Benn v McClellan - What happened?

Hello,

I was reading a piece on The Guardian about the above fight but it didn't go in to much detail about what happened during the fight, could anyone give me a run down?

Benn gets knocked through the ropes in the 1st round and just about survives the round.

They duke it out for the next 9 rounds (I think) in a horrific war. Benn starts coming on strong and McLellan takes a knee. He gets up, they slug it out some more before he takes another knee and is counted out.

He's blinking a lot, and something isn't right. Turns out he's brain damaged, and is now blind/disabled. Tragic story, but a great fight.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nigel+benn+gerald+mclellan

The labrador went up against the pitbull, so to speak.

scott!

McLellans WBC belt is going up for auction because his sister needs the money to be able to keep looking after him. Such a shame Barry McGuigans union works hard to help guys like McLellan when this happens but they just can't get enough money to help everyone.

I was looking for more opinion and info than clips.... but thanks, Union!

He went in drained and in the end his body couldn't take it.

I'd recommend the book by Kevin Mitchell (who wrote that article in the Guardian) - "War, Baby".

I haven't seen the fight since I watched it live so my actual memories of the fight itself are sketchy. I do remember it being the most incredibly intense and brutal fight I've ever seen. McLellan nearly killed Benn in the first round but Benn fought back and they went at it hell for leather until McLellan took a knee and didn't get up.

Cheers mate, i'll check that out.

Haven't seen the fight since it happened, kind of seems wrong to sit through it knowing the outcome.

Basically G-Man was a huge betting favourite and given what was considered an easy title prior to getting in against RJJ.

He spoke very badly prior to the fight saying I'll kill Benn etc.

G-man had basically beaten just about everyone put in front of him in 3-4 rounds prior to this and was the next big thing.

1st round Benn was pretty badly beaten up, looked outclassed. As mentioned above got knocked through the ropes at one stage and was pushed back into the ring. After that Benn starting getting back into the fight and it became an absolute war.

That's how it was playing out when G-man took a knee and it was over, he then stayed down and you knew something really bad was happening.

Saw it live and until very recently had no desire to see it again
Like superfly says Mclellan started off like a train and very nearly knocked Benn out in the first.Had the fight been in the States it might well have been stopped.Benn showed amazing powers of recovery and a great survival instinct just to surviive the round
Mclellan tried the same in the second and third but Benn was firing back big shots himself
Benn was well in control until Mclellan took that knee
Fight showed Benn had learnt and moved on a level since the Watson fight.Showed his heart and desire as well
The gift of hindsight showed that Mclellan was essentially a bully of a fighter and limited against a guy almost his mirror image
Made me stop watching live Boxing for a while and question the morality of it.As did the Watson Eubank and reignited the ban boxing brigade
I could see that Mclellan was not right a few round before he stopped.The blinking of the eyes is a classic sign of a brain injury.
Hindsight helps but anyone who call a ref for stopping a fight too early needs to watch this fight and Eubank v Watson

What round did he take a knee?

About the eighth at a guess.He had looked in trouble a few times.More sort of confused and Benn was landing some huge shots.Mclellan didnt seem to be seeing them.Guess he wasn't?He kept sticking his gumshield out as well.Very strange at the time

Have to be honest this is one of my favourite fights of all time. Remember going mental when Benn was beating him up. In hindsight, kind of ashamed I celebrated in the gore of it all. If it weren't for the tragic aftermath, this fight would have sold millions of videos (did they have DVDs in those days?) and been celebrated as one of the most entertaining fights in history, alas it is not.

Scottrf wrote:He went in drained and in the end his body couldn't take it.

Um.....I'm not a PhD in Human Biology but how comes this is so? McClellan was fighting at super middle for the first time so how comes making the weight was an issue?

The fight was that hard Benn said he had to be lifted into an ice cold bath and was passing blood for days.
Benn showed unbelievable guts and determination heart of a lion.

