BoxRec

FLINT ISLAND wrote:I remeber before the fight watching live on ITV from my bedroom.

Jim Rostenhal showed all the predictions the "expert" journalists had made in the Saturday papers.

Not one of them picked Benn.

It was all McCllellan - by KO.

Colin Hart of The Sun, - McCellellan 3rd round KO.
Times - McCllellan KO.
Daily Mirror - McCllellan KO.
Mike Walters of Today - McCllellan KO 1.
John Rodreun of the Guardian - McCllellan KO 1.
etc.
etc.

Most were predicting McCllellan inside 3 rounds - not one of them predicted Benn lasting beyond the sixth.

Barry Mcguigan predicted McCllellan to end it in 3 rounds.

But John McCrick pointed out that whenever the papers agree on anything in horse racing - they always seem to get it wrong - and he plumped for Benn to win the fight. And he was right.

If you went for McClellan KO1 you'd be gutted wouldn't you.

"Its your fight now Nigel I'm telling you - 3 rounds to go - dont forget the jab - boom !!! boom !!! - your gonna be the Champion of Champions !!! "

DavidPayne wrote:

FLINT ISLAND wrote:I remeber before the fight watching live on ITV from my bedroom.

Jim Rostenhal showed all the predictions the "expert" journalists had made in the Saturday papers.

Not one of them picked Benn.

It was all McCllellan - by KO.

Colin Hart of The Sun, - McCellellan 3rd round KO.
Times - McCllellan KO.
Daily Mirror - McCllellan KO.
Mike Walters of Today - McCllellan KO 1.
John Rodreun of the Guardian - McCllellan KO 1.
etc.
etc.

Most were predicting McCllellan inside 3 rounds - not one of them predicted Benn lasting beyond the sixth.

Barry Mcguigan predicted McCllellan to end it in 3 rounds.

But John McCrick pointed out that whenever the papers agree on anything in horse racing - they always seem to get it wrong - and he plumped for Benn to win the fight. And he was right.

If you went for McClellan KO1 you'd be gutted wouldn't you.

Definitly.

The way that Benn was sagging on the ropes like wet laundry - and McCllellan was having free shots on him.

It looked all over - and think how different histroy would have unfolded then - McCllellan would have just looked like a complete monster with a 1st round KO over someone as good as Nigel Benn.

But Benn showed what he was all about. - heart and guts and loving a tear up.

I know that someone said that Benn should have been stopped in the 1st round - because I agree the ref was jumping in alot - but there were signs of recovery from Benn towards the end of the round - he landed a decent hook towrds the end of the round and he just needed the 1 minute rest for his head to clear.

Then he came out and dominated the 2nd round - and that really changed the tone of the fight.

The absolute peak of boxing in britain was that night.. everyone was screaming the country down for Nige to do him while in shock and enthrall at every thing they were seeing.. Just Simply the best..!! Nothing like it.. Nuff said..

Fantastic fight, really. Watching it live with my brothers, was one the greatest rollercoasters we have been on.

We were (and still are), huge Nigel fans and as I knew a fair bit about Gerald, I knew this was such a dangerous fight for Nigel, as no doubt Nigel did.

Nigel was a true fighter, even when he was being fed 'mexican road sweepers' (in his own words btw).

Agree with all the sentiments posted here, tragic outcome, no victory is worth what happened in the aftermath.

Nobody speaks about Gerald, no boxers/promoters, bar Nigel and RJJ offer to or have contributed to help him in anyway. Such a shame.

And this aspect of boxing is the one thing I truly, like probably the rest of us, despise. Men is suits get rich and this man, suffers in darkness and without any assistence :(

Still cant take away what these 2 great fighters did that night and I will never forget it.

bengulnaci1 wrote:Fantastic fight, really. Watching it live with my brothers, was one the greatest rollercoasters we have been on.

We were (and still are), huge Nigel fans and as I knew a fair bit about Gerald, I knew this was such a dangerous fight for Nigel, as no doubt Nigel did.

Nigel was a true fighter, even when he was being fed 'mexican road sweepers' (in his own words btw).

Agree with all the sentiments posted here, tragic outcome, no victory is worth what happened in the aftermath.

Nobody speaks about Gerald, no boxers/promoters, bar Nigel and RJJ offer to or have contributed to help him in anyway. Such a shame.

And this aspect of boxing is the one thing I truly, like probably the rest of us, despise. Men is suits get rich and this man, suffers in darkness and without any assistence :(

Still cant take away what these 2 great fighters did that night and I will never forget it.

he had a huge benefit in london a few years ago.stars from across british boxing all attended as did promoters,including fwank,and iran barkley flew in for the event.all money raised went to gerald,who made a breif appearance.kevin lueshing was instrumental in organising it.a considerable sum was raised.they are the facts,just sticking up for british boxing,mate!

