over rated,protected nowadays because he is brain damaged,he took the same risk fighters do and always have,he got hurt,he got hurt bad,stepping in the ring with a man that intends to do that isnt really a good start is it.
eat me alive with ur bad k,its true,he doesnt deserve anymore respect than any of the fighters today,they all take the same risk
This is why some people think he deserved what happened to him.
But in reality, its his family who are really suffering, and i dont think anyone deserves that.
The Observer isnt a trshy magazine. Its a fairly decent newspaper in England. Im dont really want to believe McClellan was that fucked up.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0%2C6903%2C583541%2C00.html
Kevin Mitchell
Sunday November 4, 2001
Observer Sport Monthly
In Las Vegas in 1994, when Gerald McClellan was preparing for his rematch with Julian Jackson, the one-eyed hitter he'd stopped the year before to win his world middleweight title, he was in his hotel room. He was bored, anxious. He got a video out and slipped it in the machine. The fight was only a few hours away. It was the biggest of his career. There was nobody about and the world champion settled down to get his kicks.
As the tape rolled, Stan Johnson, McClellan's coach, knocked on the door.
'He's some guy,' Stan recalls. 'I think he'd be in his room before a fight, gettin' a little pussy or somethin' before he go to the fight ...well, Gerald be in the room this time watchin' tapes of dog fights. I thought he be watchin' a sex movie. But I goes into the fuckin' room, Gerald's got a tape of himself watching the dogs with a stockin' over his head where you can't see who he is - in case somebody find the tape no one know it's him!'
This is how Stan saw Gerald and the whole dog thing: 'So he got this black Labrador, just went to the dog shop, told the man, "I need a dog to take care of, I'll take this Labrador home," and the man say to the dog, "Yeah, you got a good home now," and Gerald takes the dog home. He takes the dog down his basement and tapes the Labrador's mouth, takes his pit bull Deuce and says "Get him!" He lets Deuce start eatin' the dog up while he's timing it on a watch, see how long it would take his dog to kill this dog. And I said to Gerald, "Hey, Gerald, this Labrador wouldn't beat Deuce, no way, so why did you tape his mouth shut?" And he said, "Coz I just wanna see how fast my dog would kill him, for one, and, for two, my dog's a championship fighter and you don't need no dog scratched up and bit up by no dog, by no accident. This is like sparrin' for my dog, this is like my dog need to taste blood every day. My dog need to kill somethin' every day, Stan. Just like a fighter need to spar every day, he don't need nobody bustin' him up when he got a big fight comin' up. He just need to bust somethin' up hisself. Right?".....
continues.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0%2C6903%2C583541%2C00.html
Good post mate. That's taken from the book 'War, Baby.' Kind of ironic that Don King was rumoured to have said, 'He quit like a dog!' about McClellan when he took the count against Benn!
Man, people are talking about Mclellan like he deserved what happened to him. What exactly did he do, just into dogfighting? (I'm not saying it was anything close to OK to fight dogs but it seemed like he did a lot worse shit they way people were talking about him)
This is why some people think he deserved what happened to him.
But in reality, its his family who are really suffering, and i dont think anyone deserves that.
The Observer isnt a trshy magazine. Its a fairly decent newspaper in England. Im dont really want to believe McClellan was that fucked up.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0%2C6903%2C583541%2C00.html
Kevin Mitchell
Sunday November 4, 2001
Observer Sport Monthly
In Las Vegas in 1994, when Gerald McClellan was preparing for his rematch with Julian Jackson, the one-eyed hitter he'd stopped the year before to win his world middleweight title, he was in his hotel room. He was bored, anxious. He got a video out and slipped it in the machine. The fight was only a few hours away. It was the biggest of his career. There was nobody about and the world champion settled down to get his kicks.
As the tape rolled, Stan Johnson, McClellan's coach, knocked on the door.
