A few questions about Benn/Mclellan fight...

Toney was in Burger king feasting at the time...

 

Roy Jones Jnr was the NO 1 Super Middleweight at the time.

All roads would have led to Roy Jones Jnr.

 

Yeah it seemed Benn and Eubank both wanted no part of James Toney. Not sure how tru that is in terms of validating whether or not they ducked him, becasuse that's all concerned with politics etc, but it always seemed they didn't want to fight him. Toney would have beaten Benn without a shadow of a doubt in my mind.

 

May 1995
1)Roy Jones (IBF)
2)Nigel Benn (WBC)
3)Chris Eubank (WBO)
4)Frank Liles (WBA)
5)Graciano Rocchigiani
6)Frederic Seiller
7)Vinny Pazienza
8)Vincenzo Nardiello
9)Henry Wharton
10)Mauro Galvano


this was a few months after the fight

 

Roy was the number 1 after dominating Toney.

Toney went downhill afterwards, losing to Montell Griffin at the same time as Benn vs McClellen.

Eubank had the BO after the Benn draw, but wasn't interested in taking risky match-ups like Benn was.

It was McClellen first fight at the weight. He was being groomed to face Roy Jones, but that fight would've never happen. Anyone who thinks so, doesn't understand the situation between Jones and the G-man.

Benn or Eubank should've fought Roy Jones, but both were comfortable over here and Roy was comfortable over there. He was risk averse back then and wasn't gonna travel. No one, especially the networks did enough to make it happen. Which was a shame. Perhaps it's better it didn't happen at that point, because both Nigel and Chris were coming to the end and would've got dominated anyway.

 

Why wouldn't that fight have happened? :think

 

They were too close for anyone to be able to make that fight. I don't think Jones and McClellen would've ever fought eachother as pros. Even though they seemed to be on a collision course and Roy was to meet the winner of the Benn fight, it would've never happened.

There was an attempt to make Jones vs Benn after Nigel won, but Don King and Jones didn't like each other and Roy wanted nothing to do with DK at that point.

 

Anybody think there is anything in the Benn steroid accusations. Benn did put qualifiers on soem of his statements. Such as " I never took steroids for the Gerald Mclellan fight" and "I never took steroids during my boxing career"

Benn did used to hang around with Carlton Leach and Tony Tucker who walked him to the ring that night I think im right in saying and they were notorious steroid users. He would have had pretty easy and direct access to them.

here is a pic of them together:

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It was more Roy’s risk aversion than any sense of honour. If the big money had been there, Roy would have taken it. Jones’ saying that did McClellan a huge favour because it’s one of the few reasons he’s held in such high regard. Jones would have decimated him.

 

Eubank lost his title to Collins in March 1995, 3 weeks after the Benn/McClellan fight.

 

At the end of 1994 (couple of months before the fight), this was the rankings for both from the Ring mag:

Super middleweight:
1. Roy Jones Jr.
2. Nigel Benn
3. Chris Eubank
4. Frankie Liles
5. Vinny Paz

Middleweight:
1. Gerald McClellan
2. Jorge Fernando Castro
3. Bernard Hopkins
4. John David Jackson
5. Reggie Johnson

 

Had nothing to do with Roy's risk aversion, which is overblown somewhat. There just would've been too many obsticles to making that fight. Just like when Jones tried to make the Frankie Liles fight. I don't think Roy's being dishonest when he says they were too close for them to get in the ring. Not everyone is like Simon Brown and Maurice Blocker.

Oh, and yes Roy would've beat him comfortably.

 

The 168 had some great fights and great fighters but ALOT of fights were not made. In this thread people have spoken about Benn not fighting Jones and G-Man had the amateur rivalry. Guess who also had the amateur rivalry - Frankie Liles - and that fight was never made.

Jones was something special but there were good unification fights to be made in every division. He only stopped at 175 which had alot of poor fighters.

 

Liles and Jones had box-offs for the olympics (I think Liles beat him once). But the fight WAS close to being made in around 1996/7. Roy really wanted that fight, but DK also wanted options on him. That killed the negotiations. Roy could fight stiffs and still get payed big moolah because he was so spectacular, he didn't need DK in his life.