Froch by tko after six rounds. As already written Froch was not inferior to Benn and had a better jaw, a great jaw, and also a great stamina. Mcclellan would have started better perhaps but Froch would have finished the fight before the distance in my opinion.
McClellan is an enigma. Obviously his career was cut short in the tragic fight with Benn, but even upto then it's hard to get a handle on how good he actually was. The trend was that he either blew people away, or his opponent would weather the storm and it was anyone's fight. His record past 5 rounds was 2-3 (0), and his opposition wasn't exactly stellar either. Jackson was smaller and probably on the slide when he got him, Mugabi was clearly past his best, and as dangerous as Benn was he does have several losses throughout his career. I haven't seen his losses, and plenty of people have stains on their record on the way up. Like I said though, it's a clear trend that he didn't seem to have a Plan B. Based on the record, you can't with confidence pick McClellan in a lot of fantasy fights. There simply isn't the body of evidence to support him being consistently dominant against world-class opponents. That said, and purely subjectively, McClellan is the heaviest handed guy I've ever seen fight pound for pound. When he hit people it seemed different from other fighters, in terms of the impact and the reactions. He was also a very good amateur and clearly had skills, as well as a genuine mean streak in the ring. All the tools were seemingly there for him to be an ATG, but the record doesn't in any way support that. You have to pick Froch in this one as the likely winner, as he has the record to back it up, as well as fighting at a heavier weight which would nullify one of McClellan's strengths (size). He had an exceptional chin and stamina, and history showed that if you took McClellan rounds he was beatable. But Froch was very hittable, and McClellan was a frightening puncher, so you can't rule him out.
The fight against Benn can be a misleading benchmark to use because McClellan suffered from a blood clot in his brain. The McClellan that blasted out Jackson (twice) was better than any version of Froch. Froch went life and death with Jermain Taylor, and, was dropped hard in that fight. Froch did have a good chin, but, if he took shots like that from McClellan it would be lights out for Carl. That being said, if Froch can survive the first 6 or 8 rounds, he could potentially squeak out a decision. No way Froch stops McClellan. McClellan had an iron chin. He took some absolute bombs from Jackson in their first fight without going down. And, he took some big shots from Benn without going down. McClellan stopped fighting against Benn due to catastrophic brain injury. No fighter in history would be able to react any better given that unfortunate medical condition.
I'm glad this was pointed out. Emanuel Steward also spoke gushing of Mclellans skills.As Mhudson points out in his illuminating post Gerald is an enigma and there isn't the body of work to predict anything with any degree of certainty.
McClellan is truly weird,so skilled but probably doesn't have a plan B, probably Carl Froch could croak a hard fought decision if he gets past the early rounds.
There are two McClellans, one who existed up to the first Julian Jackson fight and the brain damaged one who existed after that. Obviously Froch beats the brain damaged one, but he could still get run over e.g Jackson 2 (McClellan was already f*cked up but it didn't matter in that fight since he just ran Jackson over). The one who fought Julian Jackson in their first fight isn't getting KO'd since he took bombs from Jackson, who hits harder than Froch by the way. We are also talking about McClellan at 160 pounds and Froch at 168. Assuming McClellan moves up, and retains all of his attributes, he takes Froch out. Froch is too easy to hit and although he has a very good chin, this is Gerald McClellan we are talking about. It would be an absolute massacre.
