By Thomas Gerbasi
Twenty years after Gerald McClellan’s last fight, Bobby Razak didn’t stop thinking of the former middleweight champion and his plight following a tragic loss to Nigel Benn in 1995 that changed the life of all involved forever.
So even though there were films and commercials to shoot, and a living to make, he was determined to finish his film on McClellan, Fallen Soldier.
“I funded it myself,” Razak said of the film, which was released this week. “A lot of it was shot on handycam and camera phone and I had zero budget. A lot of my work is in commercials and I was getting caught up doing the paid gigs. I have hundreds of these little projects sitting there waiting for me to get a bit of extra cash and finish them.”
He finished Fallen Soldier, and the result is a raw, yet compelling, look at the other side of boxing. Focusing on McClellan, who was left brain damaged by the Benn fight, and another former world champion, Iran Barkley, who saw the money he made in the ring dwindle away, this is a far as you can get from the glitz and glamour of a big fight night in Vegas. McClellan and Barkley experienced those in their prime as athletes, but when the final bell tolled on their careers, life had changed considerably.
Most turn away from such stories. Razak ran to it out of respect for one of his fighting idols.
“Gerald was a hero of mine growing up,” he said. “I grew up in a very impoverished area of London called Tottenham, and all our heroes were professional boxers. At the time, it was Mike Tyson, Nigel Benn of course, Gerald McClellan – these were kind of our ghetto superstars and they were the guys that taught young urban kids like myself that you could fight your way out. I was such a huge fan of his (McClellan), and in my heart I felt like I needed to show this story. I love Iran Barkley, I love Gerald McClellan, and his sister (Lisa) is just incredible. They don’t build them like that. It’s just an amazing story, and I feel like there was an itch in my heart to finish it.”
Lisa McClellan has been her brother’s caretaker since he came home from the Benn fight in London. That’s over 20 years of putting your life on hold for a loved one, and while it’s easy to say that you would do the same thing for your own sibling, the reality is that few, if any, would. Lisa McClellan is a superhero in real life, and as Razak points out, “In many ways, the film is about her too.”
It’s an uplifting part of the story to see Lisa take care of her brother, be part of his jokes, and simply defend him with an intensity that makes you wish she were your own sister. But these moments are tempered by a reality that shows young men changed forever by the sport that made them famous. Some don’t want to see that, even within the boxing business. And while we can all understand an active fighter choosing not to look at something that may be a possibility for him or her, for members of the media to also turn their back is inexcusable.
“I think we’re living in a world where people don’t care,” Razak said. “They just don’t have that sense of empathy anymore. People are into that MTV / star culture. People care more about Kim Kardashian or Beyonce and what they’re wearing.”
Razak cares, and if there’s one thing that has resonated about McClellan’s story over the last two decades, it’s how British fans have almost adopted him as one of their own, even more than American fans.
“We have a history of very passionate boxing fans,” he said. “And culturally, we’ve always supported the loser. If you look at the superstars of boxing, historically Henry Cooper, Frank Bruno, we always loved the guy who gave a good fight and then just didn’t make it at the last minute, but showed a lot of heart. We always connected because England’s that kind of place. It’s a very tough, cold place, so if someone makes a valiant effort, we can really connect.
And the Brits have always connected with McClellan, vociferously supporting him in his darkest times.
“You can speak to any cab driver and he’ll remember that fight,” Razak said. “Everyone remembers that fight.”
If not for the tragic ending, McClellan-Benn would have gone down as one of the classics, but that ending will always be a part of the story and the fighters will always have that connection, something evident in Fallen Soldier, where Razak captures the emotions that exist between the two, whether together or apart. It’s difficult to watch, but you can’t look away either.
“I’m looking for that moment where they just show everything they have, that they become like a blank, empty canvas,” he said. “That’s when you can really see the core essence of a person, what he’s made of, how he really feels, how he really thinks, and when I see that, I remain on track.”
Razak is an acclaimed filmmaker and has been for years, specializing in getting down to the rawest emotions and most compelling stories, particularly in mixed martial arts and boxing. And when each is done at its highest level, there’s nothing better in all of sports. But the lows are low, often making you wonder at times why you even watch. Razak is no different in having these feelings.
“I always wonder,” he said. “I got my black belt in BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) last year and my whole neck and my whole body is painful as hell, but I still go and train four or five times a week, and I wonder why I wreck my body. It’s in my bloodline, it’s in my DNA. If you’re in the fight space, whether you’re a fighter, a cutman, promoter, or journalist, you harness that same pool of energy, that same pool of consciousness, and it’s in your blood. We’re in the fight business, and it’s a drug.”
To view Fallen Soldier, visit https://vimeo.com/ondemand/fallensoldier