viciousmaussa wrote:McClellan did say "I have a tremendous headache" after that 1st Jackson fight. But I think anyone would.
I think Nigel deserved the benefit of the doubt in round 1. He wasn't spent the way he was vs Watson or Eubank 1 - that was Benn helpless.
Here he was shellshocked having taken hard shots on the top of the head, and needing to get his legs under him. He also appeared to be outweighed by a lot and was hit while he was down.
Not seen the fight for a while. The ref did some breaks - plenty - but I recall the action being messy. Was Benn ducking too low or was that exaggerated by McClellan being 6' 2?
Benn was almost kissing the bloody canvas mate, you make it sound like McClellan was Valuev or something.
Benn was entitled to do whatever he needed to do to survive, the guy was trying to smash his head in, but the refereeing in that fight in my opinion, was inept and seemed geared to extending the fight beyond the first round. There were way too many inexplicable breaks in the action, with the referee intervening as McClellan tried to close in and finish Benn off. You can see Gerald's frustration when he shoves the referee out of the way.
This takes nothing away from Benn's achievement, very few men would have come back to win that fight.
the reffing by azaro was his 1st world title fight and was HORRENDOUS...which why the WBC didnt let him ref another WBC title clash for 5 more years!! :(
Because of McClellan's injury, the 1st minute of round one has been looked at with a magnifying glass. Azaro was entitled to get McC back because he was at his back on two occasions. The other two big breaks Azaro proved he was a fussy ref by warning Benn for holding - and by then Benn had already started firing back!
It's like with his temperament, G man could only win in the first min. So why - as I wondered, as a teenager - didn't he knock Benn out in the later part of the 1st round, or in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th...Because after his sloppy bombardments, Benn's ducking (in about 2 sequences of rd 1!) & Benn's recovery, he was largely outclassed.
Na, in hindsight mate, i would say he did look like something was wrong from an early stage. Thats just my opinion though. The guy who gave & took v Julian Jackson was better than the guy we saw in England after he took a few big shots to that possibly already damaged head.
Heard rumours to that effect plus the fact he had the alwasy dangerosu combination of no defence/great chin & ate up some beastly bombs clean from Jackson, combined with his bizarre behaviour when getting hit by Benn, it all does kind of add up, i suppose.
STP wrote:The bloodclot was on the side of McClellan's head, right where Benn hit him in the first round with a wild left with almost the inside of the glove when trying to fight off the ropes. It was in the very first round that the bloodclot formed, it was clear Gerald was in slight distress (losing co-ordination) even at that point just after the seemingly nothing-punch landed (it was actually extremely hard, Nigel had his full leverage and we all know he hit harder than anyone out there when he swung).
It was kind of the side of the glove/hand Benn hit him with.
:(