Gerlald McClellan as a 1900-1910 Heavyweight

No. This.

 

The thing is boxing has developed and technically improved, McClellan has skills that give him an advantage in this weaker era. McClellans key weakness is his inside game and inside defense, but there werent too many inside/mid range high octane fighters in this era, bar Langford who was probably all wrong for the GMAN.

And McClellan certainly was 1 of the best of his era, as was Benn, and they competed in the best MW era in history

 

No they didnt.

 

listen forget the heavyweight match-ups ketchel vs G-man could rival the excitement of hagler vs hearns and in those days a rematch within 8 weeks would be a cert

 

No, it did not. It was just adepted to the changing rules. McCleellans style was suited for the rules of today but not for the rules back then other than the styles of fighters he would be up to. Their styles were perfect for the rules of their time. McClellans were perfect for the rules of his. If he would have fought under the rules of 1900s his style wouldn´t fit there, he would make many mistakes and be picked apart for it.

No.

 

:huh What because they were all black?

 

no mam.

 

Look how Benn beat him, by taking his shots and applying pressure. Imagine what a 220 pound prime granite jawed bigger punching Jeffries would do to him?

The first time McClennan went beyond 6 rounds you saw what happened. McClennan would not beat the Johnson who fought Jeffries, so we can write off McClennan's chances v Jeffries and Johnson.

Could he beat Langford? No. Langford hit harder than Benn, and was stronger than Benn and could apply the pressure like Benn.

Gerald was not known for his stamina, which these men are, who fought in much tougher era. Gerald was a one punch first round KO artist. He would probably gas against these guys if it possibly went beyond 6.

 

jeffries would have beaten him bad , yes. but most of the heavies then were not heavies , they were middleweights and supermiddleweights by today's standrads. and i think mcclellan could have given langford problems.

 

Could have ended up being a tragedy like Luther McCarthy. Not meant in an offensive way but McClellan was a ticking timebomb after the Jackson brawl it seems and in the early 1900's they certainly didn't have the kind of health precautions that they do now.

If you take a non-weight drained 180-190 lbs McClellan at his peak and put him against a Jack Johnson or someone inferior, he could potentially do very well with his speed and explosiveness but if the fight went past the first couple of rounds he would be in big trouble. The likes of Johnson, Jeffries could simply just clinch him and wear him down.

 

Yea nothing to do with the fact you have fighters around like Jones, Toney, Hopkins, McClellan, Nunn, Benn, Eubank, Graham, Kalambay, Collins, McCallum, Watson, Barkley, Reggie johnson. Amongst others, the era is insanely stacked

No MW era comes close to that era by a long shot other than the perhaps early 40s

 

It has nothing to do with the rules of the time. Was it the rules of the time to not use the jab, not use lateral movement, not block punches, not properly turn the punch over and not to throw combinations?

 

That just is so wrong :-(

Johnson did all of these things for example, you just need to watch the first 10-12 rounds of his fight against Willard and you see plenty of this.

 

Lets start with McClellan's options.

In order to fight at middleweight he would have to make 158lbs or 160lbs depending on the state. If he cannot do this then he is basicaly a heavyweight. He would typicaly have to make this weight for a 24 hour weigh in, but there might be ways round it for certain key fights.

There have always been fighters who have gone to ridiculous lengths to make weight, but even if McClellan could do it in this era, he would soon tire of the proceedure and step up to heavyweight.

This era was prety unforgiving for any fighter who weighed 161lbs, because once you passed that critical mark, you could get thrown in with sombody who weighed 230lbs, and there were pleanty around even then. Some miniture heavyweights like Bob Fitzsimmons, Joe Choynski, and Frank Childs made necesity the mother of invention and found ways to defeat the bigger heavyweights, but I bet that manny more simply got rolled over.

How many of the 160-170lb heavyweights who had success in this era were not absolutely murderous hitters?

I suspect that there were many more who simply didn't have the physical tools and just became cannon fodder.