Fair play to Kevin Lushing for putting on the benefit dinner for McClellan last night where they raised almost £200k, well in excess of the £100k they were hoping to raise.
McClellan himself only made a very brief appearance - they announced that he was "too overwhelmed with emotion" to stay out in the main ballroom. They managed to get him at the side of the main stage for a few pictures holding Benns hand, before being taken away again.
Don King donated $25k, which allegedly also matched. Fighters I saw in attendance were Nigel Benn, Johnny Nelson, Junior Witter, Alan Minter, David Haye, Iran Barkley and Frank Bruno. Of these I chatted to a few at some point.
Nigel Benn was incredibly friendly and well spoken. Witter was chatting to everybody. He confirmed to me that he did indeed make the "winner takes all" challenge to Hatton and said that he is hoping to continue fighting for another five years. I asked if he tried at all to get on the DLH-Mayweather undercard considering he had fought on a Golden Boy Promotion before, but he said there was absolutely no chance of it, far too difficult to get on it. Hatton is still clearly the fight he wants.
Spoke to David Haye who came across extremely well. He said he is looking at having one fight at Heavyweight before coming back down to Cruiser to fight the winner of the Bell-Mormeck rematch, who he wants to be Bell. I asked about the Maccarenelli fight and he said that it was never on in the first place. Absolutely top bloke and I hope he does well.
Had a few words with Warren also. A bigger man than I expected him to be, he was still well chuffed about the show he put on last week and said he will be looking to get Katsidis on again over here. I also asked if he will ever be putting Khan and Kevin Mitchell in the ring together to which he replied "no, not while they're both fighting at different weights" so I couldn't resist but comment "sure what's the problem there, Khan loves fighting Super Featherweights, doesn't he?". Even Frank seemed to see the funny side of that...
Overall had a really good time. A few notable absentees - Naz, Calzaghe, Eubank (but rumoured to be there at some point), McGuigan, Jim Watt, Hatton, Collins etc. The night went very well and the auctions were raising some serious amounts of cash, with the highest being £22k (or somewhere around that) for an actual IBO belt (as opposed to a replica) that Naz won and had signed. I was surprised that it raised almost twice as much as a specially made WBC belt donated by the WBC.
No trouble at all and security didn't seem to be particularly tight, despite having heard otherwise before hand. The fighters in attendance seemed very happy to mix around and all were in good form - apart from Frank Bruno who looked agitated all night until he disappeared. He didn't look as though he wanted to be there at all and I didn't see him once speaking with anybody, he appeared to be in another world.
Finally my night was made better at the end when I won in the raffle a pair of ringside seats at the Millenium Stadium for the Calzaghe fight in April, and signed glove. All good!
Review of McClellan Benefit Night On Saturday
Yeah I spoke to Iran Barkley too. He was a bit all over the place to be honest. He got onto the stage at one point and gave a bit of a speech, which he actually did really well. Very good of him to come all the way over, just for that night. He was joking around and chatting with fans but he definitely came across as punchy. He is absolutely huge too. Didn't see Watson there but thought he would have been. I have pics of Benn with McClellan but don't know how to put it up on here.....
I've always liked Barkley a lot I'd heard he's broke and living with his mother in the projects so I've a lot of respect for him coming over to support Gerald when he could probably do with some help himself... its a shame theres not more of these functions or any type of retirement fund to help fighters like Barkley... its an absolute disgrace really...
I agree Barkley was one tough fighter in his day and by all accounts a real nice guy.silkov wrote:I've always liked Barkley a lot I'd heard he's broke and living with his mother in the projects so I've a lot of respect for him coming over to support Gerald when he could probably do with some help himself... its a shame theres not more of these functions or any type of retirement fund to help fighters like Barkley... its an absolute disgrace really...
Part of me feels bad for fighters who have fallen on hard times (financially) although it is often self inflicted to a certain degree.
In an ideal world all fighters would have some sort of private pension set up for them that they could not access untill they were say 40(?) and then get a small monthy income from it. Although some would still blow this anyway, but it may help many more, if only a little.
Also a lot of ex-fighters need to realise once they hang the gloves up they may just have to bite the bullet and become Johnny clock puncher like the rest of us.
Also thanks for the write up johnswan1
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TheRiverCityHippy
- Middleweight
- Posts: 8494
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Max Molyneux
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 7084
- Joined: 16 Aug 2004, 16:53
The night went very well and the auctions were raising some serious amounts of cash, with the highest being £22k (or somewhere around that) for an actual IBO belt (as opposed to a replica) that Naz won and had signed. I was surprised that it raised almost twice as much as a specially made WBC belt donated by the WBC.
Good to hear you had a good time.
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Hagler2002
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 3512
- Joined: 28 Dec 2005, 07:04
I bet you charged them a fortune for the footage and threatened to report anyone else who offered to show any CAUSE YOU OWN THE RIGHTS.4playfights wrote: there was a bit of politics with the video footage I supplied , but all went well in the end and the required footage was shown
hope everyone enjoyed it
steve
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MightyWarrior
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 13284
- Joined: 23 Jan 2003, 14:01
Any more details?? I'd guess FW had a word as he owns some of the SN show rights..Hagler2k6 wrote:I bet you charged them a fortune for the footage and threatened to report anyone else who offered to show any CAUSE YOU OWN THE RIGHTS.4playfights wrote: there was a bit of politics with the video footage I supplied , but all went well in the end and the required footage was shown
hope everyone enjoyed it
steve
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Hagler2002
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 3512
- Joined: 28 Dec 2005, 07:04
Do you sell a Nigel Benn career set? how much do you donate to McClellan for everyone you sell?4playfights wrote:well .................
the organisers approached me and the footage was supplied with full permission of all partys involved
calzaghe, ray leonard and hatton all supplied personal footage which i assembled free of charge for such a great cause. My company made nothing and donated several items. Make of that what you will but please dont degrade such a worthwhile cause with petty jealousy
And how can you call it a "company" when what you sell is against the LAW?
And make money from nodoubt!... I wonder how much you will flog those things that Barkley signed for you eh??.... 8)4playfights wrote:it was a great night, the mc Mark peters did a flawless job and Kevin worked his fittings off to make sure the night was a success. All in all it was something I was very pleased to have been a part of
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jamesmcdonnell
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 45232
- Joined: 12 Nov 2003, 06:11
