Four factors caused Mike to lose and McCall to win.

Mike was a shadow of himself, McCall was a very good heavyweight in his own right, Lewis took McCall very lightly, and finally, the great Manny Steward devised the perfect fight plan for McCall, who he trained for that fight.

Oliver McCall was born in Chicago on April 21, 1965. He was the youngest of nine children, and his mother lived on welfare in the rough part of the Ghetto.

McCall told The Ring:

“I would say it was definitely tough for me and my family, It wasn’t as tough for me, looking up at a lot of brothers and sisters. Those early days I was glad to have a big family.”

CREDIT PICTURE THE DAILY MOTION

After his father stopped being a part of his life, McCall became a street kid, and eventually ended up in the system, in foster care as a teen. McCall found solace in boxing, and finished with an amateur record of 31-2, with 28 knockouts. McCall became a two-time Chicago Golden Gloves champion.

After McCall turned pro, in his early years in the paid ranks, McCall was employed by a rising Mike Tyson as a sparring partner.

McCall had talent, primarily a chin of cast iron, and first rate power.

McCall claims:

“I’ve never been down sparring or in a fight, amateur or pro.”

To the best of my ability to research it, he is telling the truth. In 72 professional fights, including fights with Lennox Lewis, Henry Akinwande (who was 40-1-1 at the time), Frank Bruno and Larry Holmes, he was never off his feet.

Indeed, in his second fight with Lennox Lewis, while suffering some sort of breakdown in the ring, he dropped his hands and let Lennox fire away! And stayed on his feet!

Tysons said of McCall’s chin:

“He ain’t human!”

Lennox Lewis has said:

“you might need a club to knock McCall out.

As McCall built his own career in the ring, he lost to the likes of Buster Douglas (UD 10), Orlin Norris (SD 10) and Tony Tucker (SD 12). But after the Tucker loss in June 1992, McCall put together five straight wins to become the WBC mandatory challenger.

Manny Steward and McCall

Don King hired Manny Steward to train and prepare Oliver McCall for his mandatory title shot against Lennox Lewis.

No one gave McCall any chance to beat Lewis, but Steward believed he might pull off the upset.

Steward said later:

“Lennox had a habit in those days of training lightly for lightly regarded opponents. I felt certain he would do so for Oliver, and he did. I then took Oliver’s strengths, power, and his chin, and devised a fight plan for him to go after Lennox, depend on his chin to stand up to getting hit on the way in, and throw everything he had at Lennox while he could. Lennox was open to right hand counters in those days and Oliver had a good right. And it worked.”

Crucially, Steward had noticed that Lewis was vulnerable to right hand counters over his jab, and had worked tirelessly with McCall on his counter right when it occurred.

It happened in the second round.

So those are factors one two and three why McCall won and Tyson lost.

• Manny Steward devised a great plan to take McCall’s two great strengths, an iron chin and real power, and overwhelm a Lewis who he was certain would be taking McCall lightly.
• McCall had the power and chin to make the fight plan work;
• Lewis took McCall lightly and was vulnerable.

McCall would say in later years he came in in the best shape of his life, and that no one, no one, trained him “up” like Manny Steward.

Factor Four for why Tyson lost and McCall won – Tyson was a shadow of himself when he faced Lewis in 2002

Lennox Lewis’s style, with his size, fundamentals, sound jab and power punching would have always been problematic for Mike Tyson – but it would have been a much closer, if not different, fight had they met early in their careers – a fact Lewis cheerfully acknowledges! But by the time they met, all the things that made Mike great, peek-a-boo, constant movement, volume punching, were all gone.

A fundamental rule of boxing: when you drug, drink, and whore your skills away, they are gone forever…

Eddie Futch said about Riddick Bowe:

“At one point I thought he could be the best heavyweight I ever trained, I’m disappointed. I guess the other voices began to reach his ears,” it was downhill. Slowly at first, but then momentum picked up.”

With Mike Tyson, it happened after he fired his team in 1988 and partied for the next 15 years. The skills he lost, those Bowe lost in a similiar (though far shorter) party, they are gone forever.

Like Jack Dempsey said after being off for three years living the life of Riley in Hollywood:

“I thought i could get it back. I was wrong.”

Mike could have gotten in tip top shape – but he was never, ever, going to regain the form that made him the baddest man on the planet.

Mike was a sad shadow of his young Rooney-trained self when he fought Lewis.

Mike Tyson was Ring fighter of the year twice, in 86 and 88. He is somewhere between the 4th and 14th heavyweight of all time, depending on which expert is evaluating. Mike’s career is essentially two phases, with Kevin Rooney, during which he trained fanatically and prepared religiously, and post Rooney, during which he partied like it was 1999.

Mike Tyson was in his Rooney days a unique fighter in his style, short for a heavyweight, with a very short reach, (he is 2 inches shorter than Joe Frazier, with a reach 2 inches shorter than Joe’s), he is not a swarmer, but a mid-range volume power puncher. Blessed with incredible speed and strength, he used his short stabbing jab to set up his hooks. He had a KO percentage of 76%, with more of his KO’s coming later in fights from accumulated beatings.

Mike was never really Mike again after he fired Kevin Rooney and his whole staff. Mike went from training all day and watching film all night to partying 24/7 365. Don King and Robin Givens told him he could have it all, do what he wanted, snort what he wanted, and still be a great fighter – and they were wrong.

Mike was even less of a shadow of the Rooney-terror when he returned from prison. He was not even in good fighting form of any kind – and certainly absolutely nothing resembling what he had been in his prime. But he had gotten in at least enough shape to fight by 1997 when he faced Holyfield, and promptly lost twice. Mike then took another year and a half off, and that left only 3 years before he faced Lewis.

By the time he faced Lewis, Mike was a fat one punch fighter – even if Mike had gotten in shape, he couldn’t turn back the hands of time 14 years, and regain the form and skills he had lost almost a decade and a half ago.

Manny Steward knew Tyson was done long before he fought Lewis.

Steward said he didn’t even believe Tyson deserved to be fighting for the heavyweight title, saying:

“Everyone is holding onto that image of Mike Tyson from 10 to 12 years ago,” Steward said. “That Mike Tyson is gone.”

The greatest irony of all: Don King forced Steward out as McCall’s trainer, even though Manny had taken him to the title

King was jealous of the influence Steward had over his fighter, and began to interfere with training, finally demanding that McCall not train in Detroit, as he had, but that Steward come to Chicago.

Steward, seeing the handwriting on the wall, resigned.

McCall said bitterly:

“After I beat Lewis, Emanuel and me parted ways, but it wasn’t my idea. It wasn’t his, either. He said, `You know, Oliver, that wasn’t me. That was Don King.’ And it was Don King that forced me and Emanuel to split up. It’s too bad because I really believe that if Emanuel Steward had stayed my trainer, I’d still be heavyweight champion. I was a good fighter then and I’m still a good fighter, but Emanuel helped make me the best that I could be.”

🥊 Oliver McCall Tells It Like He Thinks It Was | Boxing News, articles, videos, rankings and results

Word spread in the boxing world that King had forced Steward out – and who should hire him?

Lennox Lewis.

The rest is history. Lewis, with Manny in his corner, beat McCall, reclaimed his title, and went on to become undisputed champion. McCall never even fought for, let alone, won a title again.