Tarick Salmacis Boxing Nation - McClellan Before the Benn Fight

[Rockin']

I'm not sure who wrote this but this is what Tarick experienced with McClellan shortly before the fight. From Tarick Salmacis Boxing Nation.



So I was reading an interview about Gerald Mcclellan and came across something fascinating. A kronk fighter at the time named Tarick Salmaci who sparred with Mcclellan before the Benn fight. Here are is his quote on Mcclellan being rocked by a jab in sparring and than beginning to blink.

"I feel Gerald McClellan was already injured going into the Nigel Benn fight, I have a strong belief. There as this one time Gerald and I were sparring and I hit him with a solid jab in the middle of his forehead, like between the eyebrows...He told me "STOP, HOLD UP"! YOU THUMBED ME MAN. So he stopped and started blinking non stop from what I thought was a thumb. I never even felt like I thumbed him, and they were thumbless gloves so I just figured somehow my thumb must have poked him in the eye because of the way he was blinking really fast and non-stop..with both eyes though.

So we finish our sparring session, and we are in the back locker room at Kronk, Gerald walks up to me and says, "Man, I'm gonna be honest with you...You didn't thumb me...You hurt me". "I'm man enough to say that". I was then kind of confused and surprised as to how I could of hurt him with a jab and I was fighting at 147lbs. and he was weighing probably 175 lbs....


About 2 weeks later, Gerald leaves to England for the Nigel Benn fight. I'm watching it on Showtime from Florida. I thought Benn was finished in the first round. (NOTE: If that fight was held in the US, Benn would have not been allowed to continue!) I couldn't believe the comeback he made. It was amazing, but then, all of a sudden, in the 10th round, Gerald just takes a knee and appears to quit. I couldn't believe it because the Gerald I knew would never quit, no matter what. But then I looked more closely and he was blinking non-stop, the exact same way he was that one day in the Kronk gym when I hit him with that jab...blinking continuosley...non stop....I couldn't believe it. Right then, I knew there was a connection to that one day that we sparred in the gym. We all know what happened to Gerald after that fight...


So than i watch the fight. And he is absolutely right. McClellan is blinking like a maniac from the 6th round on. Maybe earlier. Its pretty scary to see tbh. Also In my opinion those rabbit punches from Benn right on to McClellan's brain stem is some of the most egregious fouling I have ever seen in my life. Ref was an embarrassment in this fight

[YoungManRumble]

Were the early stoppages in the UK as prevalent then? Because they sure gave their guy every chance to survive.



You can even hear the commentary team mention his blinking at the part I time stamped

[davef]

Interested post thanks for sharing never heard this stories anywhere else over the years and countless documentaries

I'm no doctor but surely if he was injured beforehand things like a long haul flight to the UK or training done over here would have flagged something up or even a pre fight medical or surely the work done by doctors post fight would have revealed the injury was a pre existing one?

[Rockin']

A fighter fights, period. Before the bout I am sure that he was looked over by a doc. When asked if he has had suffered any concussions, or the like, while training he probably said no. I fought with a lung infection, having suffered a concussion 2 days before the fight ( I didn't tell the doc about that though), when cautioned by the doc that I should not fight at all. I said that I had to and went on to experience the most miserable and embarrassing fight of my life. Doctors doc and fighters fight...….Rockin'

[Robbie Barrett]

Why do people always say the fight would have been stopped if it wasn't in England? A fighter gets a 20 count if he falls out of the ring. People always come out with BS after a tragic event, saying they saw this and that before but thought nothing of it at the time etc. Another thing that is BS is people saying Benn was really dirty with rabbit punches, i see fights on cards all the damn time with more rabbit punches than was in that fight.

[lparm]

Sad he was hurt badly

I’ve heard he was a bit of a bastard outside the ring though

It’s on his corner really should’ve been stopped much sooner

[YoungManRumble]

Why do people always say the fight would have been stopped if it wasn't in England? A fighter gets a 20 count if he falls out of the ring. People always come out with BS after a tragic event, saying they saw this and that before but thought nothing of it at the time etc. Another thing that is BS is people saying Benn was really dirty with rabbit punches, i see fights on cards all the damn time with more rabbit punches than was in that fight.

It's not about the count. It's after when the ref is literally protecting Benn from McClellan holding him back giving him an extra 5 seconds to recover

[Robbie Barrett]

It's not about the count. It's after when the ref is literally protecting Benn from McClellan holding him back giving him an extra 5 seconds to recover

Mcclellan had plenty of opportunity to finish Benn he was pounding on him the entire first round and couldn't stop him, a few seconds breaking up a clinch made zero difference. Benn deserves credit for the heart he showed.

[YoungManRumble]

Mcclellan had plenty of opportunity to finish Benn he was pounding on him the entire first round and couldn't stop him, a few seconds breaking up a clinch made zero difference. Benn deserves credit for the heart he showed.

He does deserve credit for the heart shown in this round and entire fight yes. It's only the clinch at 20:14 and the one immediately after it in the video I posted that I find kind of suspect. The ref seems to be standing in front of McClellan for no good reason and for a particularly long time in the first one.

[Robbie Barrett]

He does deserve credit for the heart shown in this round and entire fight yes. It's only the clinch at 20:14 and the one immediately after it in the video I posted that I find kind of suspect. The ref seems to be standing in front of McClellan for no good reason and for a particularly long time in the first one.

You could argue the ref did Benn dirty. If the ropes hold a fighter up it supposed to count as a KD. When the ropes are holding Benn up the ref allows Mclellan to keep hitting him with clean shots until he falls out of the ring.