Nigel's father moved the family from Barbados to London in the 50's. Growing up with six brothers, Nigel Benn learned to fight early, and went on to hone his skills on the streets. As his career took off he came to be known as The Dark Destroyer, with a record of 42 wins from 48 fights, including 32 knockouts. One night he defended his title against an American boxer, Gerald McClellan, and the match ended disastrously, leaving McClellan permanently brain damaged. Nigel quit boxing not long after that to completely re-invent himself. He is now a Christian and spends as much time as he can living in Sydney, where he works with troubled kids at the Blacktown PCYC. He also helps mentor and train the Oz-based super-middleweight Sakio Bika. I caught up with the one and only Dark Destroyer to discuss his ring career and the state of boxing today. Nigel, an honour to meet you Sir and to have you on our shores! Firsly, how did you get into boxing? "I watched Marvin Hagler beat Alan Minter and was hooked. I started in the Army and won every fight, almost all of them in the 1st round and many of them punching the other guy through the ropes in a few seconds! "God gifted me this talent because I became British Army Champion and Combined Services Champion after only a year or so of boxing, taking out guys with 10 or 12 years experience on me. "I was so dominant they put me in with the heavyweights and super-heavyweights and I beat all the best heavyweights and super-heavies too, they couldn't even lay a glove on me! I was 63kg at the time!" When did it come about to turn professional? "I came out of the Army, worked in security and boxed for West Ham in the ABA's, knocking out 24 of 28 opponents. Really good boxers like Rod Douglas, Mark Edwards and Johnny Melfah. "Army training taught me to be secone to no-one. I remember coming second in a 400m race in the Army and jumping around elated about it, only to be punished for it because I celebrated being second-best; that always stayed with me. "I was fearless because after seeing so many mates blown up around me in Belfast during the 'Troubles', the ring could hold no fear for me compared to that. "I signed pro forms with a guy who looked after Errol Christie after winning the British ABA middleweight title." You won your first 22 fights by knockout, mostly in two rounds or less, but then you met a classy boxer in Michael Watson who used a Floyd Patterson style defense and Muhammad Ali-Foreman type tactics, and you punched yourself out in that fight and were knocked over by a single jab to be counted out. We all remember it. What lessons did you learn from that? "That was the best thing that could ever of happened to Nigel Benn, although I thought it was the end of the world at the time. "If I blew Michael out of the ring, I would've gone to America and been easily dispatched by (Iran) Barkley or Michael Nunn or Doug DeWitt and those guys. "I was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread but I didn't have a proper trainer, didn't have proper sparring and didn't have any rounds under my belt. How could I be the best thing since sliced bread, really? I didn't have a clue what I was doing!" What's your opinion of current heavyweight sensation Deontay Wilder who has a similar KO record? "The one thing I would say about Deontay Wilder is he needs to shorten up his punches, they're too long and wide. "If he fights the better guys, he'll be countered with short shots all the time and put over a lot. That's if he doesn't steady the ship and tighten up, then he has the power to go all the way." In 1990 you faced Doug DeWitt, Iran 'The Blade' Barkley and your nemesis Mr (Chris) Eubank in back-to-back world middleweight title bouts. What was that rollercoaster like looking back? "I went as high as you can get, being offered $5,000,000 to fight the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard when I was 26 years old, to being as low as you can get - the man you despise more than any other shattering your dreams. "It was unbelievable. DeWitt and Barkley had walked through Tommy Hearns' best punches, so I really had to crack them hard to stop them in their tracks. "To do it in America as well in their backyards - I mean DeWitt lived in New Jersey and Barkley actually lived in Vegas." You then go on to your WBC title reign and have recently been voted the greatest WBC super-middleweight champion in history. What were the best fights of that run? "Firstly I came back against Robbie Sims, a top American who beat Duran and Barkley and DeWitt and was never stopped. I took him out in style. "So many fighters come back against a soft touch and it does nothing for them, you want a tough comeback opponent to put you right back on it! "Galvano was one of the biggest spoilers you can think of and I went right into his backyard of Italy where you need to knock them out to get a draw! "Nicky Piper and Lou Gent and Chris, (and) Henry Wharton, Giminez and Gerald were all much, much bigger men than me, so were Collins, Malinga and Lenzie Morgan in fact, and Galvano! "They were like cruiserweights making the super-middle limit then blowing back up again." So you were at a massive disadvantage! And kept winning! "Yeah, in terms of being able to bowl them over. So I developed into more of a body puncher and counter puncher under Jimmy Tibbs, the best trainer I ever had. "We worked on ducking and weaving to get in, slipping shots, and bobbing on the ropes to lure them in. All that stuff. We worked on the jab a lot, and my feet. "When I fought Malinga in those fights, I never had Jimmy Tibbs and he jabbed my head off because of it. "There was a guy called Lenzie Morgan, really tall, and he definitely beat Tiozzo in his fight before me - the guy who should never of lost the world super-middle title. "I wanted that Morgan fight because he was much better than his record showed, almost like a world champion. He had a really long jab, as did Malinga and Nicky Piper. "These guys were over 6 feet tall and I'm 5 feet 9. I was never a full super-middleweight, it took me years to grow into the division. I went there because Eubank was there! "But I did have a great run, and thought I beat Chris in our rematch in front of 47,000 at Old Trafford and 18.5 million on British TV." The fight that really stamped your greatness was the come-from-behind tragic victory over the US destroyer Gerald McClellan in 1995, probably the first ever fight between two WBC champions! What did you know of McClellan going into that fight? "That he was bowling everyone over like I used to, but that he'd never had a Michael Watson to teach him a lesson and drag him into deeper waters. I was going to take him there. "What a puncher he was, by far the hardest puncher I fought. I was hit by baseball bats and pickaxes in street fights in my youth but nothing compared to Gerald's power. Not being ran up to and kicked in the head by blokes, nothing. "He hit me with a body shot in the 3rd round that rooted me to the spot, it felt like being electrocuted and I couldn't move. Thankfully, it was too hard a shot to knock me down, if that makes sense! "I would even say that Gerald hit me so hard on the head that he woke me back up again, he hit me too hard to knock me out! "I had learned to keep my chin tucked, unlike the early days before I worked with Jimmy Tibbs, so thankfully his bombs cracked the top of my head rather than my chin. "I came out of that fight with a lot of facial damage though, a lot of internal damage and even some mild brain damage and severe exhaustion. It finished me. I couldn't of given any more that night." A once-in-a-lifetime performer :happy
My favourite British Boxer of all time. Benn is the very definition of how f*cking strong, both mentally and psychically, us British can be. That fight with G-Man was the most savage fight I've watched.
interesting that he only moved up to smw to follow eubank - it begs the question how much more he coulda achieved at mw.
We always heard Benn could make 154 comfortably, but moved to middleweight to chase the Rod Douglas rematch and for more money/glamour in pros..
The way he just sorta casually mentions his injuries.."some mild brain damage"...you know..as you do, When you get brain damage!!!.. bloody hell , tough is right!!!
