Quote Originally Posted by X View Post
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.