The fall of Ian McCall

[Luke]

In a 2012 interview with Ariel Helwani, McCall stated that during a hiatus after his last fight in the WEC he overdosed on a combination of oxycodone, GHB, Xanax and other tranquilizers. He awoke two days later in a hospital and later found out his breathing and heartbeat had both stopped. He was revived and recovered to full health within a matter of weeks

Well, now I know how he went from drawing Mighty Mouse Johnson to losing to Lineker. 2-3-1 in his last 6. Drugs will do that

[Ludo]

This is old news. The time period he's talking about is early 2009.

[SPX]

Yeah, McCall's last fight in the WEC was several years ago. Then he went to Tachi because they were biggest American promotion with a flyweight division.

Really, his addiction story is more one of triumph, because he was really fucked up for a while and got cleaned up.

[Luke]

This is old news. The time period he's talking about is early 2009.

Well it wasn't old news to me, sorry.

[SPX]

Well it wasn't old news to me, sorry.

It's okay, Luke. We forgive you.

[Luke]

It's okay, Luke. We forgive you.

Not worried about it. Just thought his drop in the last few years was interesting

[Ludo]

Not worried about it. Just thought his drop in the last few years was interesting

I don't know that I would call it a "drop" necessarily. When he was pioneering the division over in Tachi Palace he wasn't exactly beating world class fighters. He got to the UFC and met up with a couple guys who can do it all. And he still looked great against Mouse the first time around. I honestly think he took it too personally when Lineker missed weight again, and was in the wrong frame of mind going into that fight. Once he tasted the power, he had to rethink his strategy, and eventually found himself unable to get inside.

[SPX]

Tasted the power!

Yeah, I think it may not be that McCall has declined in ability so much as he's just fighting higher-calibur opponents. When he almost finished MM it looked like maybe he was still going to be a top fighter but there's no doubt that today's FLW division is just not the same division that he was fighting in in Tachi.

I remember when McCall was champ the top FLWs in the world were him, Jussier Formiga, Yasuhiro Urushitani and Darrell Montague.

Urushitani went 0-2 in the UFC, losing to Benavidez and Lineker. Montague is 0-3, having lost to Dodson, Horiguchi and Willie Gates. And while Formiga is doing pretty well, he still couldn't handle the best of the best, getting TKOd by both Dodson and Joey B.

I like McCall. He's not the most exciting fighter to watch, but he has an interesting personality and he's more charismatic than DJ and would be a better champ for the UFC. But I suspect he's destined to be more of a Gatekeeper to the Top 5 kind of guy than a real title contender.