Gerald McClellan physical by the british board, would they have done a brain scan?

[TheLeprechaun]

I always thought McClellan came into the Benn fight with a brain injury he probably got from walking through Julian Jacksons punches in their first fight. He had three first round KO's after that fight and then the Benn fight. Did the British board do a brain scan? If they did and it picked up nothing then my theory would be proved wrong. McClellan was thought of as a monster at the time.

[Controversial]

I have no idea but it may not have showed anything, I doubt they do them routinely either.

[Coco]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

[Controversial]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Do you have a brain scan before every fight?

[Frostieballs]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Do you have a brain scan before every fight?

Always used to be annual.

[jamesmcdonnell]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Hmm, good question.

Wouldn't they just have gotten the information from whichever local commission McClellan was registered with?

[jamesmcdonnell]

I have no idea but it may not have showed anything, I doubt they do them routinely either.

Yeah, scans will only show up scarring and recent bleeds, certainly with the technology available at that time.

[Controversial]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Do you have a brain scan before every fight?

Always used to be annual.

So presumably even if you were a British fighter in a UK based title fight you would still only have one scan a year, even if you were in more than one fight?

[Frostieballs]

Do you have a brain scan before every fight?

Always used to be annual.

So presumably even if you were a British fighter in a UK based title fight you would still only have one scan a year, even if you were in more than one fight?

Yes - unless the fog of time has blurred my memory!

I always remember them being annual - some boxers hated them. There was one type (MRI/MRA can’t remember which) where you had to lie the machine like it was a coffin for about 45 minutes. A few had claustrophobia and would always try and get a (harder to come by) scan that was less enclosed.

[Syntax Error]

I always thought McClellan came into the Benn fight with a brain injury he probably got from walking through Julian Jacksons punches in their first fight. He had three first round KO's after that fight and then the Benn fight. Did the British board do a brain scan? If they did and it picked up nothing then my theory would be proved wrong. McClellan was thought of as a monster at the time.

McClellan was on record as complaining of headaches after he fought Julian Jackson, so I would like to think that he underwent brain scans, but I just don't know.

[Controversial]

Do you have a brain scan before every fight?

Always used to be annual.

So presumably even if you were a British fighter in a UK based title fight you would still only have one scan a year, even if you were in more than one fight?

Did you do the scans or worked with the fighters?

[Frostieballs]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Hmm, good question.

Wouldn't they just have gotten the information from whichever local commission McClellan was registered with?

From recollection this was generally the case, but if the other commissions didn’t require scans I believe one had to be arranged here.

[jamesmcdonnell]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Hmm, good question.

Wouldn't they just have gotten the information from whichever local commission McClellan was registered with?

From recollection this was generally the case, but if the other commissions didn’t require scans I believe one had to be arranged here.

Where was McClellan from, California wasn't it?

Edit: Illinois.

[Frostieballs]

Always used to be annual.

So presumably even if you were a British fighter in a UK based title fight you would still only have one scan a year, even if you were in more than one fight?

Did you do the scans or worked with the fighters?

Had to coordinate for a few fighters, although that was normally somebody else’s responsibility.

[Coco]

At that time a scan was compulsory for British boxers, and I believe while they weren't for foreign license holders, for a championship fight they would have been.

MAB........ Who knows!!

Do you have a brain scan before every fight?

As an undercard fighter once a year but as a title fighter you needed them before a title fight

[Coco]

I didn't need one when I had a Venezuelan license, but they were strict in the UK after Micheal Watson.

Originally you needed a CAT scan every three years, then they changed it to a one off MRA scan and a yearly MRI scan.

MRI scans are difficult to understand, nobody I knew failed their original MRI scan, I think they took that as their baseline, then folk started failing because their was a change.

They couldn't say there was anything necessarily wrong, it was because there was a change.

[Controversial]

I didn't need one when I had a Venezuelan license, but they were strict in the UK after Micheal Watson.

Originally you needed a CAT scan every three years, then they changed it to a one off MRA scan and a yearly MRI scan.

MRI scans are difficult to understand, nobody I knew failed their original MRI scan, I think they took that as their baseline, then folk started failing because their was a change.

They couldn't say there was anything necessarily wrong, it was because there was a change.

Why did you have a Venezuelan licence? I didn’t realise boxers required scans before all title fights, I thought there was an element of risk involved with the scan too so assumed they wouldn’t do them regularly. Granted not many fighters have multiple title fights a year.

[Coco]

I didn't need one when I had a Venezuelan license, but they were strict in the UK after Micheal Watson.

Originally you needed a CAT scan every three years, then they changed it to a one off MRA scan and a yearly MRI scan.

MRI scans are difficult to understand, nobody I knew failed their original MRI scan, I think they took that as their baseline, then folk started failing because their was a change.

They couldn't say there was anything necessarily wrong, it was because there was a change.

Why did you have a Venezuelan licence? I didn’t realise boxers required scans before all title fights, I thought there was an element of risk involved with the scan too so assumed they wouldn’t do them regularly. Granted not many fighters have multiple title fights a year.

I had time out, it was cheaper to get that license, 100 euros, had my last 2 fights on that.

[JamesPhilips]

Board had no problem letting Alejandra Ayala fight In the UK even though her previous BbbofC scab showed she had a brain anomaly. We all know what happened there. No news sites nor Boxing News ever mentioned it, even though they did an interview with Robert Smith a few months afterwards

[Crease]

McClellan was on record as complaining of headaches after he fought Julian Jackson, so I would like to think that he underwent brain scans, but I just don't know.

I'm glad that you brought that up, mate... And his headaches were going on for MONTHS... That's just not normal. He should have realised that, (although if we're being honest here gents, Mr McClellan never seemed like the brightest spark - what with the dog fighting - then tying the other dogs mouth shut because his dog "has to win")...