Super D Boon wrote:

Scottrf wrote:He went in drained and in the end his body couldn't take it.

Um.....I'm not a PhD in Human Biology but how comes this is so? McClellan was fighting at super middle for the first time so how comes making the weight was an issue?

He was massive, 180 pounds+.

Scottrf wrote:

Super D Boon wrote:

Scottrf wrote:He went in drained and in the end his body couldn't take it.

Um.....I'm not a PhD in Human Biology but how comes this is so? McClellan was fighting at super middle for the first time so how comes making the weight was an issue?

He was massive, 180 pounds+.

Any source for that because he never looked 180 to me
Fighters choice at what weight they come in at by the way.Hence the rows over catchweights

McCellans struggle to make weight are well publicised, had to lose a ludicrous amount in the days before the fight.

Huw's summary is pretty much it in a nutshell.

Scottrf and Imperial. If he had to boil down to SMW when, before that fight, he fought as a MW, that is really strange. Not saying he didn't bloat up but just not usual to be weight drained above the weight you normallly fight at.

We're in dangerous territory. Don Curry... lol

G-Man surely goes down as one of the most outstanding KO artists in modern history! Longest it took him was five rounds, excluding the tiny percentage of his fights that went the distance of course, and that's in with the likes of Mugabi and Jackson as if the stat wasn't enough in itself. Most of them were blasted in one!

Crying shame we never saw him in with RJJ, that would have been one to watch.

He wouldn't give Roy any problems IMO.

My feelings on it are like Skidd's as in I saw the fight live and definitely didn't want to watch it again knowing what happened.

In my mind the fight will always be more of a tragedy than anything else. McClellan got a couple of blood clots that effected his performance and he was struggling to keep his gum shield in and was blinking a lot from the early rounds. I certainly don't see it as Benn's career defining win like others do.


It has been well reported that McClellen had a poor ill-prepared training camp for the fight and didn't even have seconds with him with Brendan Ingle ending up in his corner.


The build-up to the fight was incredibly tense because people knew the fight would be violent. It is the most brutal fight I have watched live.

Strongback - I remember the fight vividly. You're right. It was one of the most brutal fights I remember from build up to end. The result was really sad but I have mixed feelings. I remember the G-mans prefight interviews and I've heard so very few boxers say what he said. Vile is perhaps too strong a word. But not far off the way I felt at the time. Its a shame his promoter feels no responsibility, despite making so much out of him.

Strongy, if surviving a barrage of near concussive blows in the first round that knocked him out of the ring, climbing back up onto the canvas to come back and beat down a man widely expected/predicted to destroy him ISN'T Benn's career defining win, then I'd dearly love you to tell us what is.

To the OP, Superflyweight recommends the book "War, Baby". Personally, I'd avoid it like the plague. The author occasionally writes as if he's actually IN the mind of McClellan talking to his dog. Utter drivel.

The fight itself was brutal but very scrappy at times. Benn starts badly as mentioned but hardly takes a backward step for the rest of the fight. He's physically weaker than McClellan but, most importantly, mentally tougher. It's as visceral a fight as you'll ever see. Certainly not on a par skillwise with Ali/Frazier III but as damaging to both men as the fight in Manila was to those two great HW.

There are many well worn cliches about "leaving it all in the ring", a fight "taking something out of a fighter" and "having one's soul laid bare" but without doubt, that fight has everything we love and hate about the game.

Morning Dave. Cheers for the advice on the book saved me a few pounds. i'll probably read it when it comes to the local age concern shop any idea on an alternative book that covers this fight?

Shah, can't recall any other books about that particular fight and Benn's autobiography isn't worth the paper it's written on. The fight's alluded to in any number of boxing anthologies but as for a book solely about that fight, I think Mitchell is the only one to have done anything so far.

Looking forward to the documentary on Monday Night but I have the feeling that it's going to make Benn look very bad at times. The trailers with G-Man's sister makng Nigel out to be a monster who nearly killed her brother suggest it's hardly going to be impartial.

