Gerald McClellan vs Arthur Beterbiev

I agree completely with what you say.
I’m just saying ,had McClellan been healthy to continue fighting -I think history would have remembered him better since he was quite a fighter.
I think he would have done well and possibly campaigned as a LHW after a stip at SMW.
All academical offcourse.

 

I get what you're saying, I just think given what happened to him people tend to exaggerate how good he was and how much potential he had, as it is he's remembered as a very good fighter, but it's one of those perverse situations where if he'd stayed healthy and fought on, he'd have taken more wins and more losses and would, on balance, probably be viewed as more average than he is viewed now, kinda like how Kurt Cobain's gone down as a legendary guitarist, with a reputation blown out of proportion, compared to how he'd be remembered if he stayed alive, released another good album, and a couple of crap ones, then retired gracefully, he'd be noted as distinctly average (big Nirvana fan, for the record)

 

I disagree here
I think due to his potential record after he would have been rated same as now-by a grabd part of fans anyway.
I do get the untimely end of career/life people tend to overrate but here is a special case.
His fighting potential is clear,a physical specimen with discombubalting punching power,great chin,murderous body puncher,good punch technique.
Obviously as he left the Kronk he fell in love with his power and those yes men didnt help.
That would have been his downfall,perfectly similar to a Juanma Lopez if you will.Similar fighters.
His stamina and defense were questionable but myself I think his stamina was ok,he went a frenetic pace with Benn while basically training himself and obviously was suffering a life threating injury.Imagine him in a good setup no injury.

 

I don't doubt it was a rough cut, he was all muscle. Framewise he was of comparable size to probably half of all MW's that campaign (MW's are normally between 5'10 - 6'0). He was probably a bit thicker from a muscular standpoint but I believe he only walked around at 175-180. There's an abundance of MW's from the 70's that were the same size as him. I agree he isn't a small MW (ala Hagler), but he wouldn't have dwarfed someone like Jermain Taylor. A "huge" MW to me is Kelly Pavlik, a guy that you wonder how on Earth could he possibly make the weight.

Fighting above weight in non title fights doesn't make you a SMW, he was coming in slightly above at 162, 163 etc.....That's no different than WW's fighting at 150 or 140 guys fighting at 143 etc......Prospects do that all the time. No one says they're campaigning at the higher weight.
He was nowhere near big enough for Beterbiev. I get it, looking at his stature yeah he looks like he'd be big enough, he's taller than Beterbiev. But if his walk around weight is the weight limit for that division, that tells me he's probably not big enough to campaign there..........at least effectively.

 

Beterbiev looked quite a bit bigger than Joe Smith in person. Smith is bigger than McClellan ever was.

 

I’m saying he was campaiging as a middle when he was already at the point where making weight was taking from him physically.
When you do that your a weight division bigger.

 

All very valid points, but who could he have faced between 1995 and say 2001 (when he would have been 34 and likely in the passing the torch stage of his career, much like Julian Jackson when GM stopped him, that would boost his legacy above how he is remembered now? I really do think Toney would have toyed with him, Eubank would have been an interesting fight if it could be made, Jones Jr would have ruined him (in my opinion) ... Hopkins outhustles him, Michaelzewski maybe? It's hard for me to see a succession of wins that would give his legacy a boost to where he would be rated higher than he is today with the nostalgia goggles on and the "what could have been" factor in his favour

I hope I'm not coming across as a GM hater, he was a very entertaining fighter to watch and very dangerous

 

Joe Smith was clearly bigger than Beterbiev, not sure what you are talking about.

 

The Roy fight would have been very marketable as they had the amateur background but in the same time they were also friends.
I’m just thinking him getting solid B+ guys on his resume to bolster it would have been good for it.
The Richard Hall s,Montell Griffin s,Reggie Johnson,Micheal Nunn,William Guthrie s,etc.
Add all those guys plus Benn and Eubank and maybe Collins and you got something close to a HOFer.

 

You weren't there.

 

Good options all, although I think if he'd taken those fights he would have been shown to be a B+ fighter himself , winning some and losing some but almost always coming undone against the A-fighters, so instead of being viewed as a "would have been a hall of famer" as he is viewed today, he'd have fallen short of the hall of fame level.

All opinion of course, and probably somewhat affected by diving deep into the comment section of a video I watched a while back proclaiming Salvador Sanchez as the best boxer there's ever been, and again a large part of the argument rested on his early death, bringing the "what could have been" factor into play

 

Sanchez really could have done it.
Unlike McClellan he never showed to lose his technique.
McClellan should have stayed with Steward.
Even if he changed em dont go with Stan Johnson and Donnie Penelton.

 

Sanchez is one of my favourite fighters, it just reaaaaally highlighted the impact of an early death/forced retirement on the perception people have of different fighters

And damn right he should have stayed with Steward!

Do you wanna throw "YDKSAB" at each other to polish this off, make it a proper ESB debate ?

 

Lol what type of debate?I pretty much agree with you.
And I dont contend to know or have all the answers in boxing,like Larry Merchant used to say,it s the theatre of the unexpected.