First off I want to say, man, what a war! Both fighters showed unbelievable heart and determination, and Benns performance that night is one of the gutsiest i've seen in a boxing ring, tremendous courage. Gerald must have been thinking to himself, man, what do i have to do to take this guy out? But unbelievably tragic ending :-( :-( A few things: -Some of the commentary was downright eerie: ie, "something seems to be wrong with gerald, he's blinking alot" ect, you have to wonder could someone ie, the ref, ringside doctor, trainer intervened before such a terrible tragedy was allowed to happen? The commentators could see there was something wrong, but they were seemingly the only ones -Benn must watch that fight and feel terrible, particularly at the end. The poor guy was so pumped after the biggest win of his life he was oblivious to what was going on behind him. I can see how it would have been interpreted, and it certainly did look bad, particularly when the interviewer was asking him to move out of the way so they could get a stretcher in the ring, but i am sure he actually didn't mean to come across the way he did. -Having now seen the fight, i actually think the referee made a good decision not to stop the fight in the first round. Benn was knocked out of the ring, yes, but he seemed to me to still be relatively clear headed so to speak. If the ref chooses to count slowly thats hardly his fault. Great fight, but i just cant help but wonder that someone could have done something to prevent that fight ending the way that it did :-( Sage
I have heard on different occasions that Don King was the reason the fight was allowed to continue as planned, considering the doctor had told McClellan prior to the fight not to continue with it, as he was having brain problems. Supposedly he was blinking earlier in practice as well. Early signs of brain damage brought out in this fight due to the effort, power of Benn, and outright dirtiness in that fight. This is a bit of a boxing conspiracy theory, but I'm one of those guys. Maybe G-Man could've gotten him out of there in the first and this could've been prevented from happening. But that damn French ref. I give Benn credit though.
There's been more than a few boxing conspiracy theories that wound up being true along with the ones we don't even know happened, but I'll assume this was on the level for this post so as to make this thread a little less convoluted. My thoughts are that even if this fight was stopped for G-man in the first, it was going to be a matter of when, not if, something terrible were to happen to him in the ring. Although the signs were there and his behavior was getting more and more erratic (to put it nicely), I really think Gerald would've kept fighting until it was too late- which might've only been another fight or two past Benn, anyways, since we know in hindsight how short a fuse was really left there.
So did King or Gerald's trainer's, familly or anyone that had been around him alot know that he was having trouble leading up to the fight?
McClellan suffered for severe headaches after his 1st encounter with Julian Jackson.(like Ibeabuchi after his fight with Tua) The doctors declared him unable to fight but "the almighty God" Don king managed to still give him a license. The fight was the most brutal battle i have ever seen and Gerald showed some good technical boxing while Nigel showed an enormous bravery. The colossal clash of heads in one of the later rounds is where it all started to become wrong for Gerald. The ref was one of the most incompetent referees i have ever seen.He allowed the rabbit punching and only sporadically gave a warning. I consider Benn since that fight a true fighter and a warrior,ad will always hold him in high regard since then. He has not the brilliant boxing ability of a Whitaker,but there are few men in the history of the sport who posessed the power,balls and heart like he had.
I think anyone would have had headaches after a fight with Julian Jackson. Word is that the tragic ending was on it's way regardless - somebody close to him ought to have told him it was time to get out. The referee in this fight was incompetent, but made little difference in truth.
Its Tragic alright , part of me hopes somewhere inside him Gerarld has some pride that he was part of it . No one can take back what happened. Benn was and is just about as tough as they come
thats what i heard too..he was medically unfit after that first julian jackson but he wanted to go out after he gets his super fight and payday with roy jones...its also the reason why he went all out trying to knock everyone out in the first round (which he did until benn although he was close)
I agree with all comments, you just cant help but feel that something could have been done :-( As was afforementioned benn must feel terrible after watching the tape Benn: "He brought this guy over to bash me" Commentator: "Can you move out of the way to get a stretcher in" Benn: "I'd like to thank me trainers, ect" Commentator: "Something is wrong with McCleland over in the corner" The man was just pumped, but it looked terrible on tv Sage
Great comment. This was an amazing fight. It's too bad such a spectacular display of pugilism and the fighter's spirit had to be marred by such a tragic ending.
