The Benn-McClellan fight 1-2

[Toney616]

'In the ring you have to go to war and in war you have to be prepared to die. That's what boxing is..'
- Gerald McClellan, two days before the fight














They say boxing is the lying game....


















That might be true, but When Gerald returned to his corner at the end of the sixth round, he was through with lying. He had known since the second round that something was not right. He was labouring for breath, his right hand, which he'd hurt in banging out Julian Jackson, throbbed. There was, he would say a short time afterwards in the few coherent moments left to him, 'water rushing in my head.' And he was blinking, blinking, blinking. Like a man with a nervous tic.
'I wanna quit, Stan.'


The sad tale of Gerald McClellan
The super-middleweights
A series of threads about Toney. Jones, McClellan and Eubank




'The fights terrible violence, exceeded the darkest predictions'
-Donald McRae

Big Don roared in delight. 'Yes!' he warbled, 'it's gonna be a sensational fight and the British deserve the best and that's why Frank ****** and I joined together with ITV, and the voice of ITV, Gary Newborn, to bring the best in boxing. An' you're gonna see explosive activiy here an' I predict that Gerald McClellan is a miniature Mike Tyson tonight..yes, it's gonna be an exciting night of fisticuffs here on ITV. Don't even go to the refrigerateor to get a coolie or a beer. Stand there and watch this in its entirety! Make your breaks with the break that come on between the rounds because you cannot afford to miss this. It's gonna be great, Gary!'Rosenthal smiled at us:'Don't go away! Benn and McClellan will be blasting off in a couple of miuntes!'

The fights terrible violence, as we now know, exceeded the darkest predictions. In the opening minute McClellan, wearing his lucky green trunks, hit Benn so hard with a series of right hands that he sent him crashing through the ropes. The overwhelming anticipation of a first round knockout might have felt like bathos if Benn had not crawled back in the ring. He pulled his feet clear of the Tv cables and weaved back onto his stick-thin legs as if he himself had taken to the bottle. McClellan had to be held back by the referee before charging across at Benn.
Jim Watt, at the ITV microphone, was unimpressed:'Again the referee's being a little bit kind to Benn here. It's as if he's trying to help him survive the round.'He wore a blank expression which suggested that he had his pitbull in mind. He smashed his right fist into Benn again and again. While many of those blows landed, Benn's ducking and crouching, with his chin ducked low, meant that the majority skimmed off the top and sides of his head. Yet they still carried a wallop. Benn swayed on the ropes. The round seemed interminable but he survived by clawing and clutching at McClellan.At the eventual sound of the bell, the Dark Destroyer looked as if he understood afresh the sentiment which McClellan had uttered two days before:'In the ring you have to go to war and in war you have to be prepared to die. That's what boxing is..'

As round two began, it sounded more accurate than melodromatic as Benn returned to the battle. His right cheek had been cut and his legs were still rickity, which encouraged McClellan to flood in with punches. But it was then that Benn started o fight back. With exceptional fortitude he forced McClellan to give ground as he pummelled him to both head and body. He made McClellan blink with hard crosses to the temple. even when he was hurt again by an answering right, Benn dug in with a left hook to the body.


It was only in the fourth and fifth that McClellan conceded the attritional nature of Benn's fight back. His mouthguard began to slip back and forth, moving in and out of his panting mouth like a dog's lolling, whitened tongue. His defense became increasingly sloppy. He had never gone beyond the eight round before.

In an attempt to gain the initiative Gerald switched to a southpaw stance
Pacheco was unmoved.

Albert:'McClellan's switching to southpaw...A right hand by Benn!'
Pacheco: 'That switching is a waste of time, because what's happening to him is he is being outspeeded and out-thought.'
Albert:'A thumping left hook by Benn! McClellan looks confused. The cagey Nigel Benn seems to have gained control of the fight. Benn's got a second win. He's been resurrected after that near knockout in the first.'
Pacheco:'Gerald's fighting with his mouthpiece hanging half out, he's getting tired..'