'He's some guy,' Stan recalls. 'I think he'd be in his room before a fight, gettin' a little pussy or somethin' before he go to the fight ...well, Gerald be in the room this time watchin' tapes of dog fights. I thought he be watchin' a sex movie. But I goes into the fuckin' room, Gerald's got a tape of himself watching the dogs with a stockin' over his head where you can't see who he is - in case somebody find the tape no one know it's him!'
This is how Stan saw Gerald and the whole dog thing: 'So he got this black Labrador, just went to the dog shop, told the man, "I need a dog to take care of, I'll take this Labrador home," and the man say to the dog, "Yeah, you got a good home now," and Gerald takes the dog home. He takes the dog down his basement and tapes the Labrador's mouth, takes his pit bull Deuce and says "Get him!" He lets Deuce start eatin' the dog up while he's timing it on a watch, see how long it would take his dog to kill this dog. And I said to Gerald, "Hey, Gerald, this Labrador wouldn't beat Deuce, no way, so why did you tape his mouth shut?" And he said, "Coz I just wanna see how fast my dog would kill him, for one, and, for two, my dog's a championship fighter and you don't need no dog scratched up and bit up by no dog, by no accident. This is like sparrin' for my dog, this is like my dog need to taste blood every day. My dog need to kill somethin' every day, Stan. Just like a fighter need to spar every day, he don't need nobody bustin' him up when he got a big fight comin' up. He just need to bust somethin' up hisself. Right?".....
continues.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0%2C6903%2C583541%2C00.html
The best laughs i always get from Gman threads, where you have idiots ripping on him for ''molesting dogs'', wich doesn't have proof, none of you knew him in real life so why the fuck do you believe what the media says?
You must be gay too, if you respect a fighter for what he's like in real life.
Man, people are talking about Mclellan like he deserved what happened to him. What exactly did he do, just into dogfighting? (I'm not saying it was anything close to OK to fight dogs but it seemed like he did a lot worse shit they way people were talking about him)
What exactly happened in the first. He knocked Benn out of the ring but should the fight have been stopped then or did the ref do the right thing. And what else did the ref. do throughout the fight that people critizised him for?
It's probably best that you take another look at the fight and draw your own conclusions, but IMO the referee was terribly inept, and extremely over-fussy. That said, the fight shouldn't have been stopped when Benn was knocked through the ropes, as Benn was back on his feet and in the ring prepared to continue in good time, and of-course, fighters are allowed extra time to recover if they are knocked out of the ring. However, what the referee seemed to do was award Benn even more time when McClellan was trying to stop Benn in the first round i.e. he was pushing McClellan, and seemingly warning him for something or other which was giving Benn vital time to recover, which he eventually did. However, regardless of the failings of the referee, Nigel Benn still deserves credit for winning that fight, and i'd have given the guy credit even had he been stopped in the 2nd round because to come through that first round was an achievement in itself.
With regards to the rumours surrounding McClellan's private life prior to his injuries, i tend to concentrate more on what he achieved in the ring. I don't agree with dog fighting in any shape or form, but if McClellan did then that's his business, and i'm not really interested in it. Sure i know all the stories surrounding McClellan's private life, but boxing is filled with unsavoury stories, sometimes that's the nature of the business, but anyone who states that McClellan deserves his current state due to his involvement with dog fighting is out of order IMO.
From all accounts of the people that met Gerald, he was a modest and very nice fella.
Dont know what u can make of this interview of Gerald when he was healthy, but you can get a glimpse of how he spoke/acted in his prime.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0wlyK9gYV7E
Yeah my dad met him and said G-Man was a very soft-spoken and nice guy.
u never know by meeting someone though what kind of dark, demented side they might have.
Look at how often they catch a sociopathic serial murderer, and the neighbors and acquiantences or whatever say "oh, he seemed like such a nice man"
Man, people are talking about Mclellan like he deserved what happened to him. What exactly did he do, just into dogfighting? (I'm not saying it was anything close to OK to fight dogs but it seemed like he did a lot worse shit they way people were talking about him)
What exactly happened in the first. He knocked Benn out of the ring but should the fight have been stopped then or did the ref do the right thing. And what else did the ref. do throughout the fight that people critizised him for?
