BoxRec

Was reading an article in boxing monthly about how brutal it was and about the permanent injuries McClellan suffered in the bout. The person who is describing it in the article was saying a Benn fan was sitting next to him shouting to McClellan's corner saying die you bastard die when he nearly did! How did Benn feel after the fight about McClellan?

I'm not so sure, i remember a while back someone posted an excellent interview by Thomas Hauser with McClellan and McClellan's sisters said it was Benn's fault when Gerald asked about it. Not sure what they believe but every fighter knows the risks when they enter the ring and barring exceptional circumstances you cannot blame one man for the demise of another IMO.

i have been on mclellans site and his sister who nurses him 24/7 has nothing but hate for benn saying he showed no sorrow for what happened but she was talking about soon as the fight was over and everyone was arguing and throwing insults,not knowing what was happening,benn offered money to the family and it was refused apparently,by the way benn was in a hospital bed next to gerald and was found to have a shadow on the brain after the fight

tuaman2004 wrote:Its a v good article I think it was wrote by regular forum goer Ian (Jim!!!) McNeilly Its a v good article.
I remember a while back that Benn felt terrible about the whole thing and was unsure of how McClellands family thought of him however they were realy supportive of Benn and didnt blame him for what happened and Nigel visited Gerald in the US a year or two afterwards

Please don't associate me with Jim Neilly, Tua!

There is some dispute over the point raised. Benn talks about going over to McClellan's bed and kissing him, apologizing. Some people say this has been made up. His sister, Lisa, certainly doesn't hold Benn in much esteem.

In the IMMEDIATE aftermath, Benn didn't give a monkeys. But he was pumped after winning the greatest fight I've ever seen and had no idea of the severity of the injuries.

Was the G-Man really into dog fights? Says he killed a flamingo too. :x

Max Molyneux wrote:Was the G-Man really into dog fights? Says he killed a flamingo too. :x

Yes the G-Man was into dog-fighting, thats why I don't like the man. I hate cruelity to animals. Having said that he did not deserve to end up in the state he is now.

That fight was a brutal, brutal fight I am a BIG Nigel Benn fan but it's a fight I struggle to watch due to the aftermath.

I have heard from a very sound source that Benn felt terrible about the injuries McClellen suffered at his hands

tuaman2004 wrote:http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/stor ... 41,00.html
Read this and look what Don King McClellands promoter says at the end

"Standing not far from Gerald's bed, Don turned to Stan and Donnie and said, 'Gerald quit, man ... He quit like a dog."

At the time it did look as if Gerald quit, but with hindsight we know different.
Benn fought at his best when angry and scared and this he certainly was against Gerald McClellan, he was still obviously pumped up when he dismissed McClellan at the end of the fight.
Sad,sad end to a fantastic fight.
Nigel is now said to be a religious man, I am sure this incident is always going to be with him.

Scarey. I don't think we should judge Mccelland on the dog fights however cruel it was... he's trapped in a twighlight world now, a never ending nightmare and deserves our sympathy.
I beleive he was hurt early in the fight and his corner should have stopped it. Although I only saw the fight once its still etched in my memory and I remember feeling from about the 4th or 5th that Gerald had a problem as he was blinking constantly.
One of the problems with Gerald as a fighter was he was all offense and had very little defense... he took Benns punches full-blooded and that had a terrible consequence.

It was ridiculous to expect Benn to be filled with compassion in the immediate aftermath of the fight when he had been to hell and back and almost been stopped himself. Benn took a phenomenal amount of punishment himself and it was only through sheer chance that it was McClellan and not him who ended up in a wheelchair. Benn was never really the same fighter after that night, his balance seemed to go after that.

