BoxRec

Yeah, he had a few of those. The left hook to the body was his best punch, in my opinion, though he was more renowned for his straight right.

Sometimes I think people forget just how hard punching McClellan was. Wasn't he described as "mini Tyson" at one phase of his career?

Barry,

I've heard that Gerald may have already been compromised prior to the Benn fight. In which case it was only a matter of time before the outcome he experienced would have happened. Someone here may be able to provide details to this. So his road to a legendary status may not have been possible, and not due to that particular fight.

I don't agree with the latter part of that post, Barry. McClellan was very flawed technically. In fact, the more his career progressed, the more his technical skills regressed, to the point that he became little more than a bomber. Jones would've had a field day countering him to death. I'd bet big bucks on it. I'd also take Eubank, Watson (his own tragedy aside), Hopkins, and Toney among others to turn the trick.

He was a huge Middleweight with a huge punch and an iron chin. He was no kind of technician. The best would've exploited this.

BarryWashington wrote:Yes, he was. But, I think that's a disservice to McClellan. I believe had there been a more competent referee in his bout against Benn that he wins it in the first round and would have gone on to become a legend.

"A more competent refereee" you say? In your opinion how exactly was the ref's perofmance incompetant that night? Benn got back into the ring before he counted to 10.

BarryWashington wrote:There's a reason Roy Jones Jr. said he would never face Gerald McClellan and it wasn't just because they were friends - he knew that he would have never been able to beat him [Gerald] amateur or professionally.

With respect mate, that is only speculation...

BoxBuzz wrote:Barry,

I've heard that Gerald may have already been compromised prior to the Benn fight. In which case it was only a matter of time before the outcome he experienced would have happened. Someone here may be able to provide details to this. So his road to a legendary status may not have been possible, and not due to that particular fight.

He'd been experiencing brain troubles ever since the first war with Jackson. I hear he complained quite a bit about hearing "rushing water" in his head. He took some monster shots in that fight like a champ, and in fact you could even see the onset of that same erratic blinking during the round breaks in that fight. Check it out.

I've heard it said that King paid off the doctor to clear him for the fight. Who knows if that's true, though? Wouldn't surprise me at all, but who knows?

King Carlos wrote:

BoxBuzz wrote:Barry,

I've heard that Gerald may have already been compromised prior to the Benn fight. In which case it was only a matter of time before the outcome he experienced would have happened. Someone here may be able to provide details to this. So his road to a legendary status may not have been possible, and not due to that particular fight.

He'd been experiencing brain troubles ever since the first war with Jackson. I hear he complained quite a bit about hearing "rushing water" in his head. He took some monster shots in that fight like a champ, and in fact you could even see the onset of that same erratic blinking during the round breaks in that fight. Check it out.

I've heard it said that King paid off the doctor to clear him for the fight. Who knows if that's true, though? Wouldn't surprise me at all, but who knows?

I've read the same.

BarryWashington wrote:Leads me to believe that him being susceptible to brain damage was possibly due to his extreme weight cutting methods . .

I completely agree.

On the subject of Jackson as a puncher. I've said before I believe he's the best we have on film. No one had more power. At the same time it not only cements McClellan's chin among the best I've seen, but also provides some insight as to why his brain short-circuited the way it did. You can't just continuously take shots like that with zero defense the way he did and make a career out of it.

BarryWashington wrote:Very unfortunate to hear if true.

On a positive? This just confirms how awesome Julian Jackson was as a puncher. I would have loved to see the fight-night weights for McClellan/Jackson I. Jackson barely looked above 160, whereas McClellan looked like he could comfortably fight as a CW.

McClellan himself I believe said he was just under 180 for his last several fights at MW. I'm pretty sure I heard it confirmed by commentators and Steward as well.

Jackson wasn't exactly small though, he just had a more wiry upper body in comparison. He was probably in the high 160's like most middling draining fighters are. Virtually everybody at that level will gain at least a good 5 lbs. overnight.

That is also true. Watch Jackson's fights at 154. He looks huge compared to most of his opponents.

Diamond WEAPON wrote:

BarryWashington wrote:Very unfortunate to hear if true.

On a positive? This just confirms how awesome Julian Jackson was as a puncher. I would have loved to see the fight-night weights for McClellan/Jackson I. Jackson barely looked above 160, whereas McClellan looked like he could comfortably fight as a CW.

McClellan himself I believe said he was just under 180 for his last several fights at MW. I'm pretty sure I heard it confirmed by commentators and Steward as well.

Jackson wasn't exactly small though, he just had a more wiry upper body in comparison. He was probably in the high 160's like most middling draining fighters are. Virtually everybody at that level will gain at least a good 5 lbs. overnight.

In the interview before one of the McClellan fights (might be the rematch), Jackson said that he trained so hard that his weight was well under 160 weeks before the fight. He was walking around at under 154 whilst in training and had to ease off slightly to get his weight back up. I think on fight night he'd have been lucky to be much over 160, so McClellan would have outweighed him by around 20lbs or more.

orbtastic wrote:

Diamond WEAPON wrote:

BarryWashington wrote:Very unfortunate to hear if true.

