Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno are both known for their exceptional punching power.
The two heavyweights met in ‘The Battle of Britain’ in 1993 with Lewis taking the victory via seventh round stoppage. Across the rest of their campaigns they have some notable shared opponents including Mike Tyson and Oliver McCall.
McCall spoke to The Ring Magazine as part of its Best I Faced feature and recognised the two Brits as that hardest hitters he was up against.
“There was two; both come from London. The first one was with Bruno. I got hit with a right hand (in the first round) … and it made my eye swell. It made me timid coming in because if you hit it again, it’s gonna split, and I never had my eye cut in a fight. The second one would have to be in the third round of the second fight with Lennox Lewis.
The punch I got hit with – and I remember that punch – it was a wallop. I looked over his shoulder and saw his momma rooting for him to knock me out, and I thought of my momma not being there. When that man hit me I was going to retaliate, and I broke down. The overhand right that hit me sent me reeling into the ropes, and as I came back I could have just held him if I hadn’t broken down. I thought, ‘Wow.’ I just shut down.”
McCall was just one of two men to beat Lewis, the other being Hasim Rahman, by knockout. ‘The Lion’ avenged both defeats down the line. After being stopped by McCall in 1994, Lewis reversed the result three years later when McCall suffered an emotional episode in the ring and refused to engage for large portions of the fight, which lasted five rounds.
It was in between those two bouts that McCall lost a unanimous decision to Bruno – the Brit’s crowning moment as WBC Heavyweight World Champion.
On deciding which of the pair hit harder, he backed Lewis.
“I’d pick Lennox. I’m just going off what went through my mind. Bruno hit me dead in the eye, but it wasn’t as brutal as far as the shock to my body or pain as that right hand was. When Lennox hit me with that right hand in the third round, that was a crunching right hand. It makes me think I don’t know how I could take the punches that came after it with my hands down.”
McCall eventually hung up the gloves in 2019 with a record of 59 wins from 75 fights.