I'm wondering if anything mention will be made of McClellan's distasteful hobbies and past-times, but then ITV can hardly criticise a sick man can they? Far too embarrassing for them.

My most vivid memories of that fight are of the uber-leech Don King sucking up to Benn post-fight, having just spent the previous weeks 3/4 of the way up G-Man's rear end. I think King was the one who said McClellan "quit like a dog" before the full extent of his injuries was known. Mind you, Nigel was full of bombast at the end but given what he's just gone through, it was understandable. People say things in the heat of the moment and sadly they're forever used to condemn them long after the dust has settled.

http://www.convictedartistmagazine.com/boxing-news/377-an-interview-with-lisa-mcclellan-sister-of-gerald-mcclellan.html

DAVE667 wrote:Strongy, if surviving a barrage of near concussive blows in the first round that knocked him out of the ring, climbing back up onto the canvas to come back and beat down a man widely expected/predicted to destroy him ISN'T Benn's career defining win, then I'd dearly love you to tell us what is.

Dave, I could go into a whole critique of the fight but that's been done a million times. McClellan suffered from a couple of blood clots during the fight. I personally don't celebrate the fight, it kind of disturbed me at the time.

I have nothing against Benn as he was one of the most exciting fighters I have ever followed. Like most sports fans at the time I watched all his televised fights.

Nobody celebrates it as it was a tragedy and a real shame. The fight ended both Mens careers. One tragically with Gman endiing up paralysed and Benn was just a shadow of the fighter he was in his next few fights. So nobody celebrates it but you shouldn't also discredit Benn in anyway or form for his performance in that fight. One of the most courageous performances ever seen in a British ring. Benn was an absolute Warrior and proved to all the doubters who were all to quick to right him off that he was a top top fighter who is often under-rated as just a slugger when he was much more than that.

So the fight shouldn't be celebrated but it also shouldn't be forgotten as it was a performance of epic preportions from a man who had been totally written off by a lot of clouded so called experts and fans alike.

The fight itself is more or less as has been described already. I would, however, take issue with those who suggest that Benn was in full control over the last half of the fight. After the extraordinary first round, the fight was on basically level, brutal terms until the pivotal eighth. Then, lest we forget, McClellan floored Benn again. As he went for the finish, the risen Benn somehow dredged up a right hand that stopped McClellan in his tracks, and from then on, everything drained out of the challenger. He had been blinking confusedly before this point - afterwards, it started to become apparent that he was in serious trouble, and the rest of the eighth, the ninth and, of course, the climactic tenth round all belonged to Benn.

Its a form of disrespect to both Benn and Mclellan, Benn because he is considered to have had it easy after the first and Mclellan who gave a brave performance and pretty much punch for punch till the end.

Had it not been for the tragedy that ensued, it would likely have been viewed as one of the greatest fights of all time, or greatest wars at the very least. An absolute barnstormer, the likes of which we rarely see.

Alright Haito,

That red telephone with the flashing lights of yours must have been ringing this morning.

Have no fear Haito's here.


Hope you are keeping well.

Strongback wrote:Alright Haito,

That red telephone with the flashing lights of yours must have been ringing this morning.

Have no fear Haito's here.


Hope you are keeping well.

If you can get a searchlight I've got a cutout of Mr Ben that we could put on it. That way we can reach him wherever he is.

Aye up Strongy, hope your good. Yep its true The Benn alarm was flashing so I had to come and investigate. Lol.

The fight itself was very close and could have gone either way. The punches both guys were taking round after round was insane. That's why I take issue with anyone discrediting Benn because of the circumstances. Benn was taking some absolutely huge punches well into the 8th round and still somehow finding the will and heart to fire back with his own huge shots. The fight was a end to end war until the end of the 8th.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:McCellans struggle to make weight are well publicised, had to lose a ludicrous amount in the days before the fight.

