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

Good posts and tipbits GA and LH31 I've enjoyed some of the info in this thread. I certainly agree that McClellan needed bringing along slower against different styles.

But I too wondered about the wisdom that McClellan was shot and carried the blood clot from Jackson 1 - Benn

 

The night that Gerald McClellan lost to Nigel Benn and sustained injuries he is still battling today, an interesting thing happened. While watching the fight on TV, Salmaci called me from Florida and told me the following story. Now for the first time ever, in his own words he will tell the readers of BoxingConfidential that same story.





"I feel Gerald McClellan was already injured going into the Nigel Benn fight, I have a strong belief. There as this one time Gerald and I were sparring and I hit him with a solid jab in the middle of his forehead, like between the eyebrows...He told me "STOP, HOLD UP"! YOU THUMBED ME MAN. So he stopped and started blinking non stop from what I thought was a thumb. I never even felt like I thumbed him, and they were thumbless gloves so I just figured somehow my thumb must have poked him in the eye because of the way he was blinking really fast and non-stop..with both eyes though.





So we finish our sparring session, and we are in the back locker room at Kronk, this is like 1994, Gerald walks up to me and says, "Man, I'm gonna be honest with you...You didn't thumb me...You hurt me". "I'm man enough to say that". I was then kind of confused and surprised as to how I could of hurt him with a jab and I was fighting at 147lbs. and he was weighing probably 175 lbs....





Fast forward to 1995. I'm down in Florida negotiating a promotional contract with Don King. Mike Marley brought me down there as a matter of fact. Gerald is in Florida training for the Nigel Benn fight. I run into him at Don King's office and we talk and joke a little bit. Gerald is sitting in Dana Jamison's office. She is the vice president of Don King Productions. Gerald is sitting there looking a little upset.





I asked him what was going on, and he told me he was only making something like $100,000 for the Benn fight. It might have been less.I don't remember what he said the exact amount was, but I remember it was pretty low for the caliber of fight this was. So I spoke my mind and told him I thought he was getting way underpaid and Nigel Benn is huge in England. Plus the fight was taking place there, which makes it an even bigger event. And Gerald was a World Champion.





I thought that fight was worth at least a million dollars for Gerald, if not, at least $500,000. But Dana overheard me telling Gerald this, and she barges into the office telling me off, telling me to mind my business, etc. I was like "whatever". So I left the office and went to the gym.







About 2 weeks later, Gerald leaves to England for the Nigel Benn fight. I'm watching it on Showtime from Florida. I thought Benn was finished in the first round. (NOTE: If that fight was held in the US, Benn would have not been allowed to continue!) I couldn't believe the comeback he made. It was amazing, but then, all of a sudden, in the 10th round, Gerald just takes a knee and appears to quit. I couldn't believe it because the Gerald I knew would never quit, no matter what. But then I looked more closely and he was blinking non-stop, the exact same way he was that one day in the Kronk gym when I hit him with that jab...blinking continuosley...non stop....I couldn't believe it. Right then, I knew there was a connection to that one day that we sparred in the gym. We all know what happened to Gerald after that fight...





To this day, I believe Nigel Benn did not do that to Gerald. Gerald McClellan was hurt prior to the Nigel Benn fight and never knew it. It was just one of those freak accidents that was bound to happen sooner or later. I have not seen him since that day in 1995 in Don Kings office. But, from what I'm told, he is nearly blind and nearly deaf. And his mental state is not all that well.

 

If Benn was hurt that badly how come McClellan is the disabled one now?

When a fighter goes through the ropes he is allowed 20 seconds to re enter the ring -Benn's biggest problem was untangling himself from the TV cables he landed in.

The knockdown was on parr with Tysons 10 second Knock down of Bruno...Bruno got up and then was beaten by the better boxer - Whereas Benn got up and proved he was the better boxer.

I would say McClellan clearly punches a lot harder than Watson - But Benns fights at 160 he was a bit drained and his chin vastly improved when he was fighting at 168

 

No it wasn't the same not even close. Benn was in trouble for most of the first round.