I'm sure McClellan was no angel, but nobody deserves what life he has to look forward to, it's not like he was a mass murderer. By the way that article in the Guardian was not neccesarily that reliable. The guy who was interviewed was a former business associate of McClellan's who was disgruntled and therefore likely to paint a less than even handed account of McClellan the man.

silkov wrote:Scarey. I don't think we should judge Mccelland on the dog fights however cruel it was... he's trapped in a twighlight world now, a never ending nightmare and deserves our sympathy.
I beleive he was hurt early in the fight and his corner should have stopped it. Although I only saw the fight once its still etched in my memory and I remember feeling from about the 4th or 5th that Gerald had a problem as he was blinking constantly.
One of the problems with Gerald as a fighter was he was all offense and had very little defense... he took Benns punches full-blooded and that had a terrible consequence.

He does have my sympathy and I do wish him peace in his life, but I cannot forgive him for the animal cruelity.

Anyway, I've never seen the fight but I've read that McClellen took some brutal shots against Julian Jackson before the Benn fight this may have been a favtor in his injuries sustained against Benn?

In the same way Watson had took a lot of punishment from McCallum and Eubank before the tragic Eubank rematch?

Also Perat took a lot of punishment from Fulmer prior to his tragic fight with Griffith?

There seems to be a pattern here, just a thought.....

KOJOE90 wrote:

silkov wrote:Scarey. I don't think we should judge Mccelland on the dog fights however cruel it was... he's trapped in a twighlight world now, a never ending nightmare and deserves our sympathy.
I beleive he was hurt early in the fight and his corner should have stopped it. Although I only saw the fight once its still etched in my memory and I remember feeling from about the 4th or 5th that Gerald had a problem as he was blinking constantly.
One of the problems with Gerald as a fighter was he was all offense and had very little defense... he took Benns punches full-blooded and that had a terrible consequence.

He does have my sympathy and I do wish him peace in his life, but I cannot forgive him for the animal cruelity.

Anyway, I've never seen the fight but I've read that McClellen took some brutal shots against Julian Jackson before the Benn fight this may have been a favtor in his injuries sustained against Benn?

In the same way Watson had took a lot of punishment from McCallum and Eubank before the tragic Eubank rematch?

Also Perat took a lot of punishment from Fulmer prior to his tragic fight with Griffith?

There seems to be a pattern here, just a thought.....

These are just myths.

Griffiths absolutely pounded Benny Paret, there was a documentary where Emile talked of the fight and he said he thought the Cuban was trying to fool him into thinking he was hurt so carried on pounding him.

it was a common tactic of the time especially with Cuban fighters, however, I don't think the fact that paret questioned his manhood exactly encouraged Griffiths to hold back either....

jamesmcdonnell wrote:It was ridiculous to expect Benn to be filled with compassion in the immediate aftermath of the fight when he had been to hell and back and almost been stopped himself. Benn took a phenomenal amount of punishment himself and it was only through sheer chance that it was McClellan and not him who ended up in a wheelchair. Benn was never really the same fighter after that night, his balance seemed to go after that.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:It was ridiculous to expect Benn to be filled with compassion in the immediate aftermath of the fight when he had been to hell and back and almost been stopped himself. Benn took a phenomenal amount of punishment himself and it was only through sheer chance that it was McClellan and not him who ended up in a wheelchair. Benn was never really the same fighter after that night, his balance seemed to go after that.

Good points, i was going to say something similar myself...with the way the fight at gone and Benn dragging himself back from the brink of defeat i doubt he thought much about McClellan immediately upon the fights end. After all many thought McClellan had quit anyway, what was it jim Watt said "He's quit Reg". As for Don King i'm not surprised at his comments at all, his man lay stricken on the canvas and all he did was run around behind Benn shouting "You made a believer out of me" and whooping...shows how interested he was.

There are stories of how McClellan would go to a pet shop, buy a small dog and bring it home, then tie it's mouth up and let his pitbulls just rip it to pieces for "practise".

Also when one of his champion pitbulls got hurt (and lost) a dog fight, McClellan just took out a gun and shot it in the head out of annoyance.

If the above are true.... what happened to McClellan was divine retribution frankly.

Loftgroov wrote:There are stories of how McClellan would go to a pet shop, buy a small dog and bring it home, then tie it's mouth up and let his pitbulls just rip it to pieces for "practise".

