 1980s. McCall was paid $500 a day as he helped the undisputed champion prepare for successful defences against the likes of Tony Tucker, Tyrell Biggs and Tony Tubbs.

“He was beating up on other sparring partners,” McCall said years later. “I said, ‘Well I must be doing something right because he isn’t busting my head.’… I saw a lot of people get their heads busted then scream and run out of there without even getting paid.”

Videos of the sessions show just how heated it got with snarled verbal trades peppering the exchange of punches to the point where Tyson’s trainer, Kevin Rooney, barks: “Shut up and fight, both of you.”

However despite his elite-level jaw, McCall’s career seemed destined for gatekeeper status. By the end of 1989 when Tyson was at his all-conquering best, McCall had a modest 14-3 pro record, having just dropped a decision loss to future Tyson upsetter James ‘Buster’ Douglas.

But by the time 1994 rolled around, with Tyson in jail and the heavyweight crown splintered, Don King-promoted McCall got a mandatory title shot at undefeated WBC champion Lewis in London. With a 24-5 record, McCall was a massive 5-1 underdog, but he had a secret weapon aside from his heavy hands and an otherworldly ability to take a punch. The great Emanuel Steward was in his corner while Lewis, an Olympic gold medallist, had fallen into bad habits under trainer Pepe Correa.

Specifically, Steward had noticed that Lewis had a habit of hanging his chin out when pawing with his left hand, and trained McCall to counter it. Still, few could have foreseen what was about to happen when McCall appeared almost unhinged during the pre-fight introductions, his face a mask of tears as he paced the ring and punched the corner padding, almost overcome with emotion.

But McCall was alert enough to follow Steward’s instructions and in the second round, he countered Lewis’s lazy left with a right-hand bomb that sent the champion crashing to the canvas. A dazed, wobbly-legged Lewis made it up at “six” but the fight was controversially stopped by referee Jose Guadalupe Garcia and ‘The Atomic Bull’ was suddenly an unlikely world champion. He leapt in the air, split-legged; a memorable celebration after an unforgettable win.

Yet McCall’s life was going off the rails outside the ring. The youngest of nine children, he had had a difficult upbringing and spent time in foster care. As an adult, McCall struggled with alcohol and substance abuse problems throughout his life. If he could keep hold of his alphabet title while Tyson made his comeback to the sport in 1995 and 1996, a lucrative showdown with his former employer would have been McCall’s reward. But after one defence against an ageing Larry Holmes, McCall suffered a surprise defeat of his own: a passive points loss to Frank Bruno at Wembley in a fight that was a long way from a classic of the genre.

Bruno got the payday of a Tyson rematch, while McCall got a shot at redemption two years later in 1997: a rematch with Lewis for a vacant heavyweight strap. Smartly, Lewis had employed Steward as his own trainer now, while McCall’s preparation involved being arrested by Nashville Police when he threw a Christmas tree across the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. McCall also had two spells in rehab so it was no surprise that, while the muscle-bound 6ft 2in heavyweight looked physically impressive, he was mentally in no condition to fight.

McCall dashed into the ring before the first bell, but this time the troubled fighter could not contain his emotions during the contest. After the third round, McCall, now crying midfight, refused to return to the corner despite the pleas of his experienced trainer George Benson. After that McCall simply stopped throwing punches and began walking about the ring with his fists by his side. A perplexed Lewis, perhaps suspecting some elaborate trap, was cautious with his punch output before in the fifth round he began teeing off with uppercuts and left hooks to McCall’s unguarded chin.

Remarkably, McCall took flush, unprotected shots from one of the most fearsome punchers in heavyweight boxing history, without flinching. But with him refusing to defend himself and the crowd booing the bonkers spectacle, referee Mills Lane understandably stepped in and awarded Lewis a technical stoppage win. It was the only inside-the-distance loss of McCall’s 33-year pro career – and he never even looked close to being knocked down.

After that, McCall was finished at world title level. He kept on boxing, his otherworldly endurance and ability to punch with either hand meaning he pulled off a few impressive upsets, stopping Henry Akinwande in 2001 and outpointing Sinan Samil Sam in 2007. But unfortunately his personal demons remained, with McCall detained in a mental hospital (after the loss to Lewis), jailed for 30 days for brawling with police in 2006, and arrested for possession of cocaine and a crack pipe in 2010.

But McCall’s story is not finished yet and the optimistic view is that – like his old sparring foe Tyson – he may still get an unlikely happy ending. The 56-year-old sounds upbeat and clear-spoken in recent interviews; extraordinarily so for a boxer who has taken so many clean shots throughout a long career. He has never officially retired, which is a concern, and even hinted that he might enjoy a Tyson fight after ‘Iron Mike’ made his comeback to take on Roy Jones Jr in an exhibition.

But whatever the future holds, McCall’s legacy is set. “Hard as nails and mad as a hatter,” as Boxing News editor Matt Christie once described him, McCall went toe-to-toe with heavyweight punchers as hard as Tyson, Lewis, Bruno, ‘TNT’ Tucker and more but was barely wobbled let alone dropped. Surely no fighter in boxing’s long and varied history has ever boasted a titanium jaw quite like Oliver McCall’s.