How the **** did Gerald McClellan go to war with Nigel Benn....

[nacho daddy]

If the ref had stopped the fight in the first round (and let's be honest, UK refs stop things early these days for far less) who knows how McClellan's career would have gone.

Super middleweght history might be very different today.

mc clellan looked horrible in that fight. utterly inaccurate puncher . threw a hundred punches in the first round hit benn with 10. swing wildly like a man drowning. punched himself out in one round then ran and held. totally wide open for benns telegraphed from wisconsin left hook. typical for a hard punching bully. now this is an opinion of the fight not the guy getting really hurt. that was horrible. even if benn was KO'd in the 1st round he would have KOd Gerald in a rematch

[Tom Cruise]

I dont get why people say the ref should have stopped the fight. Benn was clearly not knocked out as he went on to fight brilliantly after the first round. He took a bit longer as he was knocked through ropes, but he was up.

The biggest mark against the ref was that he kept on seperating them after GM had scored the 1st kd when there didnt really seem to be any need to. If hadnt been doing that Benn may well have been legitimately stopped.

Shame this fight ended in tragedy as its one hell of a scrap. Benn was something else when he got the bit between his teeth

[Dr Rumack]

mc clellan looked horrible in that fight. utterly inaccurate puncher . threw a hundred punches in the first round hit benn with 10. swing wildly like a man drowning. punched himself out in one round then ran and held. totally wide open for benns telegraphed from wisconsin left hook. typical for a hard punching bully. now this is an opinion of the fight not the guy getting really hurt. that was horrible. even if benn was KO'd in the 1st round he would have KOd Gerald in a rematch

Wouldn't say horrible but Benn definitely exposed some serious flaws. Crazy how wide open he was for Benn's shots.

[Real King Kong]

If the ref had stopped the fight in the first round (and let's be honest, UK refs stop things early these days for far less) who knows how McClellan's career would have gone.

Super middleweght history might be very different today.

McClellan vs jones was being talked about before that fight. McLellan was supposed to walk through benn.

[Roy Jones Jnr]

I dont get why people say the ref should have stopped the fight. Benn was clearly not knocked out as he went on to fight brilliantly after the first round. He took a bit longer as he was knocked through ropes, but he was up.

The biggest mark against the ref was that he kept on seperating them after GM had scored the 1st kd when there didnt really seem to be any need to. If hadnt been doing that Benn may well have been legitimately stopped.

Shame this fight ended in tragedy as its one hell of a scrap. Benn was something else when he got the bit between his teeth

I loved Benn as much as the next man but just like with Tyson - Douglas, if it's over ten seconds the fight should be stopped. Simple as that IMO.

Rules are rules, for me it's complete and utter bollocks to say that coz Benn came back to win the fight it was the right decision.

How many fighters in the history of the sport could have avoided losing by knockout if they were given an extra few seconds? We've seen fighters come back from the verge of being knocked out to knock their opponent out before and it's unfair on every fighter who has ever been counted out to say a guy who was given more than ten seconds to recover should have been allowed to continue.

Now i'm not one hundred percent certain regarding the rules when a fighter is knocked out of the ring, is it still ten seconds or ....? I'm guessing it is but it if isn't then i'm willing to be corrected.

And also yeah, the completely unnecessary pushing away of McClennan by the ref and coming inbetween them was also poor from the ref.

[Robbie Barrett]

I loved Benn as much as the next man but just like with Tyson - Douglas, if it's over ten seconds the fight should be stopped. Simple as that IMO.

Rules are rules, for me it's complete and utter bollocks to say that coz Benn came back to win the fight it was the right decision.

How many fighters in the history of the sport could have avoided losing by knockout if they were given an extra few seconds? We've seen fighters come back from the verge of being knocked out to knock their opponent out before and it's unfair on every fighter who has ever been counted out to say a guy who was given more than ten seconds to recover should have been allowed to continue.

Now i'm not one hundred percent certain regarding the rules when a fighter is knocked out of the ring, is it still ten seconds or ....? I'm guessing it is but it if isn't then i'm willing to be corrected.

And also yeah, the completely unnecessary pushing away of McClennan by the ref and coming inbetween them was also poor from the ref.

I don't think i've ever seen a fight stopped on 10 seconds, every fight i've seen it takes the ref longer than 10 seconds to get to 10 from the point a fighter goes down.

[Roy Jones Jnr]

McClellan vs jones was being talked about before that fight. McLellan was supposed to walk through benn.

It's crazy how such moments in a boxing ring can have such an effect on how life turns out.

On another day and another ref McClennan get's a KO1 over Benn and it is regarded as him walking through Benn.

Then again how many fights can we say that about, on another day another ref stops Corralles after the second knockdown, Buster Douglas gets counted out, etc etc.

[Roy Jones Jnr]

I don't think i've ever seen a fight stopped on 10 seconds, every fight i've seen it takes the ref longer than 10 seconds to get to 10 from the point a fighter goes down.

Wasn't the count obviously longer than ten seconds or have i just dreamt that bit?

From my memory of that first round wasn't he given longer than ten seconds to recover?

Unless i've confused myself here then that's the only reason i meant in terms of it being stopped. Not that he was that badly hurt he should have been stopped.

[Grange_27]

True.

It deffo should have been stopped in the first round but it wasn't.

What makes me think he already went into the fight with some sort of injury though was just some of the mannerisms of his during that fight, he just did not look right and that was from the beginning of the fight, which makes it even more remarkable how he was able to stand toe to toe with a warrior like Nigel Benn for ten rounds!

Then to have to listen to that **** Jim Watt question his heart all whilst in hindsight knowing now what we know it was probably one of the most amazing displays of heart inside a boxing ring ever.

Watt is a tw@t and always was but Reg Gutteridge RIP was a fine boxing commentator with fantastic dry humour. (Talking about 1st round knockouts )" though to be fair Brunos opponent would have fallen over in a 15mph wind"

[Tom Cruise]

I loved Benn as much as the next man but just like with Tyson - Douglas, if it's over ten seconds the fight should be stopped. Simple as that IMO.

Rules are rules, for me it's complete and utter bollocks to say that coz Benn came back to win the fight it was the right decision.

How many fighters in the history of the sport could have avoided losing by knockout if they were given an extra few seconds? We've seen fighters come back from the verge of being knocked out to knock their opponent out before and it's unfair on every fighter who has ever been counted out to say a guy who was given more than ten seconds to recover should have been allowed to continue.

Now i'm not one hundred percent certain regarding the rules when a fighter is knocked out of the ring, is it still ten seconds or ....? I'm guessing it is but it if isn't then i'm willing to be corrected.

And also yeah, the completely unnecessary pushing away of McClennan by the ref and coming inbetween them was also poor from the ref.

Like you i dont know the rules exaclty for when someone gets put through ropes, but IIRC Benn was up before the count was finished but hadnt got back through the ropes. Dont know if thats still a ko or not but imo he deserved the benefit of the doubt

Havent watched in a while so cohld be wrong on that