By Jim Dower: Timur Ibragimov (28-2-1, 15 KO’s) defeated former WBC heavyweight champion Oliver McCall (54-10, 37 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Tuesday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 117-111 and 119-109. The 45-year-old McCall fought well in the first two rounds, landing hard right hands and controlling the action over the weak punching Ibragimov.
However, Ibragimov began to take over the fight starting in the 3rd round as he pumped in a steady jab and kept McCall on the outside. McCall began to start looking his age as the fight moved past the 5th, as he seemed labor for breath and his right hand, once powerful, seemed to be getting pushed at Ibragimov rather than thrown with power. McCall seemed to try and will himself to get back in the fight but he just have energy down the stretch and continued to be outworked in rounds eight through ten.
This was McCall’s first loss since being beaten by Juan Carlos Gomez in 2007. McCall won his last fight over Lance Whitaker last year in October. At 45, it’s hard to tell what McCall is still fighting for.
In 1994, McCall pulled off a shocking upset of then WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, stopping him in the 2nd round. However, McCall was only able to make one successful defense beating an old Larry Holmes before losing his WBC title to Frank Bruno by a 12 round decision in September 1995. McCall was later stopped in the 5th round by Lewis in a rematch in February 1997 in an attempt to capture the vacant WBC heavyweight title. Since then, McCall has fought pretty much exclusively against B level competition and only rarely fighting top level fighters.
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