Give me a source he was a 180 guy ?You haven't.
Dont think he was and that makes that reason or excuse for the loss rubbish.That also detracts from a great fight by Benn

Imperial Ghosty wrote:McCellans struggle to make weight are well publicised, had to lose a ludicrous amount in the days before the fight.

Give me a source he was a 180 guy ?You haven't.
Dont think he was and that makes that reason or excuse for the loss rubbish.That also detracts from a great fight by Benn

Think mclellan felt he'd only have to turn up to win....It was kind of the Calzaghe-Lacy of it's day.....Benn was the steppingstone...

Gerard's career was pretty much the same opponent wise as Mugabi's...basically being force fed guys who weren't elusive and stayed in front of him...so he could target them easily with his power.....Jackson, Mugabi being examples....

King knew Benn would stand there......

Felt sorry for Gerard but also for Benn ...it basically took all the kudos (like Mancini and Kim) away from a fighter who reached down into his very soul to pull off a great win...

Having seen the British commentary on the fight I must also say that was a disgrace.....Jim Watt has a terrible habit when commentating to be so biased it's untrue....and we don't need lines like "He's done him" etc by the other guy..

Whatever kind of guy Gerard was you don't wish that on anybody ...

great fight but a harsh lesson as to what can happen in Boxing..

skidd1 wrote:

Imperial Ghosty wrote:McCellans struggle to make weight are well publicised, had to lose a ludicrous amount in the days before the fight.

Give me a source he was a 180 guy ?You haven't.
Dont think he was and that makes that reason or excuse for the loss rubbish.That also detracts from a great fight by Benn

I can't really be bothered to force feed you information but all it takes is a little research into the fight to realise the struggles McClellan had making weight, there's a documentary on youtube that will say everything you want to know.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:

skidd1 wrote:

Imperial Ghosty wrote:McCellans struggle to make weight are well publicised, had to lose a ludicrous amount in the days before the fight.

Give me a source he was a 180 guy ?You haven't.
Dont think he was and that makes that reason or excuse for the loss rubbish.That also detracts from a great fight by Benn

I can't really be bothered to force feed you information but all it takes is a little research into the fight to realise the struggles McClellan had making weight, there's a documentary on youtube that will say everything you want to know.

Very condescending and I expected better

I expected better....

Sounds like my Math teacher......


After the incident on the class room table....

Considering McLellans dehydration was given as a major contributing factor to his blood clots I would expect someone talking about the fight to know such things.

skidd1 wrote:

Imperial Ghosty wrote:

skidd1 wrote:

Imperial Ghosty wrote:McCellans struggle to make weight are well publicised, had to lose a ludicrous amount in the days before the fight.

Give me a source he was a 180 guy ?You haven't.
Dont think he was and that makes that reason or excuse for the loss rubbish.That also detracts from a great fight by Benn

I can't really be bothered to force feed you information but all it takes is a little research into the fight to realise the struggles McClellan had making weight, there's a documentary on youtube that will say everything you want to know.

Very condescending and I expected better

Avoided the question.
Plain enough

Perhaps the most intense fight I've ever seen, along with the fourth installment of Bobby Chacon-Rafael Limon. One of the great turnarounds by Benn - I still had him a couple of points or so behind going in to the tenth - but just getting to those latter stages was nigh on miraculous given how much punishment he'd taken early on.

Basically, Benn demoralized McClellan in that fight. Once he realised that Benn was a lot harder and more durable than he'd first thought, you'll note that McClellan tried to box rather than brawl for extended periods in the latter half of the fight, but just couldn't keep Benn off. The inner problems of McClellan certainly played their part as the fight neared its conclusion, but I don't think we should detract from the fact that Benn had to go through absolute hell just to get near that conclusion in the first place.

Great, great fight. Tragic outcome.

Here here, agree only that I had Benn in a handy lead before the fight ended.

