by James Slater – Father and son duo Oliver and Elijah McCall were all set to box together on another card tonight, in Hollywood, Florida. But, as some fans may have already read today, McCall Senior, the former WBC heavyweight champion, was arrested over the weekend in Fort Lauderdale – for three offences: possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and violation of parole.
So now, young Elijah will fight tonight (against Dieuly Aristilde) but his father will not. 44-year-old McCall has had his share of troubles in the past, troubles that have been well publicised.. The iron-chinned warrior has had drug issues in the past, and the in-the-ring “breakdown” he suffered in his 1997 rematch with Lennox Lewis remains one of the most bizarre events in modern day boxing.
The former champ, who has never once been floored in well over 60 pro bouts, bounced back after the Lewis debacle, and in recent times, quite amazingly, McCall worked his way back up to close to the top. In 2007 he won a WBC final eliminator and appeared to be on the verge of getting a shot at becoming champ all over again! Instead, McCall fought Juan Carlos Gomez in a return of their earlier no-contest fight (when, ironically, it was Gomez who was found to have been using an illegal substance) and lost on points.
Refusing to quit just yet, the veteran, now well into his forties, racked up a further three wins, starting in May of 2009. Slowly gathering the momentum that just might have seen to it that he got himself one more big fight before finally retiring, McCall has now seen this come to a halt due to his latest indiscretion. We don’t know yet if McCall was using the cocaine he was found to have on his person, but things sure look bad for him.
Perhaps McCall is not so much a changed person after all. Indeed, it’s tough to see him coming back from this latest episode – even the Chicago hard man has only so many lives, after all. If this is how McCall’s career will end, it is a sad thing. But, once troubled always troubled, it seems.
For the record, the 54-9(37) 44-year-old was to have fought journeyman Zuri Lawrence tonight. It now looks like 21-year-old Elijah, 4-0-1(4) will be the fighter to carry on the McCall name.