Nah man. Another example of how his 'evil' legend was blown up. Bloodbaiting is a sort of medieval practice and as far as i know it involves a chained animal being attacked BY dogs. Like in foreign countries they chain up a gorilla or bear and unleash pitbulls on em. Although i guess u can basically do it with any animal as the victim. Yet it seems hardly like a common practice I imagine taking place in Chicago (where he supposedly engaged in these activities). Check out the book by McRae which has alot of factual info and interviews with McClellan.
He was just in to dog fighting. I know people who are in to dog fighting and altough i dont approve of it, if they wound up blind and brain damaged I wouldnt think that they deserved it.
Roy Jones is in to cock fighting, which these animals fight to the death. Some fighters just have that taste to see combat in its many forms.
what i know about bloodbaiting is that it is the practice of feeding live animals (typically younger/smaller dogs) to your hungry fight dog to train him into the habit of killing its own kind.
you dont need a pole or anything, the cage/room where you keep your pitbull/dogo/whatever is big enough
I dont go as far as being happy with gman be blind and paralyzed, but given his hobbies I do not feel sympathy either.
just the same for rj, no respect from me for his rooster fighting passion.
From all accounts of the people that met Gerald, he was a modest and very nice fella.
Dont know what u can make of this interview of Gerald when he was healthy, but you can get a glimpse of how he spoke/acted in his prime.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0wlyK9gYV7E
I believe he is overrated by some not just because he is disabled now, but because his career was cut so short. Imagine if Tyson had retired or stopped fighting after demolishing Berbick? Alot more people would believe he was the greatest fighter ever.
Thats a good point.
G-Man was a good fighter and very hard puncher, but he gets overrated due to the "what could have been" factor.
It happens quite a bit.
Salvador Sanchez, who was great, still gets overrated quite a bit due to the "what could have been" factor. I see people rank him over guys who achieved more, and hear how he was greater than JCC and what not.
Same with Aaron Pryor. Excellent fighter who should have been more, but people overrate him and rank him above guys who acheived more.
I have only seen a handfull of his fights to be honest.He was a good fighter with devastating power but he is talked about as if he is an alltime great on this forum at times.There is nothing on his record to suggest this guy was going to become a boxing legend,the wins against Jackson were great performances but i do feel he is overrated due to his circumstances by many.For all we know, if he didnt end up in the condition that he ended up in and continued to fight, the Benn defeat could changed him completely and he may of took a year out and lost his next fight.We just cant rate people on potential,similar thing happens with Ike Ibeabuchi at heavyweight.
he fuckin bloodbaited his dogs. you know what that means, right?
Nah man. Another example of how his 'evil' legend was blown up. Bloodbaiting is a sort of medieval practice and as far as i know it involves a chained animal being attacked BY dogs. Like in foreign countries they chain up a gorilla or bear and unleash pitbulls on em. Although i guess u can basically do it with any animal as the victim. Yet it seems hardly like a common practice I imagine taking place in Chicago (where he supposedly engaged in these activities). Check out the book by McRae which has alot of factual info and interviews with McClellan.
He was just in to dog fighting. I know people who are in to dog fighting and altough i dont approve of it, if they wound up blind and brain damaged I wouldnt think that they deserved it.
Roy Jones is in to cock fighting, which these animals fight to the death. Some fighters just have that taste to see combat in its many forms.
Gerald was a very good fighter. Agressive, quick and had frightening power with a killer instinct to match. I don't think people overrate him its just that his legend is enhanced being that he was disabled in his prime. Sort of like Biggy dying in his prime, he sorta becomes immortalized and gets higher praise because of it.
And the whole dog "torture" tag that McClellan gets is so blown out of proportion its not funny. Thats some serial killer shit to torture animials. The real story is that he used to fight pitbulls (as do tons of people around the world) and after a fight one of his dogs was wounded badly. So he supposedly shot the dog to put it out of its misery. From there, the story has been twisted and turned to make him out to be some sadistic man who got pleasure out of killing helpless puppies.