Also when one of his champion pitbulls got hurt (and lost) a dog fight, McClellan just took out a gun and shot it in the head out of annoyance.

If the above are true.... what happened to McClellan was divine retribution frankly.

Yeah that's true. McClellan had a pitbull called Deuce, which he loved. Even had a tatoo of him I believe.

A dog is a dog and you can't say McClellan deserves to be where he's at because of killing a few dogs. A dog isn't a human at the end of the day.

I saw the fight for the first time a while back and you could see that McClellan had his mouth open from the second round onwards and he was blinking soooo much. Obviously there was something wrong with him. The headbutt hurt him and the deliberate rabbit punches by Benn were disgraceful IMO.

The referee was a joke. A complete joke. I heard he couldn't even speak english. Not to mention Benn was HELPED back into the ring after 30 seconds.

Fair play to Benn, he did the job, but surely we all know that the G-man would have beaten him comfortably, all things equal.

There are lots of stories about lots of people, doesn't make them all true. And even if he was into dog fighting, doesn't mean he deserved what he got.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:There are lots of stories about lots of people, doesn't make them all true. And even if he was into dog fighting, doesn't mean he deserved what he got.

Yes, look at Roy Jones and his cock fighting for example.

lirva33 wrote:

Loftgroov wrote:There are stories of how McClellan would go to a pet shop, buy a small dog and bring it home, then tie it's mouth up and let his pitbulls just rip it to pieces for "practise".

Also when one of his champion pitbulls got hurt (and lost) a dog fight, McClellan just took out a gun and shot it in the head out of annoyance.

If the above are true.... what happened to McClellan was divine retribution frankly.

Yeah that's true. McClellan had a pitbull called Deuce, which he loved. Even had a tatoo of him I believe.

A dog is a dog and you can't say McClellan deserves to be where he's at because of killing a few dogs. A dog isn't a human at the end of the day.

I saw the fight for the first time a while back and you could see that McClellan had his mouth open from the second round onwards and he was blinking soooo much. Obviously there was something wrong with him. The headbutt hurt him and the deliberate rabbit punches by Benn were disgraceful IMO.

The referee was a joke. A complete joke. I heard he couldn't even speak english. Not to mention Benn was HELPED back into the ring after 30 seconds.

Fair play to Benn, he did the job, but surely we all know that the G-man would have beaten him comfortably, all things equal.

I agree, had the referee been fair, rather than giving Benn every opportunity to clear his head and take breathers, there's no way he would even have made it out of round 1. In round 2 he again gave Benn ample breathing space by intervening between the two men constantly, without any good reason. I can only assume he felt pressure to help the contest to continue as it was such a big fight, because Benn was the mean who was meant to get 'bashed up.' McClellan was the big money figther heading for a showdown with Roy Jones Jr.

I seem to recall that there was something wrong with his gumshield, and that McClellan was also having breathing difficulties. Wasn't it also the first time he fought without having Manny Steward in his corner?

jamesmcdonnell wrote:

lirva33 wrote:

Loftgroov wrote:There are stories of how McClellan would go to a pet shop, buy a small dog and bring it home, then tie it's mouth up and let his pitbulls just rip it to pieces for "practise".

Also when one of his champion pitbulls got hurt (and lost) a dog fight, McClellan just took out a gun and shot it in the head out of annoyance.

If the above are true.... what happened to McClellan was divine retribution frankly.

Yeah that's true. McClellan had a pitbull called Deuce, which he loved. Even had a tatoo of him I believe.

A dog is a dog and you can't say McClellan deserves to be where he's at because of killing a few dogs. A dog isn't a human at the end of the day.

I saw the fight for the first time a while back and you could see that McClellan had his mouth open from the second round onwards and he was blinking soooo much. Obviously there was something wrong with him. The headbutt hurt him and the deliberate rabbit punches by Benn were disgraceful IMO.

The referee was a joke. A complete joke. I heard he couldn't even speak english. Not to mention Benn was HELPED back into the ring after 30 seconds.

