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

There is an amazing dissection of Mcclellan, Benn and this fight in Donald McRae's book "Dark Trade - Lost In Boxing".

 

Mate; if a person falls over right in front of you, the natural reaction is to help the back up. You don't need any justification. You just do.

To be fair, you might not be far wrong in respect of Benn. His speech is definitely slowing and slurring. He's punchdrunk now, at best.

MTF

 

:dunno::dunno:

 

I think you missed the gag......:nono:

I understand it was a natural reaction....it's like if someone slips, your reaction is to grab them.

 

I'm surprised you didn't name the article:

"It's BENN 15 years since Nigel......" opcorn:


On a serious note..

Nigel was going punch drunk for years. i think the first Watson fight started it..he took a hellacious beating in that fight. He was never the same in personality again. After the first Eubank fight..forgetaboutit. He turned from one of the wittiest fighters to come out of England to possibly being the DUMBEST brute not named Herbie hide.

I know his brothers (half brothers)... Michael, Paul, (can't remember the last guys name)...and he's cool and all that. But his brain has gone..

 

Dude...no

MTF

 

So you promise no to do anymore GAY article titles? opcorn:

You're articles are well written though....

 

Nah, I can't promise that. I will try though and keep them to Amir minimum...

MTF :kick:

 

Nicely done. :bears:

 

"Amir Suffers 'Cott Death":shit:

 

That's REALLY bad...

MTF ::

 

"Will David make HAYE in nuremberg" was pretty bad as well...you just don't realize that. ::

 

:fightme:

MTF

 

I liked the piece for the most part, but a couple of parts don't really sit well with me.

One happens to be the opening line, where McClellan is referred to as the undisputed middleweight champ. He was arguably the best MW in the world at the time, but by no means undisputed.

The win over Mugabi is blown up a bit as well. Mugabi was once upon a time feared but any lingering rep he carried even post-Hagler all but vanquished the moment Terry Norris buried him. Unless I have my time line wrong, McClellan's win came well after that. Just came across a hard sell.

 

You...go back to chronicling the life and times of Frankie Randall!!!:kidcool:

 

The fight was pretty sloppy to be honest. I wouldn't put it anywhere near the top 10 best fights ever. Not because of time or anything else but because of the fight I watched. It's not referenced as 1 of the 10 best ever because people don't see it that way.

 

On the first point, I'd accept that he wasn't 'undisputed' in the sense that he didn't unify alphabet titles, but I don't recall anyone referring to McClellan as anything other than the legitimate best fighter at 160. For example, The Ring ranked McClellan as number 8 p4p at the end of 1994 and he was the only middleweight in the list (Jones and Toney were listed but were by then fighting at 168). Certainly the promotional videos I rewatched prior to writing were explicit in describing him as the best middleweight.

Mugabi was shopworn, of course, but after the Norris debacle he still managed a couple of stoppage wins prior to fighting McClellan. He was, by some distance, the toughest assignment Gerald had faced up to that point and it was his first 'world' title fight.

Glad you liked the rest, though... ::

MTF

 

Ranking fights is such a subjective endeavour.

For me, you had two legitimate 'world' champions, not far from their respective primes, beating the hell out of one another. The build up in the UK was fantastic- the fight was everywhere. Everyone in the country knew the fight was happening and almost 30% of the country watched it. The atmosphere was sensational. It was impossible to predict a winner through rounds 2-10, all the way to the ending. The fight was toe-to-toe action, with neither fighter taking a backward step throughout. There were knockdowns and a come from behind win by a 4-1 underdog who got knocked through the ropes inside 30 seconds.

All of these factors contribute to make it one of my favourite ever fights. I'd agree it wasn't exactly one for the purists, but seriously, I'd rather watch the entire Benn-McClellan fight than one minute of Floyd against JMM.

MTF

 

I wasn't saying it wasn't a great fight. I would just argue against it being 1 of the 10 best ever as would most. If you read your first post about it you made it sound like it was a fact that it was 1 of the 10 best fights ever but after that made it sound more subjective which I agree with. Either way it was a great fight, we just disagree about how great.

 

For my money Eubank Watson 2 is better than Benn mcClellan.

Both great fights though.

 

I thought it was too one sided to be a truly great fight. Eubanks didn't lead or look like winning for a single second of the fight until twenty seconds before the bell to end the 11th.

Doesn't mean I haven't rewatched it plenty over the years, though...

MTF

 

You have to take into account that the first post was written at about 1am last night, when I'd returned home from the pub...

MTF ::

 

Benn Eubank 2, Liles Littles 2, Littles Toney all were excellent fights

Ottke Mundine perhaps for the sheer implausibility of a novice outboxing Ottke and Ottke winning by a 1-punch KO.

 

Benn-Eubank two was not as good as Benn-McClellan. It isn't even close. Benn fought a lot more cautiously than he did in the first fight and so, by comparison, it was nowhere near as entertaining as the first fight.

As big a fan of Benn and Eubank as I am, I would struggle to describe their rematch as an 'excellent' fight. It was absorbing and entertaining, but it wasn't excellent.

MTF

 

Agreed. Not even remotely close to being close. ::

 

the 11th round of Eubank/Watson II is one of the best ever. Too bad it's also one of the more tragic as well.

 

Thompson-Eubank..the fight that tells you just how shit David Haye is.

 

Absolutely. That was an insane round.

Eubank threw everything he left at Watson, who spend the first minute of the round slumped over the ropes avoiding punches. Then the same thing happened for another minute on a different set of ropes. Then Watson dropped Eubank HARD: arguably harder than anyone else ever did. Even rewatching that round again it seems incredible that Eubanks got back up and somehow effectively stopped Watson a few seconds later. Eubanks seemed absolutely spent and utterly beaten.

An incredible round.

MTF

 

Exactly. probably the best round I've ever seen (including hagler-hearns 1)

Incidently..why do you insist on calling the man Eubanks? :kick: