The Orleans, Oliver McCall returns, Elijah McCall arrives.

21 year old Heavyweight prospect Elijah McCall

This Month I took the time to look closely at a Heavyweight fighter that I have known for quite some time (15 years in fact) and the emergence of his 21 year old son who is himself cutting his teeth in the hard business his father made his name in. On a Crown Boxing event at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas Nv, 44 year old former World heavyweight Champion Oliver McCall made a succesful return to the ring on the same show as his promising son Elijah McCall. Elijah showed interest from a young age that he wanted to follow in his dads footsteps and has so far been improving every time he steps foot inside the ring. Oliver is one of the rare individuals who has been able to fend off father time and stay active and succesful at the highest level far longer than any of those from his true bygone era. Oliver, originally from Chicago Illinois tough streets has fought the best of his era for more than 2 decades now, and back in 1994 when Opportunity knocked at his door he grabbed it by the throat by Ko'ing the dominant WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in the champions home town, London England to become an unlikely new Champion against all odds. McCall no stranger to being the underdog defended his title against Larry Holmes before losing his title a year later in the same country he won it, London England. At that time his 7 year old son must have been inspired by what his father achieved and made a vow to himself one day to journey down the same route his father did. Enter Elijah McCall, all 222lbs of him , a solid young man with focus in his eyes. I spent a few weeks in the gym with both father and son in thier preperation for thier respective fights on the Orleans show last month. Oliver was very vocal at the pre fight press conference talking mostly about how glad he was to be back on a head line show in Las Vegas, he described his appearing alongside his son Elijah on the same card as historic, he was cordial towards his opponent (John Hopoate) but warned that he was not a part time fighter, he said that no matter how much he himself liked passionately to play basketball , it was just something he did for recreation, he made it clear that Hopoate was a class Rugby player because it was what he was trained to do well, by nature, Oliver stressed that he may enjoy flirting with boxing but Rugby was his natural game, just like Oliver enjoyed B-ball, Boxing was what he was expert at.. This is what i do , and i am damn good at it... Making it clear that the match was very much a natural v a part time fighter... On fight night it became evident how much Olivers prediction was correct, he dropped the Australian in round 2 before scoring a TKO in the same round.. Prior to the main event his very promising son Elijah 222lbs scored a classy 1 round stoppage over a solid looking but inept Chad Davis with 2 great body attacks early in the opener. Elijah and Oliver are both handled by Elijah Thomas, Frank McCall (Olivers brother) and business manager , and trained by Rick Fisler a former fighter and friend of McCall who also resides in Ft Lauderdale Florida. Both Eli and Oliver should appear soon on a Crown Boxing Event , promoted by Frank Luca ..