Nigel Benn vs Gerald McClellan fight

[General Zod]

Too many things went across my mind whenever i remember the fight:
(5) Benn has never been the same again physically and mentally.

I also found out that Benn had a shadow on his brain before the McClellan fight

[sonnyboyx2]

I'm interested in reading what peoples views here on this fight. Did you like the fight? Did you think it was way to brutal? Did the ref did a bad job etc?

i was at the fight..... i am of the opinon that Gerald was "Damaged-Goods" before the fight, Denis Andries had lived over in Detroit for 2yrs training at the Kronk, Andries live at the home of Gerald McClelland, when Gerald came over here to fight Benn he naturely stayed at Denis Andries home.. Denis says that Gerald had been sparring with Heavyweights in the Kronk and was not the same guy he knew, he said that Gerald was physically not right, his head was ****ed...

[General Zod]

i was at the fight..... i am of the opinon that Gerald was "Damaged-Goods" before the fight, Denis Andries had lived over in Detroit for 2yrs training at the Kronk, Andries live at the home of Gerald McClelland, when Gerald came over here to fight Benn he naturely stayed at Denis Andries home.. Denis says that Gerald had been sparring with Heavyweights in the Kronk and was not the same guy he knew, he said that Gerald was physically not right, his head was ****ed...

Thanks for posting, I heard about that thats insane.

[frankenfrank]

I remember the fight like it was yesterday. I was watching the fight with a friend I was certain McCellan was going to win it and it was always going to be an explosive bout.My friend wanted Benn to win and we had a private bet. The beating Benn took in round one was unbelievable,I thought he can't continue taking that,how he kept going I don't know.I had a stop watch on me to time any knock down as I expected some dodgy refereeing. When Benn was knocked down and in/ through the ropes I started timing. It was over 10 seconds. As far as I was concerned the fight was over but the ref started timing late and did his level best to help Benn which was the pattern right through the fight. When McCellan started blinking I knew something was wrong and got a bad feeling something was going to happen to him. I felt a lot of anger towards the ref as had he done the job properly the fight would have been over and the tragedy of the brain damage may have been saved. I also felt for Benn as I knew despite winning the consequences of the fight would stay with him for the rest of the fight. Despite the ref helping Benn as much as he could I felt Benn showed amazing courage and fortitude. The beating he took early on was one of the biggest all out attacks I had ever seen and how he kept going I don't know. He took the life line the ref gave him weathered the storm and got back into the fight. Benn earned a huge amount of respect from me and he dug deeper than can be humanly be expected. When the fight was over I knew McCellan was seriously hurt I felt sick and I never felt quite the same about boxing after that. It is a great sport but the potential brain damage it can cause is too high a price for the entertainment. At the end of the fight my friend cancelled our private bet despite winning it, he said Benn really lost the fight and should have been counted out in round one and the ref had distorted the result. That is how I felt about the fight also and that is not taking anything away from Benn he put up a tremendous fight but the ref is a disgrace and has blood on his hands not just McCellan's either I am certain Benn took some brain damage in that fight also .

you and your friend turn out to be decent people according to this.
this ref should have been banned from refereeing forever or at least for a number of years.
whenever benn was at danger , he intervened and broke , did nothing against the fouls.
regarding the time : ref is not the time keeper and also i read that benn was allowed more time because he was knocked off the ring , he definitely was not KO'd , but he could have been had the referee not separated them whenever benn was endangered .
also i noticed mcclellan started blinking right at the first jackson fight.
the commentator asked : what is the ref doing or something like this .

[frankenfrank]

i was at the fight..... i am of the opinon that Gerald was "Damaged-Goods" before the fight, Denis Andries had lived over in Detroit for 2yrs training at the Kronk, Andries live at the home of Gerald McClelland, when Gerald came over here to fight Benn he naturely stayed at Denis Andries home.. Denis says that Gerald had been sparring with Heavyweights in the Kronk and was not the same guy he knew, he said that Gerald was physically not right, his head was ****ed...

remember it when hearing/seeing the phrase "hard at training easy at war"
and "what doesn't kill you forge you"

[S.W.F.C]

Great but brutal fight. The ref was bad but hes not a doctor, Id question why the ringside doctors or McClellans corner didn't throw in the towel, you could tell he was in trouble. Never really looked at McClellans record but wow, his ko ratio in the first round is something. Heard a few people say he would have been one of the greats if it wasn't for his injuries, guy was a beast.