Oliver McCall, 61, Says He Can Beat Today's Heavyweight Champs

Oliver McCall is 61 years old and still talking like a contender. The former WBC heavyweight titlist — one of only two men to ever beat Lennox Lewis — says he can still knock out and outbox today's champions, and he plans to prove it against former heavyweight terror Ike Ibeabuchi in Nigeria on November 26.

The math alone is staggering. The combined age of the two fighters sharing that ring will be 114. For McCall it marks a fourth bout in two years, and he insists his ability at this age remains credible enough to beat current contenders, former champions and reigning champions alike. He pointedly reminded everyone he's a Chicago man who intends to show the whole world what he can still do.

The Resume That Backs the Talk

McCall's claim isn't pulled from thin air. He was elevated to a shot at Lewis and stunned him in 1994, handing 'The Lion' a shock defeat during what was meant to be a fourth title defense. McCall's own reign was brief — he made one defense, beating the legendary Larry Holmes, before losing to Frank Bruno at Wembley Stadium.

Then came the strange sequel. Eighteen months later, McCall and Lewis met again for the vacant WBC belt, and that night produced one of the oddest stoppages in heavyweight history — a fifth-round finish that went Lewis's way. It also underlines something remarkable about McCall's chin: across a long career that piled up 14 defeats, that rematch stands as the only time he was ever stopped inside the distance.

Will It Even Happen?

There's a catch. The Ibeabuchi fight is penciled in for Thursday, November 26, but it only goes ahead if 12,500 pay-per-views are pre-purchased by the end of October. That's a steep ask for a bout built almost entirely on nostalgia and two fighters whose primes are deep in the rearview.

Ibeabuchi himself carries a mythology of his own as a once-feared boogeyman of the division. Pairing him with the granite-chinned McCall is a curiosity more than a credible route back to a world title — whatever McCall says into a microphone. For now, the gloves stay on hold until the sales numbers decide.