I listened to an interview with McClellan recently (before the fight) he seemed to have such faith in his power that he never believed he'd ever need to go the full 12 or even past 8 in any of his fights. With that mindset, anyone who could take his bombs and keep coming back was going to break his heart. He fought like he couldn't beleive he was still in a fight from round 2 onwards.

The weight thing is a bit specious. He was a MW fighting at SMW for the first time. If you're suffering from weight problems when stepping up then how did you stay at your original weight?

He was just a bully and not a very pleasant person. His family realise they won't get anything off King et al and have focused on Benn who they think is softer. And they are right. But Benn owes them nothing really.

As I have said so many times before. McClellan openly boasted about putting Benn in hospital in front of his family etc. His "trash talk" was just viscous bile and its ironic he found himself in the same predicament. You could see Benn had no sympathy to start off with, although is stance has softened.

The way in which you move up weight can vary from fighter to fighter, someone such as Marquez simply had less weight to cut when he moved to lightweight whereas Mayweather would grow into a new weight. Watson and McLellan tried doing the latter and unfortunately it is speculated that rapid weight loss and dehydration contributed to their subsequent injuries. It may be true that it was McLellans first fight at super middleweight but like at middleweight he was huge at the weight.

One thing that was not touched on was that apparently his family pulled him out of the hospital early to take him back to America. According to some experts if he had stayed longer he would have walked out.

Having watched the documentary and read the story I believe McClellan had signs of brain damage before the fight.

Even in the documentary you can see him blinking a lot during training. This matches sparring partner reports saying similar (posted at ESB- will find the source):

“Growing up blocks from the Kronk Gym I think I could actually hear the punches coming out of that window-less sweat box over on Junction and McGraw as a kid. When I made my first pilgrimage to the Kronk it was about the time Gerald McClellan had just captured the WBO Middleweight Championship from John "The Beast" Mugabi.

One word to describe McClellan at Kronk was ferocious. Like most Kronksters, he did not know the meaning of "going light" when sparring. G-Man would take pleasure it seemed in leaving sparring partners crumbled over on the canvas with his signature "lead right hand followed by a crippling left hook to the body". A lot of people forget, Thomas Hearns had a tremendous left hook to the body, but Gerald had the best in Kronk history! McClellan remains the last true World Champion to come out of the Kronk basement. Sure many "Kronk fighters" have went on to win championships, but as my man Tarick Salmaci put it best, "Just because you wear a Kronk shirt, doesn't make you a Kronk fighter."

The night that Gerald McClellan lost to Nigel Benn and sustained injuries he is still battling today, an interesting thing happened. While watching the fight on TV, Salmaci called me from Florida and told me the following story. Now for the first time ever, in his own words he will tell the readers of BoxingConfidential that same story.

"I feel Gerald McClellan was already injured going into the Nigel Benn fight, I have a strong belief. There as this one time Gerald and I were sparring and I hit him with a solid jab in the middle of his forehead, like between the eyebrows...He told me "STOP, HOLD UP"! YOU THUMBED ME MAN. So he stopped and started blinking non stop from what I thought was a thumb. I never even felt like I thumbed him, and they were thumbless gloves so I just figured somehow my thumb must have poked him in the eye because of the way he was blinking really fast and non-stop..with both eyes though.

So we finish our sparring session, and we are in the back locker room at Kronk, this is like 1994, Gerald walks up to me and says, "Man, I'm gonna be honest with you...You didn't thumb me...You hurt me". "I'm man enough to say that". I was then kind of confused and surprised as to how I could of hurt him with a jab and I was fighting at 147lbs. and he was weighing probably 175 lbs....

Fast forward to 1995. I'm down in Florida negotiating a promotional contract with Don King. Mike Marley brought me down there as a matter of fact. Gerald is in Florida training for the Nigel Benn fight. I run into him at Don King's office and we talk and joke a little bit. Gerald is sitting in Dana Jamison's office. She is the vice president of Don King Productions. Gerald is sitting there looking a little upset.

