BoxRec

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=YxFoBuf ... re=related

Interesting video

This took place when Duran came over to England in 1988. He was fat and obviously in zero fighting shape but reduced grown men to tears in the street by his very presence and took part in a few get-togethers like this. One sparring partner, a Welsh defensive wizard by the name of Michael Harris, entered the ring without a headguard, much to Duran's protests. With no headguard forthcoming, Duran then cracked Harris with a big right hand, just to remind him of who he was sparring.

Awesome vid & great story bennie! ive seen this before & still love it after that first time viewing it... this is one of those great encounters that shoulda coulda happened for keeps in the pro ring but didnt, shame.

Its been up on youtube for a couple of years and is great viewing.

A moronic section of UK posters on the said Youtube video posted things like the video proved Benn would have kayoed Duran in 88-89!!

As for me, Im pretty sure Duran was using this as a sparring session and as heated as benn seemed to be, I think even nigel benn would agree that back in 88-early 89 Duran would have done the same thing to Benn that Mccallum did to Watson or Watson did to Benn. that is knock him out.

Benn didnt know anything about pacing at this point. He was a strong and quick powerpuncher with a lot of confidence. He regrouped tremendously after losing to Watson he went over to Miami, improved his stamina twofold, learnt some lateral movement and boxing skills and started to become a more rounded boxer-puncher. He had some very good wins in the states at this time, knockouts/stoppages of dewitt, barkley and quinones.
I would have liked to have seen Benn take on Julian Jackson and Michael Nunn around this time

Duran was genuinely shocked at Benn's natural talent, with Benn only having been a pro for 12 months at that point.

Nigel always held back a hell of a lot in sparring.

Still, Duran made him look slightly silly at some points.

coghaugen11 wrote:Duran was genuinely shocked at Benn's natural talent, with Benn only having been a pro for 12 months at that point.

Nigel always held back a hell of a lot in sparring.

Still, Duran made him look slightly silly at some points.

Benn was a special talent certainly British boxing has no one like him coming up today. Just how special Benn was can be seen by the last time someone said "this guy is the new benn" in a British MW like gary lockett who had one punch power but not the rest of what Benn bought to the party= namely speed, ferocity and a real desire to test himself.A very very exciting B level fighter in a incredible period for the MW division (1988-1991)

B Level? Alphabet fighter grades never cease to puzzle me.

Around 88,89,90,91 he was still for all his talent very much a B level fighter in a collosally talented MW division.

Nunn, Toney, Mccallum, Kalambay, Jackson, Hearns, SRL were all better than him.

He did beat Dewitt, Barkley,Quinones,and Sims in this time frame but also lost to eubanks and watson.

Benn really became a good world champion around 93. The Benn who faced Mclellan would have beaten Kalambay,Jackson,Nunn and Possibly Mccallum. Thats how good he was by than.He had developed superb stamina and pacing, a bob and weave defence to go with his power and speed.

Of course he was.

Benn against Eubank (II), Wharton, Giminez and McClellan was superb.

A beautiful use of the jab against Wharton, with lovely foot, body and head movement throughout. And brilliant counter-punches against Giminez in a counter-punching display you never thought you'd see from Nigel Benn!

I think lb4lb from late '93 to early '95, he was one of the 10 most complete fighters out there. For a guy who was once punched 22 times in a row by a below-average fighter in 2nd round, and for a guy who was once knocked out by a jab, he did good.

coghaugen11 wrote:Benn against Eubank (II), Wharton, Giminez and McClellan was superb.

A beautiful use of the jab against Wharton, with lovely foot, body and head movement throughout. And brilliant counter-punches against Giminez in a counter-punching display you never thought you'd see from Nigel Benn!

I think lb4lb from late '93 to early '95, he was one of the 10 most complete fighters out there. For a guy who was once punched 22 times in a row by a below-average fighter in 2nd round, and for a guy who was once knocked out by a jab, he did good.

Nicely put.
Thats what puzzled me so much about the two steve collins debacles.
Ok the first one he twisted his ankle, but he had looked excellent flaunting that flamboyant bob and weave style he had during 1993-96, counterpunching and fighting quite hard. It was the same in the rematch before he just seemed to lose his will in the last two rounds and quit. It was still a fairly evenish fight, just seemed benn had lost his desire and will by than.
he retired at 32 and had quite a short explosive career. He had the tools to have competed til he was 35-36 but he didnt need to . like naz he had built a huge property empire.

Herbie Hide, Naz and Nigel Benn might well be the three british fighters who looked after their money best

Nigel Benn was through by the time he fought Steve Collins, I think the McClellan fight took everything out of him. He also lost to Sugarboy Malinga between McClellan and Collins

Duran was here in July 1988, by the way, when the spar took place.

nigel was a incredible warrior.

mugabi wrote:

coghaugen11 wrote:Benn against Eubank (II), Wharton, Giminez and McClellan was superb.

A beautiful use of the jab against Wharton, with lovely foot, body and head movement throughout. And brilliant counter-punches against Giminez in a counter-punching display you never thought you'd see from Nigel Benn!

I think lb4lb from late '93 to early '95, he was one of the 10 most complete fighters out there. For a guy who was once punched 22 times in a row by a below-average fighter in 2nd round, and for a guy who was once knocked out by a jab, he did good.

Nicely put.
Thats what puzzled me so much about the two steve collins debacles.
Ok the first one he twisted his ankle, but he had looked excellent flaunting that flamboyant bob and weave style he had during 1993-96, counterpunching and fighting quite hard. It was the same in the rematch before he just seemed to lose his will in the last two rounds and quit. It was still a fairly evenish fight, just seemed benn had lost his desire and will by than.
he retired at 32 and had quite a short explosive career. He had the tools to have competed til he was 35-36 but he didnt need to . like naz he had built a huge property empire.

Herbie Hide, Naz and Nigel Benn might well be the three british fighters who looked after their money best

I didn't like to see him booed at the end of his career, with the tag "quitter" not really sitting right with me.

I have read that DeFreitas had kept the results of a brain scan from him, which showed some sort of irregularities (but surely the BBBoC would have been interested?) and that Benn had already said to the likes of Tibbs/PF that he didn't want to end up like McClellan and that he would trust them should they choose to pull him out (which ultimately they did in the 2nd Collins fight). I think Collins himself was a little surprised, as he said himself that Benn was pushing him and he was rarely one to praise other fighters.