Harder puncher P4P.......Trinidad at 147 or McClellan at 160?

Benn was blinded from being thumbed and it was actually a straight left as Watson had his right foot forward at the time. Benn certainly proved his chin after that.

 

I don't see the 'not being able to put Benn away', Benn said before and after 'he'll have to kill me to beat me' and he was all but out in the first. Chin to an extent is a matter of the physche.

After the first round Benn beat up and outboxed McClellan and the GMAN didn't get many big shots off after that. If he'd kept landing bombs like he did in the first Benn would have gone but he didn't land as much after that. Benn was still a ruined fighter after that fight and shot as a result but what a British Bulldog effort and 1 of the greatest British performances ever imo

 

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but really that doesnt apply to the level these fighers were at and if you go back and read my initial post, I was basically saying if one guy faced better fighters than the other, you cant draw a conclusion from that of who is the better puncher, because one didnt face that same level of opposition.
As I went on to say, based on who Mclellan did fight on the top level, I think its clear his power was there.
To continue the other discussion, Theres not too many fighters with really good skills who get stuck on the lower level of boxing because their chin sucks.
We definitely see the opposite though. A guy like Micky Ward for example. He certainly had a better chin than a lot of the fighters that held world titles but his skill level kept him at journeyman status. Ross Purrity same thing.
I dont think a guy like Terry Norris or Zab Judah, ever had great chins, but their level of skills allowed them to cover it up for a good part of their careers.
Sure, there is vailidity to the top fighters having better beards, but its more about the overall package in my opinion.

I still fail to see how that discounts Mclellan's power considering how badly Benn was hurt. Weve seen plenty of fighters get knocked out by midland punchers and then go the distance with huge punchers.
I would also take another look at that first round. The flush shots were hurting Benn badly, after he came back through the ropes, the ref intervened a lot in Mclellans onslaught.

 

He didn't land his best punches though and they were too few and far between. Benn's defense was slippery in this fight and this version of Benn didnt get stopped by Eubank, he arguably beat him. McClellan also had to give ground and back up against Benn's power, backing up and going on the backfoot loses a punchers power

Power's only good if you can land it, against Benn GMAN couldn't land nearly enough and was getting outboxed and outbrawled. McClellan was also something of a front runner, his power would fade as the fight progressed, he really didnt have the stamina to maintain the power

I'd still say McClellan had the best shot to beat Jones Jr out of all the fighters around from 1993-2003

 

That was a sustained brutal assault and I think Mclellan shot most of himself in that first round. Not sure when he started having problems either.

 

Benn definitely exposed his defensive flaws, if they weren't already obvious. He really had no defense to even speak of. Outside of the first and 8th rounds Benn was handling him the way I saw it, eating all of his punches along the way.

 

Can anyone tell me how Gerald lost those early fights , was it fitness ? a step up too soon? bad luck? would like to know as from the fights i seen him in he looked great.

 

This according to Steward. If anyone has been around a puncher in the gym, the hardest thing a trainer has on his hands is getting the fighter to focus on how to set up his power and deliver it correctly and train for it. Mentally they just feel they can end a fight at any point and often times refuse to factor in the basics which allow them to deliver it correctly.

 

McClellan without Steward's influence was just a "frontrunner". Not that he didn't have the heart but he would expend all of his energy going for the knockout early. He can be seen breathing heavy even after quick first round knockouts in post-fight interviews. Perhaps weight-draining had something to do with that as well.

Steward insisted on McClellan taking it easy on some of the lesser fighters he faced and going a few rounds, so that Gerald would be prepared when facing a man who could either take his punch or avoid it, but all McClellan wanted to do was go home early.

More fights against durable guys like Sanderline Williams would have helped him a lot. Sanderline was hit with Gerald's best right hand early, but he survived and McClellan was content on outboxing him the rest of the way.

 

g man was a bully ... benn exposed him took him to the trenches and g mans brain couldnt dig itself out!

 

Right and as Steward said in the quote i posted on the first page, Mclellan often only trained for a short fight.

 

Great quotes from Steward.

Here's some of the drama with McClellan and Steward as it happened:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyBBNxGork[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8U0TB6HzFo[/ame]

8 minutes