The man was no angel sure. But just cuz he was a rugged dude outside the ring I dont think that merits him becoming blind and disabled.
he fuckin bloodbaited his dogs. you know what that means, right?
If the beginning of his demise started in round 4, it’s really quite amazing that despite obvious pain he would have been in, he still manages to win rounds 6 and 8 (I had him up 85-84). A true warrior for sure.
Gerald was a very good fighter. Agressive, quick and had frightening power with a killer instinct to match. I don't think people overrate him its just that his legend is enhanced being that he was disabled in his prime. Sort of like Biggy dying in his prime, he sorta becomes immortalized and gets higher praise because of it.
And the whole dog "torture" tag that McClellan gets is so blown out of proportion its not funny. Thats some serial killer shit to torture animials. The real story is that he used to fight pitbulls (as do tons of people around the world) and after a fight one of his dogs was wounded badly. So he supposedly shot the dog to put it out of its misery. From there, the story has been twisted and turned to make him out to be some sadistic man who got pleasure out of killing helpless puppies.
The man was no angel sure. But just cuz he was a rugged dude outside the ring I dont think that merits him becoming blind and disabled.
I agree with you. I think that many people will base there opinion on McClellan having only seen a few of his fights, and i suppose it's possible that people also pass opinion on him having only watched his fight with Benn, but it's clear to me that the man was extremely talented.
That particular KO you've mentioned is stunning! He knocked out Dan Mitchell leaving him prone on the canvas for some time. Mitchell was by no means a good fighter, and i think he'd lost more than he'd won by the time he fought McClellan, but the technique of that shot was excellent.
Thats the guy! Well picked up on bud! Screamer of a punch!
do you give respect with a guy who slugged out and KOed a person who is p4p most powerful puncher? and he did it twice.
He got very good ameatuer rec and even beat Roy Jones.
sparred with the best including James Toney, Thomas Hearn and many others
so yes and he is one of the few fighters who flew over the atlatic to fight Benn i dont think Roy Jones or many other Amercain boxers did it so please it not good to talk shit for a person how accplished quit alot in a little time
Id agree with that.
IMO it wasnt a clash of heads as there was no impact wen there heads appeared to come together. As oppose to the many many times wen McClellan got punched, the force and huge impact of the punches were clear. It was more Benns dreads that got into McClellans eye.
You seem a pretty knowlegable guy, but i'd have to disagree on the clash of heads. Benn's head definitely made contact with McClellan's forehead.
McClellan was supposedly struggling around about the fourth round onwards as he was hanging the gumshield out of his mouth and blinking a lot. Opinion dictated that the accidental clash of heads triggered or aided to (whichever way you want to put it) his brain injury.
For me it was a clash of heads! Benn fell forwards throwing the right hand, and his head caught McClellan's. Many claimed it was deliberate, but that was obviously nonsense! Momentum just carried Benn forwards.
Id agree with that.
IMO it wasnt a clash of heads as there was no impact wen there heads appeared to come together. As oppose to the many many times wen McClellan got punched, the force and huge impact of the punches were clear. It was more Benns dreads that got into McClellans eye.
No.
He was not.
:rolleyes:
The only clash of heads happened in the 9th round. At that point McClellan took a knee complaining of a headbutt, but clearly he was in distress looking exhausted, breathing very heavily. He had taken huge shots since the 2nd round that would of stopped 99% of all other fighters.
Plus, it wasnt really a clash of heads at all....Benn caught him with a good right, and slipped, his HAIR catching McClellan in his eye.
Watch it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryUfKuT4N4c
McClellan was supposedly struggling around about the fourth round onwards as he was hanging the gumshield out of his mouth and blinking a lot. Opinion dictated that the accidental clash of heads triggered or aided to (whichever way you want to put it) his brain injury.
For me it was a clash of heads! Benn fell forwards throwing the right hand, and his head caught McClellan's. Many claimed it was deliberate, but that was obviously nonsense! Momentum just carried Benn forwards.