Unforgetable. I was 100% sure that Nigel was going to get clobbered. McClellan was the scariest man in boxing, even more than Tyson, a stone cold killer. I saw him ringside at the Albert Hall almost decapitate John Mugabi inside a round, and we wondered then if he was the real deal, then when he blasted out Julian Jackson, we knew he was.

How on earth was Benn, with his less than granite chin, going to take out a fighter like McClellan, a vicious P4P puncher, who'd stood up to one of the hardest punchers of all time and barely blinked?

McClellan KO1 looked a sound bet, and turned out it was, but for a incompetent referee maybe. And the GMan's chin was every bit as good as we expected, too good in fact.

I've watched it a few times since, just for those electric first few rounds, but always have to turn it off after 5 or 6 rounds. I just can't watch the end again and never will.

ITV coverage I have starts from the first bell, there's no footage of them coming to the ring, or meeting in the middle for the referee instructions - anyone got that? Eric?

MightyWarrior wrote:Unforgetable. I was 100% sure that Nigel was going to get clobbered. McClellan was the scariest man in boxing, even more than Tyson, a stone cold killer. I saw him ringside at the Albert Hall almost decapitate John Mugabi inside a round, and we wondered then if he was the real deal, then when he blasted out Julian Jackson, we knew he was.

How on earth was Benn, with his less than granite chin, going to take out a fighter like McClellan, a vicious P4P puncher, who'd stood up to one of the hardest punchers of all time and barely blinked?

McClellan KO1 looked a sound bet, and turned out it was, but for a incompetent referee maybe. And the GMan's chin was every bit as good as we expected, too good in fact.

I've watched it a few times since, just for those electric first few rounds, but always have to turn it off after 5 or 6 rounds. I just can't watch the end again and never will.

ITV coverage I have starts from the first bell, there's no footage of them coming to the ring, or meeting in the middle for the referee instructions - anyone got that? Eric?

I bought a copy of the fight on ebay which contained the ring walks, announcements and referee instructions. Also had the Benn v Barkley fight as well as one of the extras.

McCllellan made his way to the ring with a smooth song in the background he spat on the floor and the climbed up onto the ring and came into the ring and kissed his right glove and shook it

Benn made his way to the ring with the chimes of big ben and then a thumping intense music that benn bomped his head to in a trance like state

Jim Rotenhal commented as Benn made his way to the ring

"At 31 he knows there's not many nights like this ahead of him if he loses - he's met the best and come through and he has promised to shock everyone tonight................a terrific reception for Nigel Benn !!!!!! "

Benn entered the ropes bopping his head and jerking his body to the sound of his thumping ring entrance tune.

GERALD trained in the peacock gym the week before the fight, he looked awesome i remember clearly talking to him about the fight and his interest in pitbulls.
The night of the fight i was there cheering on Benn but thinking really that he would lose.
Terrible to see the fight end the way it did- i had tears in my eyes watching McCllellan carried out knew something bad had happened, they couldnt clear the gangways quick enough to get the stretcher out..... couldnt get that image out of my head for days after especially having watched him train like a God nights before .
Amazing how in this game you can go from superhero to what happened in the space of less than 36 minutes boxing.
Also i was disgusted by some of the racist white chav crowd who had adopted Benn as 'one of their own' and were very quick to shout 'let the person die' etc when Gerald had collapsed.
Came home that night and had an empty feeling in my stomach, felt guilty that id paid to watch a man be disabled in a ring.
Ive loved boxing all of my life but if they'd of banned it that night i wouldnt of complained.

Great fight McClellan was good start and looked brilliant but Benn's relentless attitude wore him down and he fought a great fight that night so much guts. Shame about the end of it

One of the best fight's I have ever seen. I was only eight years old at the time, but watched it live with my eldest brother! I clearly remember him commenting on Gerald's blinking.

When Benn was given a hiding in the first, I thought the bout would soon be over. I mean, he got knocked out the ring & everything! Had it been in USA Benn might not have made it through the first.

I take nothing away from Benn, who perhaps performanced the greatest comeback of all. If not the greatest, then certainly one of the best ever! However, looking back, when McCllelan started blinking a lot, that's when something was clearly wrong, but no one knew at the time!

Gerald frequently dehydrated to make weight then rehydrated so that could not have helped him! At the weigh in, if I'm not mistaken, he was like 2-2 1/2lbs under the limit of 168lbs, while Benn was bang on 168lbs!

Tragic, tragic outcome! While we all feel for Gerald & his family, we must remember what Benn must have gone through! I mean, to be honest, its amazing that he carried on Boxing after that. It clearly effected him from then on!

