inspired by the recent watson v mccallum thread. a similar fight in a lot of ways...the loser showing so much courage and heart and fighting until there was absolutely nothing left in any part of them.. and if i remember, these fights happened around the same time too.. broke my heart watching this that night....i loved nelson for years, but mcdonnell gave so much... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbiESmjFJdw[/ame]
The fight ruined McDonnell, who should never have been sent out for the last round. McDonnell was renowned for his stamina (and still is as a quality marathon runner) but Nelson was cool and picked his punches and had more in the tank by the 12th. I remember the fight was on Bonfire Night.
Wasn't this one of Barry Hearn's first big fights and he was geeing the crowd up at the start of the 12th? As was said later, snooker players don't get hurt when they lose.
Hearn had promoted a few biggish fights on terrestrial TV, including McDonnell-McGuigan (which earned Jimmy Mac the Nelson crack), Mo Hussein-Mark Reefer, in a classic, and Gary Mason-Jess Harding, in a disaster (it was said Hearn was able to outrun Harding in morning roadwork). He was also bringing Chris Eubank through. This was Hearn's first world title promotion, however, and if he was geeing up the crowd at the start of the last round, then he was either naive or copying Mickey Duff, who did the same thing dating back to the 1970s and Kevin Finnegan vs Bunny Sterling. We all saw Duff do it in the controversial Henry Wharton-Fidel Castro fight too. Whatever, McDonnell's co-trainers with Matchroom, ****** Smith and Freddie King, were known to detest each other. They clearly couldn't agree on anything and were vilified in the trade for not doing an Eddie Futch ("Nobody will ever forget what you did here tonight.") McDonnell was half-killed by American substitute Kenny Vice a fight later and lost his boxing licence.
that was a good fight where mcd was causing trouble and sometimes winning. nelson showed his greatness though.
if i remember right...mcdonnell was moving up a lot in weight for that kenny vice fight, that right?....i didnt see it, but i remember reading about it....i also remember the days of pro box on screensport on sky and mc guigan and mcdonnell were both commentators / analysts on it...and they didnt always see eye to eye..
Vice was certainly much bigger (a light-welterweight) and had already killed a man in the ring (Brian Baronet). He was distraught as McDonnell was receiving medical attention.
Thanks for the extra info Bennie. A book from a few years ago (maybe Jonathan Rendell) featured the Vice fight, when the writer took one look at him in sparring and wanted to bet his house on Vice winning only to find no-one would give hima price on such a low-key fight.
there was a thread somewhere i think on the general forum about shocking ko's or something and mcdonnell's ko defeat against vice sprang to my mind straight away it was so shocking that the last fight on the bill was called off ,i thought mcdonnell was ****ed and i saw it on tv shock:
