Gerald McClellan..

[Ron Swanson]

How the flying fuck can anyone compare this

This is how Stan saw Gerald and the whole dog thing: 'So he got this black Labrador, just went to the dog shop, told the man, "I need a dog to take care of, I'll take this Labrador home," and the man say to the dog, "Yeah, you got a good home now," and Gerald takes the dog home. He takes the dog down his basement and tapes the Labrador's mouth, takes his pit bull Deuce and says "Get him!" He lets Deuce start eatin' the dog up while he's timing it on a watch, see how long it would take his dog to kill this dog. And I said to Gerald, "Hey, Gerald, this Labrador wouldn't beat Deuce, no way, so why did you tape his mouth shut?" And he said, "Coz I just wanna see how fast my dog would kill him, for one, and, for two, my dog's a championship fighter and you don't need no dog scratched up and bit up by no dog, by no accident. This is like sparrin' for my dog, this is like my dog need to taste blood every day. My dog need to kill somethin' every day, Stan. Just like a fighter need to spar every day, he don't need nobody bustin' him up when he got a big fight comin' up. He just need to bust somethin' up hisself. Right?"'

To some cunt who wants to eat a fucking steak?

I'm just gunna go down the road and buy some sausages...actually I'm gunna buy a fucking pig and let my dog slowly torture it to fucking death and then I'll make some sausages out of it.

Come on get real, yeah maybe some animals suffer for our food but are you really...really...really trying to justify taping an innocent animals mouth shut purely so it can be torn apart to someone who eats meat?

If so then I'm afraid that you have some seriously fucked up way of justifying things, whilst there are fucking meat eaters on the planet lets just legalize fucking dog fighting.

Makes perfect sense to me.

And I for one don't think he deserved to be left a cabbage but he certainly deserves people to look upon him for what he was and that was a nasty orrible cunt.

Actually a bit of compassion showed there by G-man compared to many other dog fighting dirtbags. A common practice is to just steal dogs to kill as "sparring partners". So not only are they doing horrible things to wonderful animals they also hurt the people that love those animals. Any dog fighter should be in a cell with the biggest rapiest man in the prison.

[Memphis]

Two main reasons.

One, Im totally convinced he was damaged goods before the Benn fight and I think people who should have been looking after his best interests new it too. The blinking, the mouthpiece hanging out, being chinned in sparring by little guys, complaining of headaches, blacking out. It's all there. He was a ticking bomb. McClellan fought like he had no option but to chin him in the first, like he knew it too.

Two, Benn was super human. He wasn't going to be denied.

A couple of things to mention. Benn didnt get helped back into the ring. There's a difference between standing your ground and putting your hands out so a fighter doesn't roll onto TV tables or the floor, and helping someone into the ring who cant manage it under their own steam. He also didn't get a long count. He was up and ready to fight before 10. Even if you think it was slow, he should have been given 20. He did get extra seconds when McClellan tried to go around the back of the referee to get back at him. That set the tone for the rest of the fight, the referee was fussy, with both of them but especially McClellan.

[ykdadamaja]

We have all watched the fight, the documentaries and the reviews.

Terrible trainer, bad referee, departure of Manny Steward, warrior spirit of Benn..

What would you put down as the main reason for what happened to Gerald on that night?

How great could he have been?

Did you like him?

168 or 175 future P4P boxer?

Roy jones buddy and future opponent?

Discuss.

British boxing, at that time, had a speight of bad stoppages and curious injuries and was criticized due to their lack of care of fighters.

[sanatogen]

On surface reading of articles at the time, McLellans family were irresponsible to move him from the UK Hospital.

Neurosurgeon assigned to Mclellan advised against it.

Almost as if the Family didn't think much of the medical staff and put them in the same category as witch doctors.

[Batman]

I've just sat down and watched the fight in its entirety for the first time in years, it's amazing how Benn survived that first round and its also amazing how I don't think he even attempted a single combo in the duration of the fight, every punch was an attempt to kill McClellan.

I was only 9 at the time of the fight so I don't remember it first time around and I don't really remember much of Benn being an active boxer, I remember the build up to the Steve Collins fight but not the actual fight.

A few questions:
How big of a fight was this at the time, was it a huge fuck off GGG v Alvarez style fight or was it more of an Alvarez v Smith fight
Was Benn really such an underdog, I'm sure they mentioned at one point in the fight that McClellan's odds were 1/3 or something along them lines
Some people say that McClellan was damaged goods before the fight, did his performance seem 'off' compared to his previous scraps? I know he had never gone past the 3rd before what about the first three rounds, did he look out of sorts then?
Just how big of a prospect was McClellan at the time of the fight, again I know he was blowing people out of there in the 1st round a lot of the time but lets be honest Wilder does that and no one see's him as the second coming, was McClellans opposition decent or was he just put in with fodder to make him look good?

[Master]

It was a huge fight on mainstream TV but most people thought that GMan was going to destroy Benn. G Man was the Tyson of the division.

No body thought McClellan was damaged goods until way after the fight, mainly they thought he had no plan B.

G Man had destroyed Julian Jackson and was being set up for a serious challenge for Roy Jones further down the line.

Benn was just out of this world that day and refused to lose.

[Fenster]

It's virtually impossible to compare back then to today as things are so, so different.

13 million TV viewers and massive newspaper coverage yet there was only a fraction of boxing on TV compared to now (live undercards were NEVER shown. Imagine that when we now complain about the quality of half-a-dozen undercard fights everyweek). It only had an 11,000 gate (would easily do 50,000 by todays standards) and the purses (GMan $200,000 / Benn $800,000) are shockingly low, considering the magnitude of the fight, compared with today.

However, it was a huge deal for boxing/sport fans. Far from being a "prospect" or "damaged goods," G-Man was P4P top 10, WBC middleweight champion (at a time when the WBO was still regarded as a fake title in this country), the most fearsome sparko artist on the planet and as Master said was being setup for the Roy Jones fight (GMan beat Roy in the Golden Gloves).

Benn was a bigger underdog, for anyone that "knew" anything about boxing, than those odds suggest. He had absolutely no chance of making it past three rounds (needless to say I did me dough, even though I love(d) Benn)

Greatest atmosphere i've ever seen a fight in. And that was in a bar with a dozen or so black blokes jumping on tables helping Benn comeback.

[erics44]

i watched it on a black and white 12 inch tv in my student digs

I don't remember the build up too much but I remember the fight

[Memphis]

No body thought McClellan was damaged goods until way after the fight, mainly they thought he had no plan B.

A bold statement

Just to be clear, when I say damaged goods I mean there's something seriously wrong with this fucker. Not this fucker has had one too many fights, one too many beatings (although that may still be true) and he's on the down slide.

Plenty of people thought he was damaged goods. There are loads of books, documentaries, you name it, all littered with people (some good judges, some regurgitating other peoples words) who are/were convinced he was fucked before the Benn fight. Some going so far as to saying he was brought over by people who knew full well how bad he was and wanted him punished.

You can take or leave any of those accounts, soundbites, whispers etc to be honest and just go with what you see with your own eyes. McClellan was struggling the moment round one ended and Benn fought back.

[brocktonblockbust]

I remember that fight very well. Nobody here in New York or New Jersey was ever saying anything about McClellan being damaged goods or having had been sparked in sparring or anything like that. I agree that only came out later on. If it is true it should have been mentioned earlier for his own well-being by his trainers and personal doctors. For some reason the brutality in the cruelty that he lived with in his private life with that whole dog fighting cruelty thing I just cannot help at separate that as generating some kind of Bad Karma for what happened to him in the ring. I think everything is one big picture and those kinds of things play a part in some unseen way and some karmic way and cannot be separated out.

[sanatogen]

No body thought McClellan was damaged goods until way after the fight, mainly they thought he had no plan B.

A bold statement


You can take or leave any of those accounts, soundbites, whispers etc to be honest and just go with what you see with your own eyes. McClellan was struggling the moment round one ended and Benn fought back.

We're any of these book documentaries created before the fight, or are they hindsight creations?

[Gandalf]

No body thought McClellan was damaged goods until way after the fight, mainly they thought he had no plan B.

A bold statement

Just to be clear, when I say damaged goods I mean there's something seriously wrong with this fucker. Not this fucker has had one too many fights, one too many beatings (although that may still be true) and he's on the down slide.

Plenty of people thought he was damaged goods. There are loads of books, documentaries, you name it, all littered with people (some good judges, some regurgitating other peoples words) who are/were convinced he was fucked before the Benn fight. Some going so far as to saying he was brought over by people who knew full well how bad he was and wanted him punished.

You can take or leave any of those accounts, soundbites, whispers etc to be honest and just go with what you see with your own eyes. McClellan was struggling the moment round one ended and Benn fought back.

What documentary would you recommend, Memphis? Wouldn't mind taking a look.

[Master]

No body thought McClellan was damaged goods until way after the fight, mainly they thought he had no plan B.

A bold statement


You can take or leave any of those accounts, soundbites, whispers etc to be honest and just go with what you see with your own eyes. McClellan was struggling the moment round one ended and Benn fought back.

We're any of these book documentaries created before the fight, or are they hindsight creations?

I am sure they were all after the event.

[smashup]

Frank Warren had 2 London ambulances at the arena that night as everyone knew it was proper going off in that ring that night.
I'm sure 2 ambulances was unheard of in the UK before this fight.
Memphis is right and I too believe McClellan went into that fight with brain trauma.
Nigel Benn admits he rarely sparred and I've seen recent interviews with him saying that is the reason Hearns can barely speak these days, Benns logic was why the fuck would I get smashed in the head with for no pay.
McClellan had daily wars in the Kronk gym.
Still the most dramatic fight ever on UK soil.

[Spicoli]

This is still one that as the years go it may be overthought in the mystery factor, tragedy unfortunately and what if factor. Really he had never gone over 8 rounds and I forgot about him coming in 175 vs Jackson and probably a couple of others. He said going up to Benn would mean he was a healthy weight and would prob be 175 but in actuality already was. On competition he went from lite touches save for maybe old Mugabi or Williams while taking 2 losses to the depth of Jackson. His follow up 'super showdown' with undefeated Parks fizzled and took longest off time prior to Benn. I don't know if he suffered trauma any less than another boxer who takes flush shots but lives by the ko god bless him but the fact is Benn was a massive step up in class and had long lived and learned the exact same mindset of a firefight.