Benn was great but sorry i cant say that he would have beaten a healthy G-Man. IMO Benn only won that fight because of the issues with the G-Man's blood clot. He wasnt himself during that fight, especially in the middle rounds.
the g-man had trouble getting to grips with benn's bob and weave defence. that sort of thing would always trouble him no matter how healthy you interpret him to be. throw in benn's power and heart and you've always got yourself a tough match. nobody has an easy time with prime benn.
On the basis of some of the comments (Kurt, Florida Boy) it would appear that many posters either haven't seen this classic war, or are just ******ed. My take on what happened- McClellan reported to the corner that something was wrong very early in the fight, before the rabbit punches or the "headbutt/dreadlock combo" happened. The headbutt couldn't explain what happened, even if it had occured early in the fight: a headbutt to the eye cannot cause brain-damage. The rabbit punches were not half as bad as, say, Bruno's rabbit punches on Lewis or Tyson. McClellan was not dehydrated before the fight. I find it questionable whether Jackson's work in their fight caused any lasting damage, but it can't be ruled out. What is certain was that Benn was hitting McClellan as hard as he had ever been hit, for the most times he had ever been hit. I really wouldn't rule out the chance that Benn hit McClellan with some freak punches (some of those bombs in the 2nd are amongst the hardest punches ever thrown at super-middleweight) early on. Either way, both men fought with tremendous courage, and it's a shame that the fight was marred by McClellan's injury. If it hadn't this would be a fight of the decade candidate in my opinion. The crowd, the story and the action were all perfect.
I think this is the most accurate description of what happened to McCellan, he already had brain damage going into the Benn fight. Which, to me, means that if he had won this fight he would have been damaged in a later fight.
Its a shame some folks cant except that one very good fighter beat another. Semantics is just another way of avoiding the truth.