Shaq sparring with Oliver McCall

[Diamond WEAPON]

I had never seen the clips, but I had read about how before Shaq's spectacle "fight" with Oscar De La Hoya on Shaq Vs. last year he had some pretty lively sparring with Oliver McCall, and I found the footage. Shaq could've made a pretty good fighter it appears. Roach had said afterwards that if he had trained him as a fighter he could've knocked out both Klitschkos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxKoqaVHz4

[ThatOne]

I had never seen the clips, but I had read about how before Shaq's spectacle "fight" with Oscar De La Hoya on Shaq Vs. last year he had some pretty lively sparring with Oliver McCall, and I found the footage. Shaq could've made a pretty good fighter it appears. Roach had said afterwards that if he had trained him as a fighter he could've knocked out both Klitschkos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxKoqaVHz4

Do you think with training Shaq could beat Butterbean?

[Diamond WEAPON]

I had never seen the clips, but I had read about how before Shaq's spectacle "fight" with Oscar De La Hoya on Shaq Vs. last year he had some pretty lively sparring with Oliver McCall, and I found the footage. Shaq could've made a pretty good fighter it appears. Roach had said afterwards that if he had trained him as a fighter he could've knocked out both Klitschkos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxKoqaVHz4

Do you think with training Shaq could beat Butterbean?

Butterbean is totally shot now, so absolutely.

[dempseyfire]

Roach was just promoting the event . . .Cus D'Amato said in the 70s with 6 months training Wilt the Stilt could beat Ali, so it's all hyperbole.

Shaq as a pro would be a knockout waiting to happen . . .

[Seamus]

Exactly. It would be as silly as saying that within 6 months Ali could become an NBA superstar.

[Nelson Gateau]

I am not taking Roach seriously. He is hyping Shaq. But...while it's just sparring Shaq looked better than I thought he would.

[Bricks]

I had never seen the clips, but I had read about how before Shaq's spectacle "fight" with Oscar De La Hoya on Shaq Vs. last year he had some pretty lively sparring with Oliver McCall, and I found the footage. Shaq could've made a pretty good fighter it appears. Roach had said afterwards that if he had trained him as a fighter he could've knocked out both Klitschkos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxKoqaVHz4

Its pretty clear Oliver Mccall is holding back big time and generally just happy to go along with whatever Shaq does.I wouldnt call it proper sparring. More a knock about.

It is something of a cliche that when a celebrity does boxing for some kind of event you get the stories about "he could have been a pro etc" it happened when Barry Mcguigan trained Daniel Day Lewis.

Sure Shaq 15-20 years ago when he was lighter and younger may have had the talent to be a good heavyweight. But again it comes back to the same thing, many guys look great on the heavybag or skipping or shadow boxing , but they cant get around to taking punches.

The best thing about the video for me was seeing Oliver Mccall smiling and looking so well. Long may it continue

[Jan]

Oneal moves quite well and quick for such a huge guy. I think Oneal is one of the strongest people in the world. But what Damato said is surprising me and its complete bullshit. There are Pro-boxers, who are taller thant Wilt and who are just bums. its a bad joke of damato.

[Robinson]

Was good to see McCall having fun and looking healthy.
I think he was having fun with a legend of B Ball.

Its good to see the mateship of Bhop and ODLH as well.

Good viewing.

Thanks mate

[Lackeos]

Shaq has all of the physical gifts to murder almost anyone in the ring. Shaquille is 38 years old, he can't start a career as a pro boxer now, it would already be time to retire. In fact, he's currently the oldest player in the NBA, so it would be unfair to really debate today's Shaq crossing over into boxing. However if he was a young man and had a few years to train, he would be a massive force. Just compare him to say... Shannon the Cannon. Shannon basically made a career out of being a big, strong guy. 6' 4", 80" reach, about 265 pounds, asthma. Shaq is 7' 1", 325 pounds, I've read that his wingspan is 91", I imagine he has pretty good cardio compared to most heavyweight boxers, plus he seemed to have ridiculous power on his punches from the McCall sparring session. No doubt he has massive physical advantages in every department (except speed) over basically every heavyweight. We just don't know what his chin is like, but his height alone is going to take a lot of the power off his opponent's punches, and his reach is gonna make it very hard for his opponents to land much on him. All he lacks is talent, but if he was 20-years-old, and Freddie Roach was his trainer, I'd probably take out a million-dollar loan and bet it on Shaq to eventually capture a world title.

Hopefully no one judges Shaq's boxing aptitude by the DLH fight. Shaq was obviously only punching with about 10% of his power. I'm sure he had no interest in killing DLH.

[hitman09]

All he lacks is talent

Thats a pretty big thing to lack.

[Brutu]

He looks more like a swarmer then a boxer.
Wilt Chamberlain(also 7 ft one inches tall)whose style(IMOP) would have been something like Ernie Terrells ,would have easily outboxed him.
Maybe even KO'd Shaq with a single punch.
IMOP an actual tall boxer say like Gerry Cooney(6 ft 5 inches tall)would haven gotten inside and broken
Shaqs lower ribs to splinters.

[Robinson]

Shaq has all of the physical gifts to murder almost anyone in the ring. Shaquille is 38 years old, he can't start a career as a pro boxer now, it would already be time to retire. In fact, he's currently the oldest player in the NBA, so it would be unfair to really debate today's Shaq crossing over into boxing. However if he was a young man and had a few years to train, he would be a massive force. Just compare him to say... Shannon the Cannon. Shannon basically made a career out of being a big, strong guy. 6' 4", 80" reach, about 265 pounds, asthma. Shaq is 7' 1", 325 pounds, I've read that his wingspan is 91", I imagine he has pretty good cardio compared to most heavyweight boxers, plus he seemed to have ridiculous power on his punches from the McCall sparring session. No doubt he has massive physical advantages in every department (except speed) over basically every heavyweight. We just don't know what his chin is like, but his height alone is going to take a lot of the power off his opponent's punches, and his reach is gonna make it very hard for his opponents to land much on him. All he lacks is talent, but if he was 20-years-old, and Freddie Roach was his trainer, I'd probably take out a million-dollar loan and bet it on Shaq to eventually capture a world title.

Hopefully no one judges Shaq's boxing aptitude by the DLH fight. Shaq was obviously only punching with about 10% of his power. I'm sure he had no interest in killing DLH.

I thought it looked as though it were Oscar that was holding back on his shots when I watched that
fight.

Shaq did what most big guys do, pushed his punches out with the hope of mass getting
behind it. And he did not pop them, or throw them as he could-would have if he was
a trained fighter.

Oscar did not seem to really dig as hard as he could at times to the body and when you
see him jab or double up on the big man, its clear Shaq did not like it. Oscar ddi not
follow through on them shots either.

Shaq is a big, nice guy with good athleticism but he is not a fighter. Dont get all moist
over the sound bytes and lead up doco. Its entertainment. Not reality.

But then again Shaq did beat up the Big Show now didnt he ;)