BoxRec

Nige has still got it. He popped in the week of the McLellan do to spar a few of our guys.
I was away at the time so i didn't get to pit my skills against him.

I'll have this in high quality soon but i thought i'd put this up in the meantime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TmddEjWs8

Nigel looks to be in very good shape there. Looks much bigger than his fighting days though. Poor old larry must be spotting him 20 lbs though!

even at his age, you still get the impression he might forget he was sparring and just pop one over the top

Top stuff

Slapsie

I know, that's what I was thinking, you can see he's pulling his punches, but if I was sparring him, I wouldn't want to land a full blooded shot in the kisser, just in case it brought back 'the old magic' and he knocked my teeth down my throat.

In fact, I would like to be sparring him full stop, unless he had two pillows strapped to his hands.

i'm sure i've heard Nigel didn't used to do that much sparring as we couldn't keep himself from going all out and getting into a war??

Nigel said something along the lines of that he figured he took enough punches in the ring, without taking even more in sparring, so he would only do a few rounds of sparring for a fight.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I know, that's what I was thinking, you can see he's pulling his punches, but if I was sparring him, I wouldn't want to land a full blooded shot in the kisser, just in case it brought back 'the old magic' and he knocked my teeth down my throat.

In fact, I would like to be sparring him full stop, unless he had two pillows strapped to his hands.

Yeah I know what you mean.

I did that once to Yifru Retta in Sparring, I caught him with a right and left hook bang on the money.

He went fooking mad.

I've never sparred with a professional, but I've always assumed that the unwritten rule is, don't try and make me look silly, and I won't hit you with a proper shot.

Wasn't it Claude Abrams that apparently got a right bashing up off of Naseem, not because he'd done anything, but Naseem just felt like it? That's very bad form that, a professional fighter giving someone a pasting in sparring when they've just got in there for a bit of fun.

Apparently one of the guys who sparred Nigel tried to put it on him a bit. He let him get away with it for a while then when he didn't let up Nigel almost imperceptibly turned over gentle looking hook properly rather than slapping which left him tottering for a moment.

Great stuff.

Nigel looks bigger in the arms than he used to, maybe he has been hitting the weights to keep in shape? He still looks like he could do some serious damage if someone was foolish enough to awaken The Dark Destroyer inside him.

Oh man!!! To this day I still miss those Benn fight nights.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I've never sparred with a professional, but I've always assumed that the unwritten rule is, don't try and make me look silly, and I won't hit you with a proper shot.

Wasn't it Claude Abrams that apparently got a right bashing up off of Naseem, not because he'd done anything, but Naseem just felt like it? That's very bad form that, a professional fighter giving someone a pasting in sparring when they've just got in there for a bit of fun.

Yeah he bashed claude around just to show off..the wanker.....

Thanks for that link - great stuff.

One of my fave all time boxers.

great stuff......you can see nige itching to pop that right hand over the top !!

Nigel still looks to be in good shape for someone who's long been retired from boxing. I feel it's a shame when fighters retire and let themselves get way out of condition.

Nigel looks very much like he could still do some serious damage if needed to. However, I get the impression he's much more controlled and a lot more mellow than in his younger days.

Seeing Benn in decent shape, you get the feeling he never cut corners in training for his fights, and this is backed up by the physical condition he showed up in.

Big respect goes to Nigel. Great guy if you ask me.

Great stuff.

I really miss the old Dark Destroyer, those were the days. You'd have shouts of "Come on Nige!" and "Go on, Nige!" from every single pub in the country.

E wrote:

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I've never sparred with a professional, but I've always assumed that the unwritten rule is, don't try and make me look silly, and I won't hit you with a proper shot.

Wasn't it Claude Abrams that apparently got a right bashing up off of Naseem, not because he'd done anything, but Naseem just felt like it? That's very bad form that, a professional fighter giving someone a pasting in sparring when they've just got in there for a bit of fun.

Yeah he bashed claude around just to show off..the wanker.....

Says in 'The Paddy and the Prince' that he did it to Brendan Ingle too and left him quite bruised up.

STP wrote:Great stuff.

I really miss the old Dark Destroyer, those were the days. You'd have shouts of "Come on Nige!" and "Go on, Nige!" from every single pub in the country.

Oh for another Nigel Benn to come and sweep the country by storm.

He looks well. I hate it when retired ring legends get bashed up in sparring by some cocky up and comer. I think it was Kaddour on the 1st Contender series who went a bit too all out when sparring Sugar Ray Leonard and the other fighters were not happy because they thought he should have showed more respect. That really annoyed me.

Goz wrote:

STP wrote:Great stuff.

I really miss the old Dark Destroyer, those were the days. You'd have shouts of "Come on Nige!" and "Go on, Nige!" from every single pub in the country.

Oh for another Nigel Benn to come and sweep the country by storm.

I might be way off the mark here, but does anyone agree that had Jamie Moore been televised on ITV, he could have taken the hearts of the casual boxing fan following his Macklin fight... just the sort of fighter pub crowds across the country would love.

Neri1983 wrote:He looks well. I hate it when retired ring legends get bashed up in sparring by some cocky up and comer. I think it was Kaddour on the 1st Contender series who went a bit too all out when sparring Sugar Ray Leonard and the other fighters were not happy because they thought he should have showed more respect. That really annoyed me.

Apparently he was bragging about it afterwards too. He expected the others to beimpressed that he could knock around a 50-something SRL. Wanker.

Jamie Moore had the potential, style and youth to have been very popular as an ITV fighter.

Shirow wrote:Apparently one of the guys who sparred Nigel tried to put it on him a bit. He let him get away with it for a while then when he didn't let up Nigel almost imperceptibly turned over gentle looking hook properly rather than slapping which left him tottering for a moment.

About five or so years back, Nige boxed an exhibition bout with a martial-artist for charity. I knew the MA's coach, and he was of the opinion of "oh well, my boy can take it, let's see what Benn's like when he gets tagged etc", so I told him exactly what would happen if he chose to slug it out with the most ferocious ring warrior ever to come out of Britain. He just laughed at me. I think the guy tried to mix it with him, but Nige kept his cool although he did give a couple of tasty ones out just to let him know the score. It was on the telly as well.

As for Jamie Moore, I agree that if the Macklin contest was on ITV, it would have made him a star. In my local the day after Fraudley got done, all they were talking about was the Graham Earl fight!

Look up the the term 'proper fighter' in a thesaurus and you'll find a picture of Benn looking mean at the camera.

There's no doubt that Benn was one tough, tough bugger. I've never seen anyone soak up so much punishment and come back as he did against the G-man that night. I was in row 14 and you could here the shots smacking off Benn, but then you'd here the sound of his feet grip the canvas and he'd just start launching hooks at McClellan. Never been to a fight that has come remotely close to that and don't think I ever will.