One of only two men to have beaten Lennox Lewis is set to fight again at 61

[Sequence19]

Oliver McCall, one of just two boxers to have ever defeated Lennox Lewis in a professional ring, is planning to continue his career at 61 years old with a potential clash against former heavyweight prospect Ike Ibeabuchi, now 53, pencilled in for this Thanksgiving in New York on November 26. McCall originally won the WBC heavyweight title from Lewis with a shocking upset knockout in 1994, before Lewis exacted revenge two and a half years later in one of the most bizarre world title fights ever staged, a rematch that famously ended with McCall bursting into tears mid fight rather than continuing to compete.

More than 32 years on from that original world title win, McCall is refusing to hang up the gloves, having already boxed three times in a seven month stretch between November 2024 and June 2025, picking up two wins and a draw across that run, starting with a win over Stacy Frazier, nephew of the legendary Smokin Joe Frazier. He is now hoping to break his own existing record as the oldest former heavyweight world champion to win a professional bout.

Ibeabuchi, the proposed opponent, is a genuinely fascinating name from boxing's more tragic corners. Known during the late 1990s as The President, he defeated both David Tua and Chris Byrd and was closing in on a genuine world title shot before an arrest ended his career and kept him out of the ring for 26 years. He finally returned last year with two outings in Nigeria, winning one but also suffering the first defeat of his entire career in the other.

According to BoxingScene, the promotion behind this potential fight, PrizeFightingTV, will only actually stage what it is openly calling a horror show if 12,500 fans agree to pre book the pay per view at $9.95 each, which is a fairly unusual and transparent way to frame a fight's commercial viability directly to the public before committing to actually putting it on

Ex Champ Who Beat Lewis To Return At 61boxingnewsonline.net

[DigitalNomad62]

The promotion openly calling its own event a horror show while simultaneously trying to sell it to fans is such a strange bit of self aware marketing that it almost works purely through sheer honesty. Most fight promotions try to sell fans on genuine competitive intrigue rather than openly branding the whole thing as a spectacle nobody should take entirely seriously

[Jacob_80]

Beating Lennox Lewis, one of the most dominant heavyweight champions in boxing history, gives McCall a genuinely permanent and secure place in the sport's record books regardless of anything he does or does not accomplish at 61. That 1994 upset remains one of boxing's more shocking title changes even three decades later, so his legacy was already cemented long before any of this current late career activity even began

[Teal Sparrow]

Requiring 12,500 pre booked pay per view buys before the promotion even commits to staging the fight is a genuinely unusual and transparent way to gauge commercial demand upfront rather than the more typical approach of just announcing a fight and hoping enough people tune in on the night itself. Puts the financial risk much more directly and visibly on the audience's actual willingness to pay ahead of time

[DigitalNomad]

Novelty fights between aging former champions always walk an uncomfortable line between celebrating boxing's rich history and genuinely worrying about older fighters' health and safety continuing to compete at this age. Hard to know exactly where the right line actually sits here, but 61 years old stepping into a professional ring against anyone, regardless of that opponent's own current form, is a genuinely serious thing worth thinking carefully about

[DudleyBoy]

Ibeabuchi's story is honestly one of the more tragic what if narratives in modern heavyweight boxing history, a fighter who looked genuinely destined for a world title before his career and life derailed entirely, only to resurface decades later fighting in Nigeria after a 26 year absence.

Curious how much of his original power and skill actually remains at 53 after a layoff that long

[RomanReigns26]

McCall boxing three times in a seven month stretch just last year at his age is genuinely remarkable from a pure physical conditioning standpoint, regardless of what level of opposition he was actually facing in those specific fights. Staying active enough to compete at all past sixty in a sport this physically brutal says something real about his underlying fitness and dedication