There is a lower-ranked fighter that you guys might recall, do you remember Tarick from the first series of The Contender? He sparred McClellan at the Kronk gym back when he was an amateur and trying to make the US Olympic boxing team... Reportedly McClellan twice stopped sparring with him because of soreheads... And even worse, those who were there said it was only light sparring - flicking the jabs and whatnot... Nothing to intense...

It wouldn't be a terribly big surprise if Julian Jackson had knocked a few marbles lose in his head... Especially with the way that McClellan fought, every bout seemed like a firefight... Then after 2 encounters with The Hawk, Nigel Benn steps in... That's hard work for any man...

[Controversial]

I didn't need one when I had a Venezuelan license, but they were strict in the UK after Micheal Watson.

Originally you needed a CAT scan every three years, then they changed it to a one off MRA scan and a yearly MRI scan.

MRI scans are difficult to understand, nobody I knew failed their original MRI scan, I think they took that as their baseline, then folk started failing because their was a change.

They couldn't say there was anything necessarily wrong, it was because there was a change.

Why did you have a Venezuelan licence? I didn’t realise boxers required scans before all title fights, I thought there was an element of risk involved with the scan too so assumed they wouldn’t do them regularly. Granted not many fighters have multiple title fights a year.

I had time out, it was cheaper to get that license, 100 euros, had my last 2 fights on that.

Getcha. So can any fighter get a license with any country? I would’ve assumed you needed to be from (or residing) in the area that gives the license out but it doesn’t seem to matter.

[Coco]

Why did you have a Venezuelan licence? I didn’t realise boxers required scans before all title fights, I thought there was an element of risk involved with the scan too so assumed they wouldn’t do them regularly. Granted not many fighters have multiple title fights a year.

I had time out, it was cheaper to get that license, 100 euros, had my last 2 fights on that.

Getcha. So can any fighter get a license with any country? I would’ve assumed you needed to be from (or residing) in the area that gives the license out but it doesn’t seem to matter.

I think typically or technically you need to be boxing out of that country.
However I think Danny Williams has a Latvian license, many fighters had Maltese licenses, it's a bit of a grey area.
The BBBoC is much stricter on who is allowed to fight on their shows

[Controversial]

I had time out, it was cheaper to get that license, 100 euros, had my last 2 fights on that.

Getcha. So can any fighter get a license with any country? I would’ve assumed you needed to be from (or residing) in the area that gives the license out but it doesn’t seem to matter.

I think typically or technically you need to be boxing out of that country.
However I think Danny Williams has a Latvian license, many fighters had Maltese licenses, it's a bit of a grey area.
The BBBoC is much stricter on who is allowed to fight on their shows

Dillian Whyte held a license in Texas as well I seem to recall

[Syntax Error]

McClellan was on record as complaining of headaches after he fought Julian Jackson, so I would like to think that he underwent brain scans, but I just don't know.

I'm glad that you brought that up, mate... And his headaches were going on for MONTHS... That's just not normal. He should have realised that, (although if we're being honest here gents, Mr McClellan never seemed like the brightest spark - what with the dog fighting - then tying the other dogs mouth shut because his dog "has to win")...

There is a lower-ranked fighter that you guys might recall, do you remember Tarick from the first series of The Contender? He sparred McClellan at the Kronk gym back when he was an amateur and trying to make the US Olympic boxing team... Reportedly McClellan twice stopped sparring with him because of soreheads... And even worse, those who were there said it was only light sparring - flicking the jabs and whatnot... Nothing to intense...

It wouldn't be a terribly big surprise if Julian Jackson had knocked a few marbles lose in his head... Especially with the way that McClellan fought, every bout seemed like a firefight... Then after 2 encounters with The Hawk, Nigel Benn steps in... That's hard work for any man...

I never knew about that issue he had in sparring.

I have to agree, it's almost likely that G-Man had some underlying brain damage going into the Benn fight.

Getting hit by Julian Jackson is probably literally like being hit by a cricket bat and McClellan took his punches like few others had before or thereafter.

[Crease]

I never knew about that issue he had in sparring.

I sometimes think that boxing is too macho for it's own good - and that it is so to its own detriment. I think it's a testosterone thing and we see it going into every fight, the boxers saying they are "100 percent" because they are in fight-mode and we fans are eager to see it. I'm as guilty of it as anyone, i've always favoured brawlers ahead of any other style and certainly seeing boxers go at it is exhilarating... But after the bout, seeing what after-effects can happen is very sobering. I seen in a documentary that both Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn were urinating blood for up to a fortnight after their second bout.

I have to agree, it's almost likely that G-Man had some underlying brain damage going into the Benn fight.

Well we can never say for sure but he really should have been extensively tested. I think his behaviour is indicative of the sort of person that he was, sort of believing his own hype "the mini Tyson" and all that...
I also seen that he comes from an impoverished family - who have now taken to caring for him full-time. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I do know that a guy called Teddy Blackburn (an American boxing photographer and writer) did a documentary about McClellan about six years after the Benn fight and his family were flat-broke. All of the money given to him by Don King and allegedly was gone and the family were really struggling financially....
I do wonder if Gerald was seen as the golden meal ticket and that he was going to his family out of the neighbourhood - I don't mean to be unkind but to have an honest and wholesome discussion we do have to look at everything...

Getting hit by Julian Jackson is probably literally like being hit by a cricket bat and McClellan took his punches like few others had before or thereafter.

For sure mate, both Jackson and Benn were scary punchers... Boxing can be lucrative, but there are easier (and less harmful ways) to make money... Anyone who just sees the dollar signs and is blase about it should speak to Kell Brook - who is currently walking around with a metal bracket screwed and bolted into his skull...