On a positive? This just confirms how awesome Julian Jackson was as a puncher. I would have loved to see the fight-night weights for McClellan/Jackson I. Jackson barely looked above 160, whereas McClellan looked like he could comfortably fight as a CW.

McClellan himself I believe said he was just under 180 for his last several fights at MW. I'm pretty sure I heard it confirmed by commentators and Steward as well.

Jackson wasn't exactly small though, he just had a more wiry upper body in comparison. He was probably in the high 160's like most middling draining fighters are. Virtually everybody at that level will gain at least a good 5 lbs. overnight.

In the interview before one of the McClellan fights (might be the rematch), Jackson said that he trained so hard that his weight was well under 160 weeks before the fight. He was walking around at under 154 whilst in training and had to ease off slightly to get his weight back up. I think on fight night he'd have been lucky to be much over 160, so McClellan would have outweighed him by around 20lbs or more.

Now that I find difficult to believe. Fighters lie about their weight constantly to make themselves appear to be bigger giant killers than they are and they almost always try to maximize their size advantages to allow for their strength to show more effectively on opponents. If Jackson was making weight that easily he'd have went back down to 154 after being splattered by McClellan, not to mention he may have never moved up in the first place considering he'd already been KO'd at 154 anyway. Guys with shaky chins don't just move up to fight grand slam punchers just cause its something to do.

Diamond WEAPON wrote:

orbtastic wrote:

Diamond WEAPON wrote: McClellan himself I believe said he was just under 180 for his last several fights at MW. I'm pretty sure I heard it confirmed by commentators and Steward as well.

Jackson wasn't exactly small though, he just had a more wiry upper body in comparison. He was probably in the high 160's like most middling draining fighters are. Virtually everybody at that level will gain at least a good 5 lbs. overnight.

In the interview before one of the McClellan fights (might be the rematch), Jackson said that he trained so hard that his weight was well under 160 weeks before the fight. He was walking around at under 154 whilst in training and had to ease off slightly to get his weight back up. I think on fight night he'd have been lucky to be much over 160, so McClellan would have outweighed him by around 20lbs or more.

Now that I find difficult to believe. Fighters lie about their weight constantly to make themselves appear to be bigger giant killers than they are and they almost always try to maximize their size advantages to allow for their strength to show more effectively on opponents. If Jackson was making weight that easily he'd have went back down to 154 after being splattered by McClellan, not to mention he may have never moved up in the first place considering he'd already been KO'd at 154 anyway. Guys with shaky chins don't just move up to fight grand slam punchers just cause its something to do.

Why on earth would he lie about it? It's a really long interview, he's about the most level headed and straight guy in boxing there is.

He moved up to 160 because there was a vacant title about in the post Hagler/SRL vacuum, it's a marquee division, 154 historically isn't. He never had issues with the weight, despite being nearly 6 foot he never struggled to make 160lbs. He was just a light middle fighting at 160 on the DK treadmill.

Why would he go back to 154 and get in line for a title shot when he already had a title and was making decent money from it?

He fought McClellan because DK put him in a no win situation - That is, no matter who lost the fight, DK still won. DK has a long history of feeding his less marketable and on the wane fighters to his next big thing so he can keep the gravy train rolling.

It's not like McClellan was his first fight @ 160, he'd already had over half a dozen there and racked up a number of defences. Let's also not make out that McClellan was some sort of superstar - He was an unknown quantity with a number of quick wins behind him over questionable opposition - his biggest win at that point was probably a shot to shit Mugabi tucked away on an undercard in the UK.

@Diamond: Though Jackson managing to drop down to light-middle (a weight he hadn't fought at in years) for his last few fights would point to him being a bit smaller than other middles of the post-draining era.

I agree completely with King Carlos, here:

King Carlos wrote:I don't agree with the latter part of that post, Barry. McClellan was very flawed technically. In fact, the more his career progressed, the more his technical skills regressed, to the point that he became little more than a bomber. Jones would've had a field day countering him to death. I'd bet big bucks on it. I'd also take Eubank, Watson (his own tragedy aside), Hopkins, and Toney among others to turn the trick.

He was a huge Middleweight with a huge punch and an iron chin. He was no kind of technician. The best would've exploited this.

Monster puncher, iron chin, too in love with his own power to beat the best technicians of his own era, let alone any other.

Sorry orb, didn't mean to cross-post, you've said what I meant to say there.

S'ok mate. It's all about opinions, impossible for everyone to agree on the same thing.

He was definitely one of the smaller middleweights of that era. I used to love watching him, he had ridiculous power and although he is always rated as a puncher he could also box and hit with either hand.

I think I remember the Tate fight was the first time he hadn't got a stoppage win since his pro debut. People were pointing to it as a sign of his decline. Watching him in those post McClellan fights was painful, although there was a sole high point with the quick demolition of Cardomone.

Was just thinking about this and at the time he moved up to 160 DK also had a resurgent Norris fighting for the WBC title @ 154 and that is probably what also fuelled the move. Impossible for a promoter to find two sets of fighters in the same division to feed to his fighters, on top of that a rematch would have been inevitable had they both stayed @ 160 and there was no clamour for that at all.

Makes sense to have two fighters at two different weights with two different titles.