Aug. 9, 2005 – Open Workout inside the United Center, Chicago, Illinois
“Hey, there’s the champ!”
Hasim Rahman was sitting on the edge of the ring in an empty United Center, slowly dabbing sweat from his brow with a white towel, when Oliver McCall walked up to him and extended a fist.
“How you doing, champ?” Rahman smiled, reaching out with his own clenched left hand to fist-bump McCall. Oliver grinned, his two front teeth missing – probably lost somewhere in a small, long-forgotten ring in the Deep South.
“I saw Lennox Lewis hit that man with everything, and he just walked right through it,” Rahman said as McCall climbed the steps and entered the ring to begin his warm-ups. “He’s one of the toughest guys I ever saw. I don’t want no trouble with him.”
All the reporters gathered around laughed in full agreement.
Meanwhile, McCall went about his business, shadowboxing behind Rahman, ignoring the whispers that he’s simply been brought in as a “name” for Saleta to look good against.
“I’m resolved to the fact that I have a great deal of work ahead of me to earn back the respect and trust of promoters, fighters, the athletic commissions and boxing fans,” Oliver says after his workout. “But, with God’s help and the support of good people like Don King, I know I can make it.”
August 13, 2005 -- The United Center in Chicago, Illinois
A large contingent of Chicagoans had filled the long corridor than ran from the press room to the black drapes where the boxers entered the arena floor.
An exasperated female producer for Don King Productions, trying to guide the camera crew that planned to follow Ricardo Mayorga and Michelle Piccirillo into the ring for their Super Welterweight title fight, was shouting to anyone who would listen: “What are all these people doing back here? Where’s security? Nobody’s doing their job.”
If she’d been there a moment earlier, though, she would’ve realized what she’d stumbled upon was a McCall family reunion. It was a sight to behold, too. They had charged down the hall like a wave of runners at the start of a marathon – the former WBC heavyweight champion at the head of the pack.
Zab Judah, the undisputed welterweight king, was one of the first to congratulate McCall when he passed by. Judah was waiting outside of Mayorga’s dressing room with his brother, Josiah, who’d won a four-round split decision on the undercard against local journeyman Adam Stewart.
“You did it,” Zab smiled. McCall nodded, but he seemed too overwhelmed to say much of anything.
“We’re back! Oliver’s back,” someone from the McCall clan yelled, as the beaming 40-year-old stopped to wave at boxers Luis Collazzo, Luca Messi and Miguel Angel Gonzales, all of whom had come out of their dressing rooms to pay their respects.
In a matter of seconds – from the moment McCall struck Przemyslaw Saleta with a right uppercut with a 1:15 remaining in the fourth round, until the giant Polish fighter collapsed on all fours – Oliver McCall had gone from also-ran to a major player in the heavyweight division.
“He’s back in the mix,” Don King would repeat over and over again later that evening. “Oliver’s back in the mix.”
And it all came courtesy of a knockout punch that sent the hometown fans into a state of pure delirium.
Unfortunately for Saleta, this wasn’t the predominantly Polish crowd that attended the Lamon Brewster-Andrew Golota fight in May. When Golota bowed out after suffering a cut in sparring, apparently most of the Polish boxing fans did, too.
Instead, the south side of Chicago was out in full force, and Oliver was on top of the world.
“I can’t tell you how much this means to me to come back to this city, with so many old friends and family here,” McCall said at the post-fight press conference, where he mingled with three of the reigning heavyweight champs – Chris Byrd, Lamon Brewster and the newly crowned Hasim Rahman. “This is just an amazingly beautiful night for me.”
Meanwhile, Saleta and his girlfriend both quietly hurried back to the boxer’s dressing room after the match, virtually unnoticed.
“I’m very disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to fight Andrew Golota,” the 37-year-old Saleta stated, after examining his bruised face in the mirror. “That’s the fight that got me out of retirement. It would’ve been the biggest heavyweight fight in Polish boxing history. But, when Golota got hurt and I was offered the fight with McCall, I thought it would be a shame to waste eight weeks of training. So I took this fight.”
Dressing quickly, Saleta stepped back out into the hall with the frail Kraszewska draped on his arm just as security rushed through to clear everyone out. A flood of people attempted to squeeze themselves into the dressing area with McCall, and those who were turned away bum-rushed the press room to eat what was left of the free grilled potatoes and cherry cobbler.
With a space now cleared for Mayorga and Piccirillo to make their entrances, it suddenly became apparent that, unlike all the other name fighters on the televised portion of the card, McCall’s dressing room didn’t include a pre-printed name card identifying the boxer. In its place was a piece of paper with the names Louis Turner, Volodia Lazebnik, Alex Bunema and Oliver McCall all printed in block letters with a magic marker.
Before the fight, “The Atomic Bull”—a former Heavyweight Champion of the World – had been relegated to the ‘community’ locker room … the ‘opponent’ locker room.
There’s a good bet he won’t have to share one next time out.
See Also Backyard Brawl: Oliver McCall’s Last Shot (Part 1)
See Also Backyard Brawl: Oliver McCall – Chicago’s ‘Bull’ (Part 2)
See Also Backyard Brawl: Oquendo Points Fingers After Losing to McCall (Part 4)
