By Matt Stein: Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion of the world Oliver McCall (53-9, 37 KO’s) defeated Franklin Lawrence (12-2-2, 7 KO’s) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Orleans Hotel & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94. McCall, 44, struggled against the unknown Lawrence, taking big shots and looking every bit of his 44-years. Most of the rounds were close with both fighters exchanging shots.

McCall hurt his back in the 7th after landing a right hand shots. However, McCall was able to hold up until the end of the bout despite the injury. The victory proved little aside from that McCall could beat a fighter with little experience. McCall will need to more substantial wins than this if he wants to get back in the top 10. McCall was beaten by Juan Carlos Gomez by a lopsided 12 round decision in October 2007.

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Heavyweight Lance Whitaker (34-5-1, 28 KO’s) stopped British journeyman Mathew Ellis (20-9-2, 9 KO’s) in the 1st round on Friday night at the Performing Arts Center, in Redondo Beach, California. Whitaker, 37, a former heavyweight contender eight long years ago, dropped Ellis, 35, three times in the first minute of action. Whitaker, 6’8”, looked very impressive with his right hand power and in much better condition that he had been earlier in his career.

Whether Whitaker can duplicate these efforts against better opposition is unclear at this point. This was the 4th fight for Whitaker since making a comeback after three years away from the ring starting in 2008. Since returning to boxing, Whitaker has won three of four fights, losing to Jason Estrada in a 10 round decision last year in April.

Whitaker needs to speed up his comeback if he wants to get back in the thick of things because he’s getting up there in age at 37. Whitaker was stopped in the 7th round by the light-hitting Sultan Ibragimov in December 2005. Whitaker was also stopped in the same year by Luan Krasnigi in the 5th round. Whitaker’s best win of his career was his 2nd round TKO over Oleg Maskaev in March 2001.

Unfortunately, Whitaker was unable to get any momentum from the victory, as he was defeated soon after in his next bout, losing a narrow 12 round decision to Jameel McCline in December 2001. Since then, it’s been more or less downhill for Whitaker.