I rewatched some videos of the great McClellan and I noticed that more than one time he didnt wear the mouthguard in the right way. Can this have contributed to not absorb well some hard punches like for example in the match vs Jackson?
I trained back in the 80's at a couple of boxing Gym's and worked at both also, I was always told, never, ever continue to fight if my mouth guard was knocked out, they said you could suffer possible severe damage, at the time I never asked what kind, but we had great trainers at the gym and they knew their stuff, so I trusted them, we had more than 1 guy in the gym that use to let his mouth guard hang out or come loose in their mouth, and the trainers would go crazy and jump all over them and say you wanna get killed in there, again no one asked, we just knew to keep them in properly, so just based on how adamant they were, I would have to say Yes, that could have contributed to an injury, he clearly was hurt in the Jackson fight, and should have been put through all the tests to make sure he was OK, he had that same look at the end of that fight on his face and in his eyes and his reations and movements that he had at the end of the Benn fight.
You perfectly right. So for you why did McClellan fight with the mouthguard outside of his mouth? For co*kiness? Did it bother him when he attacked? Repeat, many many times seen him fighting in that wrong way..everybody can rewatch the videos...its evident.
I've seen guys many times do it for different reasons, so it's hard to pick which one if any of these that Gerald did it for, 1. Just plain uncomfortable, I've known several guys that absolutely hated it and almost refused to use them but had to. 2. he was so good and Knocked out so many, and so many early fights game too easy for him, maybe he took it all for granted and did as he pleased. 3. Some kind of issue with his mouth, teeth, jaw, possibly pain or something. 4. 1 guy I knew did it to make others think he was tired, breathing hard maybe, to lure them in. those are some of the main reason i ran into with other guys, many point to his possible problems starting in the jackson fight, who knows how far back something could have began that started out as an irritation or a slight bother, or slight pain or something, that could have caused things like this, i'm not sure, but did he always do it or later on or when exactly did anyone notice it starting. It could have had something to do with the very beginnings of what developed into a serious issue. he was young and strong, and as i use to do at that age, I shrugged a lot of things of thinking they would go away.
