The Forgotten Classic- Nigel Benn vs Gerald McClellan; 15 years on - Part 1 of 4

http://www.fightbeat.com/article_detail.php?AT=722

Chris Baldwin brings us a four-part retrospective on Gerald McClellan's Final boxing match, a bout which longtime boxing fans remember for its ferocity and tragic ending.

 

It's certainly not a 'forgotten' classic.

 

Really? That fight took place exactly fifteen years ago today. Do you see many references to it here?

MTF :dunno:

 

As compared to other fights that took place in the same time period?

I'm being nitpicky because it's a classic fight, but not a forgotten classic. It would be like calling Bowe Golota a forgotten classic. Whenever fouling starts happening, it gets referred to. Whenever someone starts getting pummeled and people worry about a fighter's health, McClellan/Benn gets referenced to.

A 'forgotten' classic might be golota po'uha or Gabriel Ruelas/Jimmy Garcia.

 

I don't think many fans have forgotten Ruelas-Garcia. Most do, however, try to forget Golota altogether.

 

As I said in the article, the boxing world knows who McClellan is, but why aren't people talking about it? Any UK boxing fan who doesn't cite it as THE definitive bout of their boxing lives is either eight years old or a liar.

That fight is a p4p top ten fight of all time. When was the last time you saw it referenced as such? :dunno:

BTW, this is the only forum worthy of the name where the anniversary of that fight has not even been mentioned. A top ten p4p fighter, and an American no less, isn't worthy of a thread on a boxing forum anymore.

What a shame...

MTF

 

I think the dogfighting thing stigmatized McClellan's name. In one of the 90s mags that I read, he would get a dog from the pound, tape its mouth and paws, and then have one of his putbulls destroy it for practice. That was a horrifying revelation to me.

 

Thank you Nigel Benn.

 

I wouldn't say that, but it was a brutal fight. Benn looked done when he got knocked down in the 8th.

 

I thought Benn was done in the 1st, to be honest.

 

Yeah it didn't look good but he came back over the next few rounds and had turned the fight around. The way he fell down in the 8th it looked like his legs were completely gone, but he actually finished the round as the stronger fighter.

 

Yea that was fucked up.

 

Are you saying it's 1 of the 10 best fights ever or that it's 1 of the best fights at 168 ever?

 

Man, I haven't seen it in ages. I might have it here somewhere. I don't remember it being a top ten fight of all-time...but yeah, maybe a top ten fight at 168. Good distinction.

 

McClellan was a grade A pile of scum. I'm no fan of PETA but for fucks sake.

 

It was a great fight but I would not put it in my top ten.

 

It's one of the best ten fights of all time IMHO. Best ten at 168? I'm struggling off the top of my head to think of one that is even close...

History does one of two things to boxing matches. It either makes them sentimental and thus overrated or the lapse of time makes people forget how good a fight was.

For me, this fight definitely falls under the latter.

MTF

 

agREED.

 

Too much baggage to be remembered as a classic.

For openers:

McClellan came in underweight, wrapped his own hands, and should have had a 1st round KO/DQ.

The referee was rubbish, didn't speak English, and seemed to allow an awful lot of activity which did not fall squarely within the rules of the MoQ

Great win, for Benn........and a great blood-spectacle, but not a classic IMHO. It stared bad and ended worse....one thing I am grateful for is that Benn is black. If Benn was white the press would have had a field day, such was the venom the audience reserved for the American.

 

For once...Chris creates a boxing article where he doesn't try to be "clever" with a silly play on words such as:

"Khan Amir win over his detractors"

or

"Will David make HAYE in Nuremberg"

:doh:

You see....the titles for articles can be simple and still be effective. :stir:

 

"Sly wins Poster of the Year At a Canter"

 

i always enjoyed this fight

mainly because a tragic ending happened to someone that actually fucking deserved it

 

Well, he deserved it more than Jimmy Garcia or Johnny Owen, probably.

Then again, Gerald's badness related to animals.

I love animals. But....it's not like Gerald was molesting children, or skulling his wife.

He was bad, but not that bad.

And Gerald's hell is something I dont even want to envision.

Fat, Bald, Blind, Paralysed and getting paler by the day......

 

If you take out the nature of the ending, and the sheer, vicious, animal savagery of the crowd, and the fact that Rosenthal helped Benn back into the fight....then yeah it was a good fight.

 

Exactly. McClellan may have been a bad guy, but knocking over birds or breeding fighting dogs doesn't deserve the near death sentence he ended up with.

MTF

 

Actually, it was Gary Newbon who shoved Benn back into the ring.

If you didn't like that fight, you are watching the wrong sport mate. Perhaps you would prefer to watch John Ruiz mauling people to death instead?

MTF :dunno:

 

He didn't just breed them. According to Kevin Mitchell {via one of McClellans cohorts}, he used to {a} watch dogfights on tape before a fistfight. {b} he bought a labrador, taped its mouth and allowed his pit to kill it and {c} shot one of his own dogs in the head when it lost a fight.

That said, he did not abuse women and children. He just seemed....out of kilter on a certain level.

 

It was Johnson, McClellan's trainer for the Benn fight, who told him all of that. I read the same article.

All of the above is extremely unplesant, but my point still stands. The sentence for taking part in dog fights should not be perminent paralysis, blindness and near deafness.

MTF

 

I also heard a very detailed account of why they helped Nigel back into the ring that night.

Here it is.....they only wanted what was best, for Nigel....


:laughing::laughing:

PS Nigel is brain damaged to bits now anyways...slurred speech, dulled reactions....just not quite there anymore.