Absolutely the most exciting fight I've ever seen. I was at home in Birmingham, a few mates came round. What I remember is telling people not to be noisy because I lived in a terraced house and didn't want to disturb the neighbours, then losing it in the 2nd or 3rd as Benn started to come back/get beat up less. Then, after the fight other mates were ringing up to see if we'd been watching and there seemed a real buzz when I ran into people down the pub/curry house afterwards. Never had that before or after with a fight.

I've seen Hagler-Hearns. I rate the Benn-McClellan fight higher...the two fighters were much less evenly matched going in, Benn had to come back from a shoeing, then still went down again later in the fight, so more turnarounds than Hagler-Hearns. And it was closer to home in that it was UK TV at 'normal time', Benn's British and at a time when Benn et al were in the public spotlight.

The aftermath remains, of course, terribly sad, and to be honest I half suspected something was up around the 8th or 9th in the way McClellan was reacting. I've not seen the fight since. I'd like to, but part of me considers it a little unseemly in view of the aftermath. Suppose I ought to watch it again sometime...

Seem to also remember sticking a post-victory picture of Nigel Benn from the paper on our 'wall of heroes' in the living room (student house you see - me Mam wouldn't have let me do that!!). Can't remember who else was on the wall, except a shot of Stoichov's free kick to help knock Germany out of World Cup '94.

Phenomenal.

Remember Benn being a 40-1 underdog, that was being said around the pubs. All the old boys were raving about McClellan. I remember five years earlier they were all saying Nigel was going to be killed by Barkley. Now they were saying Nigel was going to be KILLED by McClellan. I don't know if they'd even seen Gerald fight, it was just the hearsay and hype.

It was front and back page news for days on end after.

The fight. Wow. Electric. Pub was shaking, big comments being made by all the old boys 'never seen anything like this', 'f-cking unreal what he's (Nigel) doing', etc.

Arguably the greatest fight ever.

To answer the question in the thread title:

For me it was and still is the greatest fight of all time and I have got to say one of the greatest comebacks of all time and for obvious reasons one of the saddest fights of all time too!!!

Enough said.

appaling tragedy but nigel did what he had to do to win that fight. to win it he literally had to break mcclellan. he'd never decision him. he might hit him hard but gerald could take a great shot. i'm not suggesting nigel deliberately wished this on his opponent but such was the scale of the problem in front of him...and nigel benn was a warrior of a very rare order indeed. if you love boxing - in its raw and awful and brutal form - it doesnt get better than this.

benn was heroic and the much loved and much missed denny mancini proved his credentials that night.

i remember watching it in the backroom of a workmans club was about 14, what a fight, one of the best fights i have ever seen.

Also a point i always remember in that room was a guy passing another guy loads of cash when benn was out of it saying you won the bet, and leaving the room well pissed off, then his brother running out a bit later to find his brother to say benn is still in. Wish i had a camera at the end of the fight for guy handing double the money back over

eveyone in that room new we had seen something special what a fight

In my front room wit my pals drinking, all jumping all over the place clinging to the edge of our seats just read war baby too cracking book and insight to the fighters and changing rooms etc like gerald wrapping his own hands etc (he had suffered hand injuries prior to this fight?? not usually heard of this??)

An all time British classic spoiled of course by the tragic ending. Benn fought like a man posessed, actually he had been hypnotized and told he couldnt lose. Benn out of the ring and climbing back, it was without doubt one of the most exciting fights ever. ITV put the tape of the fight in a safe and marked it "never to be shown again". It was brutal, a real fight, not a boxing match.

WildWaylon wrote:An all time British classic spoiled of course by the tragic ending. Benn fought like a man posessed, actually he had been hypnotized and told he couldnt lose. Benn out of the ring and climbing back, it was without doubt one of the most exciting fights ever. ITV put the tape of the fight in a safe and marked it "never to be shown again". It was brutal, a real fight, not a boxing match.

yeah only problem was for ITV I taped it live - and watched it again over the years maybe even hundreds of times.

Before I threw out all my VHS stuff a few years ago when DVDS came in.

i just watched the youtube tribute to nigel and what leaps out of it is the fact that we dont love him for his awesome power and the many KO's he inflicted, its his ridiculous courage and limitless bottle that will place him among the very greatest warriors this country has ever produced. the utmost respect to you, nigel

Had a Kid on that night after, so I thought Id go and have a look. sat in the second row thinking this wont last long . I was where He came out of the ropes 6ft away, I thinking got that right just about to go back to the changing rooms, Glad I didnt. fornicating Hell the next 30 minutes nearly gave me a Heart Attack, has to be up there with the Best moments Ive witnessed in Boxing. The only other time was Ali v Foreman Jumping up and down Hugging this African geezer Id never met before, No we didnt Kiss