how good was Gerald McClellan

can anyone explain to me about mccllelans 2 losses earlier on in his career? the only fights i saw mcclellan fight were jackson twice, mugabi, and benn, and mcclellan was an absoloute monster. how the hell did he lose 2 fights against mediocre opposition?

btw, i agree he beats any fighter out there at 168.

 

he lost 2 fights early on in his career, they were both to guys who had the same amount of amateur and pro experience he had at the time. I think both of the fights were six rounds affairs. I'm thinking that he lost focus for a while but after those two losses he rededicated himself to his craft.

off topic: Toney claims he has footage of him and Gerald sparring in the Kronk Gym

 

The G-man was the real deal he had an insane ko of 80%, or something like that. I think a lot of boxers would duck him if he fought today

 

just surprises me that anyone at that stage of his career could even go the distance with him, he hit like a sledgehammer. he must have lost focus big time.

wonder how the sparring with toney went?

 

McClellan was about the level of Green. Probably worse, because he could not beat an average boxer on points if his life depended on it - so they started putting him in with real bad journeymen. H met one decent fighter and one good fighter and got KTFO. The wins were all over pretty poor and carefully selected opposition (just like Jeff met crap mixed with over the hill Reid, Pemberton etc.). His carreer is basically a carbon-copy of Lacy's - with about the same hype. The key difference is thagt he stopped after being KTFO.. whereas Lacy kept going so that even the starkest fanboys could no longer deny Jeff's mediocre level. McClellan was by no means a good fighter. He is not anywhere near top 20 all time in 168.

 

harsh but probably accurate. i've only seen the same kind of fights as headbanger and it's tough to gauge him. the hype comes from the jackson wins, the 1st round KOs and his impressive amateur career. the stories from kronk of him owning heavyweights like michael moorer and terrorizing hearns in his first day help the image to. i think from what we saw, in my opinion he's one of the most fearsome fighters of the 90s for the first 3 rounds. not a ton of skill, just HUGE for the weight and very powerful

 

Yes, I agree that because he stopped there is a ton of mystique around him. Remember that Lacy had the same thing going for him... he was the hardest hitting on his Olympic team - harder than even the HWs and SHWs .. an so on.. plenty of stories about Lacy.... but reality caught up with him because he kept fighting.

 

spot on. part of it to i think is the (legitimate) controversy around the first round of the benn fight and the belief that if he won that he would have fought and possibly knocked out jones. unlikely both but it keeps his image alive

 

Not as good as "the Dark Destroyer"
Impossible to gauge him against the present batch of 168ers. But he wasnt even the best at this weight in his day:deal
He could really BANG and he had speed and heart but on ESB I would say he is generally overated.
No way is he ATG material!!!:nono

 

Totally agree. The guy fought one reaonably decent guy (Jackson) - who wasn't great and must have been pretty chinny.
McClellan never KO'd anyone who hadn't been KTFO early in the fight before. To put that into perspective, Kessler (who isn't a lights out puncher) KO'd at least five guys (Perdomo, Haussler, Sartison, Zdziorski and Sparkman) who had never been KO'd before.

McClellan suffers from Overhyped-bacause-I-fought-on-US-TV syndrome.
Even Benn and Eubank were overrated IMO - they lost or drew to fairly mediocre opposition.

 

:twisted:they are ****ing legends!!! eubank is the best monocled fighter in british history

but yeah, you're right about g-man to a point and jackson was pretty chiny...he was also nearly blind when they fought and past his best weight

 

he was a ****in animal the type of guy who tries to smash his fist through your skull with every shot he throws maybe not the most skilled boxer but with that type of power and those vicious intentions you cant count him out against anyone

 

He was an absolute beast and that's the image that most people still have of him, but most choose to ignore the fact that he was very limited.

He doesn't walk through the Super 6. A guy like Abraham hits roughly as hard, has a better chin, better mentally, more heart and is a better boxer. I doubt McClellan beats any of the Super 6, outside of Green.

They say the best career move for a musician is to die. The best career move for him, was the Benn fight because people refuse to doubt him and his legacy has grown, just like it will for Valero when people get over that tragedy.