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The Benn-McClellan fight 2-2
'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
At the end of the sixth, Gerald had nothing. Somehow, he conjured up a bit of artillery to go into four more rounds, and would even look like winning in the eight. Benn knew McClellan was lying though. And he knew that the American had confronted that reality a few rounds before. At the end of the six round, McClellan was a busted flush. And, one way or the other, he was trying to tell someone.
Except nobody listened.
The sad tale of Gerald McClellan
The Super-middleweights
A series of threads about Toney, Jones, Eubank and McClellan
'The fights terrible violence, exceeded the darkest predictions'
-Donald McRae
During the eight round, there was an explosion
- Gerald McClellan
At the end of the sixth, Gerald had nothing. Somehow, he conjured up a bit of artillery to go into four more rounds, and would even look like winning in the eight. Benn knew McClellan was lying though. And he knew that the American had confronted that reality a few rounds before. At the end of the six round, McClellan was a busted flush. And, one way or the other, he was trying to tell someone.
Except nobody listened.
The sad tale of Gerald McClellan
The Super-middleweights
A series of threads about Toney, Jones, Eubank and McClellan
'The fights terrible violence, exceeded the darkest predictions'
-Donald McRae
During the eight round, there was an explosion
For those of us still trying to remain detached, the eight round was a big one for McClellan. The reality, though, was that McClellans had been busted up. He had been physically and mentally wrecked by Benn's doggedness. McClellan never expected him to be there afte three ounds, let alone eight. ''Three rounds is all anyone need,' he used to say. In effect, he haf to fight two fights: the first, a dissapointing engagement in which Benn refused to fold; the second, a war in which McClellan flirted with exhaustion, in which he shipped more punishment than he dealt out. But now, in the second fight, he looked like prevailing, finally. He had Benn in serious trouble. Surely he would finish him off his time. He had to. H had le him of in the first round, and suffered as a consequence. If he did not finish him now, would Benn come back at him again?
As McClellan clattered Benn's bruised head, the champion tried to calculate how long he had to suffer until the bell offered him a minute's rest. The American was making that calculation also, which informed his desperate attack. His punching was filled with as uch vnom as he had in him. There was no holding back, whatever his tiredness. He had to get the jod b done now or he risked letting Benn back into th fight in th next round.
Gutteridge;'He's got to get out of that corner!'
Pacheco:'And the referee's close to stoppin' this.'
Albert:'Benn buckled over! A right hand by McClellan! Less than thirty seconds to go! Down goes Benn!
Pacheco:'Benn is in horrible shape...Too much time to go. Too much time to go.'
Pacheco:'And the referee's close to stoppin' this.'
Albert:'Benn buckled over! A right hand by McClellan! Less than thirty seconds to go! Down goes Benn!
Pacheco:'Benn is in horrible shape...Too much time to go. Too much time to go.'
In the ninth, McClellans head was spun again on his creaking neck by right hook and a long left. When he came back to hold, th crowd booed and Benn, flailing wearliy at him, slipped to the floor. His head brushed the American's as he tripped and , abruptly, McClellan went down on one knee, cupping a glove to his forehead.He appealed to the ref, pawing at his head, claiming a butt, indicating that he could not coninue until he had been given time to recover from a foul. But he was coaxed back to his feet and waved back into the fray.
Pachco is losing patience with McClellan. 'He's waiting to long. He's waiting too long.'
End of the round
Pacheco Observes, 'Gerald's blinking his eyes. He got hit hard.'
End of the round
Pacheco Observes, 'Gerald's blinking his eyes. He got hit hard.'
He certainly got hit hard. All night, he got hit hard. All his life, he got hit hard. In the corner, he looks out past Stan, hears him say,
'You can't lose this fight. You're too far ahead. They say you couldn't go ten. You already got there. He cannot win this fight unless you give this to him.'
'Go out there and die'
They'd gone nine. McClellan would not finish the tenth
They'd gone nine. McClellan would not finish the tenth
Just before the start of the tenth, each corner streamed water over the boxers. McClellan's face had lost the expressionless mask he had shown at the outset. It had become a mass of dazed and jerking blinks which confused th ITV commentators, Reg Gutteridge and Jim Watt. Gutterridge confessed that he had never before seen a boxer blink either so rapidly or alarmingly. It looked as if he was trying to pop an invisible balloon of pressure building up deep in the sockets of both eye.
He used his jab effectively enough for a minute but, then, another Benn right hand connected. McClellan sank to the floor, blinking all the way. He rested there as the counting began. He shook his head as if to stop the twitching of his eyes. When he got up, Gerald lifted his gloves to chest-height almost involuntarily, like a small boy showing reticent defiance. He nodded, as if to say that he was all right.
But three more rights, two straight and a last uppercut, were too much to bear. McClellan slid to the same knee again. He put a glove on his hip and stared in front of him. But he began to blink again as the man in the white shirt stood over him, like some demented choreographer, snapping his fingers in his face like he could have been counting out steps to a dance. 'Five!' he shouted, both hands in the air, 'six!', stabbing at McClellan, 'Seven!', as the boxer blinked once more,'eight!', looking at the referee, who brought both mitts back and held up all fingers but for the littlest on his left hand.'Nine!' he mouthed, and McClellan stayed bowed on his knee, watching the arms scissor in front of him. 'Out!'
'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. Through the escalating tumult we saw McClellan talking softly to his sailor-capped trainer, Stan Johnson. Then he sagged delicately of his stool and onto the ground. His back was popped by the ring-post. He blinked again and then squeezed his eyes tightly shut together.
As with all televised championship bouts, the post-fight interview in the ring was an obligatory ritual. This one, however, was particularly lamentable. Nigel Benn was not gracious in victory as he put up with Gary Newborn sticking a microphone into his swollen face. 'Yeah,' he sneered,'all you lot were geeing him up, giving it this, giving it that, and, yeah, I know..'
Newborn tried to cut in but Benn wasn't interested.
'No, now you listen to me...the person I'd like too thank most of all is Paul McKenna who hypnotised me and made me believe in myself. No, no, no, listen to me!'
Newborn finally succeeded with his interruption: 'Mike McCallum is very badly hurt, they got a stretcher in here..'
Benn stared at him vacantly as the producer bellowed in Newborn's earpiece.
'McClellan,' he muttered, 'sorry, Mike McClellan is very badly hurt..'
He tried to move Benn away so that the paramedics could get past. 'Nigel..' he tried again as another voice roared in his head. 'Gerald McClellan! Sorry, I'm getting most confused...' But, ever the pro, he pressed on with the remainder that it had personally, Gary Newborn, the voice of ITV, who had pushed Benn back into the ring almost forty minutes before, in round one.
Benn ignored him. 'They only brought him here to bash me up, mate!' he thundered. 'Now you might believe in the Dark Destroyer!'
'You made a believer outta me,' Don King guffawed beside him, 'you made a believer outta me!'
We saw Naseem popping his head round King's bulk to lend support to 'Nige', but Gary Newborn demanded:
'Listen to me! We have a serious problem in the ring with Gerald McClellan. We have a serious problem with Gerald McClellan..'
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