Fair play to Benn, he did the job, but surely we all know that the G-man would have beaten him comfortably, all things equal.

I agree, had the referee been fair, rather than giving Benn every opportunity to clear his head and take breathers, there's no way he would even have made it out of round 1. In round 2 he again gave Benn ample breathing space by intervening between the two men constantly, without any good reason. I can only assume he felt pressure to help the contest to continue as it was such a big fight, because Benn was the mean who was meant to get 'bashed up.' McClellan was the big money figther heading for a showdown with Roy Jones Jr.

I seem to recall that there was something wrong with his gumshield, and that McClellan was also having breathing difficulties. Wasn't it also the first time he fought without having Manny Steward in his corner?

Yeah he had some guy in his corner from back home. Stan something. I think he had that guy in his corner before. Don't know why he fell out with Manny but the guy he had in his corner took the orders from McClellan. McClellan apparently told him "I'll kill you if you ever pull me out of a fight"

jamesmcdonnell wrote:There are lots of stories about lots of people, doesn't make them all true. And even if he was into dog fighting, doesn't mean he deserved what he got.

Well I guess it depends on where you stand on the issue.

One thing I do notice on this forum is that, as boxing enthusiasts, the majority of us do always seem to side with “the boxer” on any issue and not be totally objective. E.g. a boxer is arrested for rape he is always “probably innocent” etc on this forum regardless of what we know.

My point is, life has a funny way of evening the score doesn’t it. By all accounts the G-MAN was a f**king nasty git…..(find someone with something nice to say about him..) and consequently when something like this happens I have very little sympathy for him.

If it was some guy in your neighbourhood who was killing animals and threatening people and Christ knows what else…who then e.g. got run over and crippled, you’d probably say/think “the nasty old git deserved it”… but because it’s a guy who’s profession was boxing he “didn’t deserve what happened to him”. I find that odd.

Well I am a little wary of the word of disgruntled former business associates. After all, Frank Maloney didn't have much good to say about Lennox Lewis when they first parted company.

As for nobody having a good word to say about him, well, it's not really that newsworthy having people saying nice things about people.

I'm not saying I know what was said was untrue, I just think it's good to be cautious when it comes to character assassinations like that in assuming that it's the gospel.

Its a shame what happened to the G Man but its the best fight ive ever seen, i'll never forget it.

lirva33 wrote:

jamesmcdonnell wrote:

lirva33 wrote: Yeah that's true. McClellan had a pitbull called Deuce, which he loved. Even had a tatoo of him I believe.

A dog is a dog and you can't say McClellan deserves to be where he's at because of killing a few dogs. A dog isn't a human at the end of the day.

I saw the fight for the first time a while back and you could see that McClellan had his mouth open from the second round onwards and he was blinking soooo much. Obviously there was something wrong with him. The headbutt hurt him and the deliberate rabbit punches by Benn were disgraceful IMO.

The referee was a joke. A complete joke. I heard he couldn't even speak english. Not to mention Benn was HELPED back into the ring after 30 seconds.

Fair play to Benn, he did the job, but surely we all know that the G-man would have beaten him comfortably, all things equal.

I agree, had the referee been fair, rather than giving Benn every opportunity to clear his head and take breathers, there's no way he would even have made it out of round 1. In round 2 he again gave Benn ample breathing space by intervening between the two men constantly, without any good reason. I can only assume he felt pressure to help the contest to continue as it was such a big fight, because Benn was the mean who was meant to get 'bashed up.' McClellan was the big money figther heading for a showdown with Roy Jones Jr.

I seem to recall that there was something wrong with his gumshield, and that McClellan was also having breathing difficulties. Wasn't it also the first time he fought without having Manny Steward in his corner?

Yeah he had some guy in his corner from back home. Stan something. I think he had that guy in his corner before. Don't know why he fell out with Manny but the guy he had in his corner took the orders from McClellan. McClellan apparently told him "I'll kill you if you ever pull me out of a fight"

Stan Johnson, I recall.