Oliver McCall, 61, Eyes Ibeabuchi Fight and an Age Record

Oliver McCall is 61 years old and still not done. The heavyweight who shocked Lennox Lewis for the WBC title back in 1994 is now pencilled in to fight former contender Ike Ibeabuchi on November 26 in New York, a Thanksgiving-week card that hinges entirely on whether fans actually want to see it.

There's a catch, and it's a big one. According to reports, promoter PrizeFightingTV will only stage the bout if 12,500 people pre-book the pay-per-view at $9.95 a pop. No pre-orders, no fight. It's a crowdfunding model dressed up as a boxing card, and the whole thing lives or dies on a spreadsheet.

From Lewis to Now

McCall's place in the record books is secure regardless of what happens next. He handed Lewis the first defeat of his career in 1994, only for Lewis to reverse the result in one of the strangest world title rematches ever — McCall breaking down in tears mid-fight. That was over 32 years ago. Lewis retired in 2004 as one of the division's greats; McCall simply never left.

He's been busy lately, too. Between November 2024 and June 2025 he fought three times, going 2-0-1, a run that opened with a win over Stacy Frazier, nephew of Joe Frazier. Now he's chasing his own record as the oldest former heavyweight champion to win a professional fight.

Ibeabuchi brings his own strange story to the table. 'The President' beat David Tua and Chris Byrd in the late 1990s and looked like a genuine title threat before his arrest froze his career for 26 years. He finally returned last year with two bouts in Nigeria, picking up a win and the first loss of his professional life.

So this is two men with a combined age of 114 and decades of ring rust between them. Whether it's a nostalgia trip or something that should never leave the drawing board depends on your point of view — and, apparently, on 12,500 credit cards clearing before Thanksgiving.