61 Year-Old Oliver McCall Gets the Stoppage in Nashville

Far from the bright lights of Las Vegas and Atlantic City where he once headlined, in a sparsely-attended Mariachi hall in Nashville, Oliver McCall showed that even at 61, he still knows his way around a boxing ring.

It has to be said that at 54, his opponent, Jeremiah Williams is hardly a spring chicken himself. But unlike McCall, he does not a have a career that dates back to the 1980s, and so is relatively fresh. Williams first stepped in the ring in 2008, aged 36.

McCall has unsurprisingly, slowed down since his peak in the last century. I called him a ghost of his former self in my preview and I'll stick to that. But he is clearly an extraordinary physical specimen who has retained enough of his old strength and toughness to be taken seriously.

His money punch, the overhand right that sent Lennox Lewis crashing 32 years ago, still has some venom. It was one of those, in the fifth round, that hurt Williams, and opened up a cut above his left eye. The cut was bleeding, but a minute's worth of attention from any half-decent cornerman would have staunched the flow.

But Williams was gesturing at the cut, which suggested it was bothering him. More significantly, his chest was heaving. He was clearly exhausted, and was eager to cut short the encounter.

A few moments later, much to the derision of the commentary team, the fight was called off and McCall's hands were raised for the 62nd time in a career spanning 41 years.

McCall has now won three contests and drawn one since deciding to lace up his gloves again in 2024, following his retirement five years earlier.

The fight got little coverage but it keeps his career alive. Many people are horrified that he is still allowed to get punched in the head at such an advanced age. It's assumed that he's passed all his medicals, but what of the impact on his mental health, which was questionable in the first place?

Everyone remembers his tearful meltdown against Lennox Lewis in their rematch, but that was not the only incident that revealed the torment in his mind. I recall Oliver once making the news for hurling a Christmas tree around in a hotel lobby. Spitting on a police car afterwards resulted in him promptly being detained inside it, on the way to the local prison cells.

Repeated blows to the head are seldom recommended as treatment for his condition.

Thanks to his win, there's little doubt that we'll be seeing McCall in a ring again, but I can't imagine that this will end well for him.