BEHIND the scenes, whip Ernie Draper โ€“ whose job it was to look after all the fighters on the bill โ€“ had an interesting take on McCallโ€™s condition.
โ€œHe was standing there like he was going to a funeral, I thought โ€˜blimey, look at him.โ€™ He really did look like a bag of nerves,โ€ Draper remembers. Another memory of the night โ€“ which remains the only time during Ernieโ€™s 40-year career where he allowed himself to get โ€œover-excitedโ€ by the action in front of
him โ€“ was the noise that greeted Bruno.
โ€œThe roar when he came out, and Iโ€™ve been to most of the major fights [in Britain], was the biggest I have ever heard. I havenโ€™t heard anything like it since. It was a bit like the cheers Ricky Hatton got [in Manchester] but even that did not really compare.โ€
That almost deafening support may have affected McCall. Adams felt that somewhere between leaving the dressing room and entering the ring, his fighterโ€™s mind-set crumbled.
โ€œThey took him, by himself, to the top of this ramp and by the time he came down he was cold,โ€ his then-manager Jimmy Adams explains. โ€œOliver was that type of fighter, heโ€™d cry and get himself hyped up and then heโ€™d fight from the bell. But here he got cold, he lost his momentum and he didnโ€™t start to fight until it was too late.โ€

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