Tell me something about Gerald McClellan

Terrific puncher and personally a nasty piece of work by all accounts.

 

I hate to speak ill of the infirmed but this might be close to the truth.

 

He lost to Dennis Milton. He lost to Wayne Powell. He was nearly beaten to death by Nigel Benn.

I think he climbed about as high as he was going to go. He had great power, but he was limited.

 

A terrific puncher, but a lousy human being. Anyone who breeds domestic animals to fight leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Manny Steward thought Gerald was the best prospect he ever had , so much so that he dropped many other fighters .. Gerald was a hard core street guy who trained dogs for fights to the death and was by all accounts a cold blooded man .. he ended up leaving Steward and Manny was so disturbed with how he turned out that he would never talk about him except to say he never should have lost to Nigel Benn .. Gerald was a murderous puncher worth a lot of talent who after leaving Manny was poorly trained and matched and the rest is history ..

 

One reason I didn't care for Manny Steward was how he reacted to the McClellan-Benn fight.

McClellan's purse for the Benn fight was $250,000.

Steward, a multimillionaire, and McClellan's old manager John Davimos demanded their cut of Gerald McClellan's purse for the Benn fight - even though McClellan was near death, would never fight again, and his family needed every dime for his care. So Steward and Davimos went to court and took $119,000 of the $250,000, even though Don King asked Steward not to sue for the money because McClellan's family needed it.

They reportedly told King they "pick their own charities."

Steward later tried to explain it away saying he thought Don King would pay him out of King's cut of the promotion. But a trainer and manager's cut always come from the fighter's share - they all knew that. That's why McClellan's last payday was held up in court.

King had already paid close to $200,000 in medical expenses for McClellan - the surgery and hospital stay in England. King ended up contributing more than anyone - even Roy Jones, who also paid for a number of McClellan's long-term care needs.

Steward may not have wanted to talk about McClellan because he stole money from him. There's a special place in hell for people who rob a guy in a coma.

 

Fully agree. :good

 

Strangely enough it's probably right next to people who train dogs to fight to the death, and boxing promoters who rob their fighters blind.

 

Bull fighting. Dog fighting. I don't see the appeal. Every "match" always ends in an animal bleeding to death.

Being a human being, though, I tend to put crimes against humans on a different level.

Robbing a man who is in a coma and fighting for his life of his last paycheck ... so you can add to your pile of millions ... is pretty damn bad.

It's certainly worse than stabbing a bull in my book. They're still holding fundraisers for McClellan. They didn't need to hold any for Manny Steward (he was worth $15 million when he died). And nobody misses the bull that goes down.

 

Bulls are NOT domestic animals. Try going near a cow in season that the old bull considers one of his cows. If he smells her on you he will go through walls to kill you, just as they have killed many farmers who owned them for making that mistake.

 

Even domesticated dogs go wild within days - especially if they form a pack.

I went to Bucharest on a business trip a few years ago and I was warned not to go outside after dark because of "the dogs." At night, from my hotel, I could look out and see the packs of dogs chasing and attacking people and cars. (I guess the government had dissolved the dog pound, so many of the dogs just roamed the streets together in packs wild.)

Also, when my brother was younger, he rented a house near a farm. He had three dogs. When he was moving, they got out of the house and took off. He couldn't find them. He kept coming back to the house every day to look for them, but they were never around. About a week later, he was out driving the roads around there and heard dogs barking. He ended up finding the three of them in a field. They'd nearly brought a cow down. The three of them were running in circles around the cow and would take turns - one would nip at the cow's face, while the others ran around behind it and bit it in the back legs. It was only propped up by its two front legs when he got to them.

They all had to be destroyed.

Regardless, I don't get dog fighting or bull fighting. I don't consider one any better or worse than the other. I just don't hold either in the same regard as crimes against people.

If you do, fine. Most people on the planet don't.

 

Read Kevin Mitchell's book "Way, Baby." Fantastic book on this fight.