Gerald McClellan..

[Fenster]

Against Jackson he has his mouth open by the end of the second round (you can constantly see his gum shield) and looks exactly as he did in the Benn fight when under duress. He even goes down on one knee, spits his shield out and excessively blinks as he claims a low blow, it's virtually identical to how the Benn fight ended.

Without the tragic ending, with hindsight, it would have been a case of - he didn't have the championship experience, unproven at the distance, not fought enough solid competition, he's a bully that couldn't handle being stood up to, no game plan etc.

Some people questioned him before the fight, not that I remember though, these guys were superheroes to me back then. Watching McClellan now he's not half the unstoppable chinning machine my rose-tinted glasses like to remember. And that goes for all those 90s heroes.

Canelo-GMan?

Golovkin-Benn?

Jacobs-Nunn?

Eubank Jr-Eubank Snr?

Lemieux-Barkley?

No way modern fighters are any worse than those of the past, or out of their depth, once nostalgia has been removed (well, in my case that's what i've come to believe).

[sanatogen]

This seems the best of the YouTube clips of Mclellan - Benn

[Master]

Best fight with a British fighter for me. I was standing up cheering watching the turn around from round 1.

[X]

I suspect there is a bit of rose tinted specs going on with the G Man.

When he came over to fight Benn, he was being built up as this threshing machine of a fighter. I was never quite so sure. I watched a lot of his previous bouts, and he was knocking people out all over the place, but they were generally overmatched anyway, only looking to survive or were carefully chosen to make Gerald look good.

I never saw much of a Plan B with MCClellan, and always thought that if someone durable could get past the sixth, he would run out of ideas.

Everybody overlooks the fact that he was having his first fight at a higher weight against Benn, plus Nigel was a proven world class operator who could seriously seriously bang.

Back in the day, I think Eubank could have handled the G Man a defeat.

Supermiddles like Calzaghe, Ward, Froch etc would have just been too big and too skilled for McClellan. Middles like Hagler, Monzon or Golovkin would have obliterated him.

[Gandalf]

It is a great fight. It is one of those you have to return to watch every couple of years. It's just so good.

It's hard to evaluate McClellan in terms of where he stands in history because his career was too short. He only really fought Jackson and Benn and didn't go that many rounds. You saw flashes of good boxing against Benn, you saw ferocity in the first round, but he also got hit too easily. It's hard to say. All I can say with any certainty is no way would he have beaten Joe Calzaghe. I think Toney would have schooled him too. Eubank probably more even based on styles. Thing is you know all those guys could go 12 and had great chins. You don't know any of that about McClennan.

[Master]

In that case Roy Jones​ and Mike McCallum beat him too.

[Spicoli]

I suspect there is a bit of rose tinted specs going on with the G Man.

When he came over to fight Benn, he was being built up as this threshing machine of a fighter. I was never quite so sure. I watched a lot of his previous bouts, and he was knocking people out all over the place, but they were generally overmatched anyway, only looking to survive or were carefully chosen to make Gerald look good.

I never saw much of a Plan B with MCClellan, and always thought that if someone durable could get past the sixth, he would run out of ideas.

Everybody overlooks the fact that he was having his first fight at a higher weight against Benn, plus Nigel was a proven world class operator who could seriously seriously bang.

Back in the day, I think Eubank could have handled the G Man a defeat.

Supermiddles like Calzaghe, Ward, Froch etc would have just been too big and too skilled for McClellan. Middles like Hagler, Monzon or Golovkin would have obliterated him.

Couldn't agree more and was saying the same leading up to it. I just never really bought the built up aura of sure destruction that all the boxing talking heads were so determined to lead with. Do think a lot has to do with the feeling of incompletion following tragedy. Maybe similar to the mystery of 'what if' concerning Ike but far different and horrible circumstances. In both we very obviously saw what was and it went the way it was meant, fight by fight wise and performance. McClellan had the extent of 6 rounds at the championship top tier level and in doing so proved pretty hittable but just as fierce. Keeping it simple, what happened that night was Nigel Benn. He was talked about like a stepping stone for the G Man locally and as often happens we very much forget that there is always another in the opposite corner who adamantly disagrees and is a proven force.

[Gandalf]

I rewatched McClellan/Benn again just now, just a superb brawl, but it was very disturbing seeing the final 4 minutes and the post fight scenes. It really makes you think.

[Dia bando]

Ifs and but in reality the fight was a war McCleellan had beat some fighters past there best as most fighters do! Benn was battle hardened and was a tough SOB it was the type of fight do or die Mc was used to blasting out his opponents but so was Benn it was a hell of a fight Gerald sustained a brain injury! Benn was never the same mentally and fiscally in reality it ended his carer that fight.
We can say boxing is a dangerous sport since the tragedy of this fight new measures came into place in this Country to make the sport safer it will never be totally safe because of the nature of the sport.!!!!!!!!