I asked him what was going on, and he told me he was only making something like $100,000 for the Benn fight. It might have been less.I don't remember what he said the exact amount was, but I remember it was pretty low for the caliber of fight this was. So I spoke my mind and told him I thought he was getting way underpaid and Nigel Benn is huge in England. Plus the fight was taking place there, which makes it an even bigger event. And Gerald was a World Champion.

thought that fight was worth at least a million dollars for Gerald, if not, at least $500,000. But Dana overheard me telling Gerald this, and she barges into the office telling me off, telling me to mind my business, etc. I was like "whatever". So I left the office and went to the gym.

About 2 weeks later, Gerald leaves to England for the Nigel Benn fight. I'm watching it on Showtime from Florida. I thought Benn was finished in the first round. (NOTE: If that fight was held in the US, Benn would have not been allowed to continue!) I couldn't believe the comeback he made. It was amazing, but then, all of a sudden, in the 10th round, Gerald just takes a knee and appears to quit. I couldn't believe it because the Gerald I knew would never quit, no matter what. But then I looked more closely and he was blinking non-stop, the exact same way he was that one day in the Kronk gym when I hit him with that jab...blinking continuosley...non stop....I couldn't believe it. Right then, I knew there was a connection to that one day that we sparred in the gym. We all know what happened to Gerald after that fight...

To this day, I believe Nigel Benn did not do that to Gerald. Gerald McClellan was hurt prior to the Nigel Benn fight and never knew it. It was just one of those freak accidents that was bound to happen sooner or later. I have not seen him since that day in 1995 in Don Kings office. But, from what I'm told, he is nearly blind and nearly deaf. And his mental state is not all that well.

I wish there was something I could do for Gerald. This was my friend. It hurt me to know what happened to him that fateful night. It also hurt to see Don King walk into the ring with Gerald, but then walk over him when Gerald was laid out, then walk out of the ring with Nigel Benn. All I seen Don King doing was smiling, laughing, while raising Nigel Benn's hands. And Gerald was just laid out. I'm not saying Don didn't care about Gerald, but it just did not look right from my TV set.

What I did find out was, that Don King was strictly business. I don't have no hate or any kind of grudges for Don King's actions because this was just the kind of guy he was. BUSINESS. But I just did not want to be part of his team after that spectacle. Something in me said,"This ain't right". I packed my bags and left the Don King camp the next day. I had just signed the promotional contract with King a week earlier. I went to Don's office the next day after the Gerald fight with my bags packed and asked Carl King to please release me. No investment was made on me thus far. So I asked him to please let me go. To Carl's credit, he did. He seen the look in my eyes and that even if he disagreed, I'd be out of there. He voided the contract and let me go my way. To this day, I thank Carl King for that.

I'll never regret doing what I did. I felt it was the right decision. You learn from these experiences whether it was a right decision or wrong. To this day, I still feel what I did was right. No, I never became a world champion, although I was close. I was rated in the top 10 by the WBC and the WBO. I finally did get a shot at the big time when I was chosen as one of the fighters on The Contender, season one. The experience was cool, but the opportunity came 5 years to late. I was 32 yrs old, retired and inactive for 3 1/2 years when I appeared on The Contender.

But better late then never, right?

Getting back to Gerald. I hear about his condition every now and then. I have even given money towards his fund. I know it wont help dramatically, but hopefully, it will help a little. Nothing will ever help him become his normal self again. That's the sad part. But this is life, and its not always fair. We have to learn to accept certain things and learn to live with them. I think Gerald and his family have accepted this. We all should too.

Yes, this tragedy could have been avoided had Gerald known if there was something wrong in his head prior to the fight. In my opinion, there was. But what is done is done. This is part of life. We cant foretell the future. I wish Gerald the best, and God bless him. I love that guy. Hopefully, one day, I will get a chance to see my friend again...if not, my prayers will always be with him" Tarick Salmaci.”