As they recovered in their corners before the sixth, with the scorecards showing them to be level, he omnipresent Gary Newborn interviewed Naseen Hamed at ringside to discover his considered view. 'Great fight for Nigel,' the familiar Sheffield burr boasted. 'Now I can see him taking him out. Believe me. Two more rounds. Nigel's looking the stronger fighter now. He's took the punsihment and he's coming back with a war. He's coming back with punches. McClellan's blown himself out, basically. He's thrown all the bombs he can. Believe me, it's Nigel's night. Let's get it on, Nige!'

Albert:'Gerald holds him with one hand. Nigel hits him with the other.'
Pacheco:' The referee's much too fussy for my taste, much to fussy..

When Gerald returned to his corner at the end of the sixth round, he was through with lying. He had known since the second round that something was not right. He was labouring for breath, his right hand, which he'd hurt in banging out Julian Jackson, throbbed. There was, he would say a short time afterwards in the few coherent moments left to him, 'water rushing in my head.' And he was blinking, blinking, blinking. Like a man with a nervous tic.

'I wanna quit, Stan.'

In his entire boxing career, from the age of twelve through to the final fight Gerald never had the sanctuary of being a bum. He was always a star, and that carries its special pressures. McClellan, in short, was too good to quit. Winners don't have that option normally, because they are carying the show not just for themselves, but for the promoters and managers around them. They also have their pride
As a feared and distinguished champion, not to mention a moneymaker of significant reputation, McClellan did not have that option. He knew beforehand he was expected to be in this fight until there was nothing left to give. Stan and Donnie knew that too. Besides, they were all being paid meagre wages and across the ring from them sat King, who would be distinctly upset if they pulled McClellan out of the fight. Those were the pressures, real or percieved, bearing down on the occupants of that corner at the end of the six.

The seventh had been a gruesome round for both men. Benn's face was distorted by a puffiness and angularity on the left side which suggested that his jaw might have been broken. You could see a trace of blood on his lips. McClellan's own movements back to his corner were slow and groggy.

[Toney616]

McClellan's brain was starting to shut down.

Words from his corner formed an oral blanket around him as he tried to gather together his inner strength, but they will not have pentrated. The time for tactical talks had passed. McClellan had to fall back on instincts now, because fatigue had taken a terrible grip on him. In fact, it had been with him since the end of the first round. According to Donnie, Gerald was 'breathin' heavy, breathin' heavy.'
Under sustained pressure from Benn, all McClellan's admirable skills deteriorated noticeably after round two. His jab was mising, he moved into rather than away from Benn's overhand right, the McClellan left to the ribs was not functioning well. In short, his weapons had seized up. They surfaced later, when he got a second wind, but, after he was hurt earlier, his boxing gradually came apart. That is when an autoritative corner should have moved. That is the point, say around the fourth round, where a quick, decisive instruction should have been issued. Donnie recalls that, at the end of the second round, he implored Gerald to keep his hands up, to avoid Benn's overhand right. He did so only intermittently, getting hit often enough to become increasingly confused.

There were two early punches that appeared to put Gerald's boxing out of kilter. The fist came towards the end of th first round, after he'd had Benn in trouble. It was a desperation hook that caught McClellan just behind the right ear. Instantly, his legs and arms list their zip. Then, in the second, he was similarly stopped in his tracks - although even several replays of the tape will not definitely identify the blow . It's likely it was not just a single shot that did the damage, but several. But his corner should have noticed something, either then or at the end of the round. And, from rounds two to seven, they certainly must have been aware of the build-up of damage.

The question therefore lingers: given there was obviously a problem, who should of stepped in to save McClellan from himself?




Sources:
The Dark Trade: lost in boxing by Donald McRae
War, baby: The glamour of violence by Kevin Mitchell

Next:

'He's quit!' Jim Watt screamed jubiliantly.
'He's quit!' Reg Gutteridege barked back in confirmation as McClellan got up and walked alone to his corner.
Benn was like a dervish - legs apart, arms wide, mouth roaring, head flung back as if only he could fathom the place to which he'd just been. He scaled the ropes and cried out at the hysterical crowd as he gestured towards McClellan:

'Who is he? Who is he? Who is he?'

He was a man on the edge of losing his life, a man whose hearing and sight were fading, a man destroyed by boxing. But no one, not even the doctors climbing into the ring, knew at the moment