IT IS 30 years ago to the day that Nigel Benn, with an almost medieval ferocity, battered American Gerald McClellan to retain his WBC world super-middleweight title.
Normally after such a blood-chilling, super-human display of guts and raw courage – when Benn had tigerishly fought back after twice being on the brink of defeat – there would have been an outpouring of joyous elation.
Nigel Benn’s brutal win over Gerald McClellan is 30 years old.. but still makes Colin Hart feel sick[/caption]
Benn’s flurry of punches left McClellan counted out in the tenth round[/caption]
But let me make it perfectly clear: the tragic events following the Dark Destroyer’s infamous 10-round KO victory – and there are still repercussions to this day – ensured there was certainly no cause for celebration.
A 12,000 sell-out London Arena and a further 13 million viewers tuning-in live on ITV watched horrified as McClellan was transformed from a superbly fit athlete to a shell of a man lying unconscious on the canvas as three doctors and an anaesthetist fought desperately to save his life.
Recalling those scenes from three decades ago leaves me with the same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as it did then.
In my SunSport fight report, I said there had never been a more brutal battle in Britain – and thankfully there has never been another like it since.
We watched, hearts in our mouths, as the medics spent 15 minutes going about their work.
McClellan was given an injection to relax him, put in a head-brace and had a oxygen mask strapped to his face. He was stretchered out of the ring and rushed to the nearby Royal London Hospital.
There, waiting to operate, was neurosurgeon John Sutcliffe, who removed a blood clot from his brain.
After surgery, McClellan lay in a coma for two weeks before being flown back to his home in Freeport, Illinois, where he has been cared for by his sister Lisa ever since.
His devastating brain injuries have left him blind, almost completely deaf and confined to a wheelchair.
Ironically, Benn was taken to the same hospital and placed in the same ward as McClellan suffering from extreme exhaustion, a fractured nose, fractured jaw and passing blood in his urine due to kidney damage.
McClellan took too much of a battering and failed to get off his knees in the tenth round[/caption]
Colin Hart’s fight report from the dramatic fight[/caption]
We were told that Nigel went over to his comatose opponent kissed him on the cheek and said “sorry”.
In hindsight the omens weren’t good for this meeting between – pound-for-pound – two of the most devastating punchers of their era.
They just didn’t like each other.
If ever there was an Ugly American it was McClellan who arrived on these shores with a reputation for being as mean and nasty outside the ring as he was inside.
The great Manny Steward, who trained dozens of world champions including Tommy ‘Hit Man’ Hearns and Lennox Lewis made no bones about it when he said: “Out of all the fighters I have trained, Gerald probably had the biggest mean streak of them all.”
McClellan, having won all but two of his 31 fights by KO, prophetically said two months before he met Benn: “You have to go to war. You have to be prepared to die. That’s what boxing is.”
And his cornerman, Stan Johnson, put in his two pennyworth by declaring: “Gerald didn’t want to win the fight. He actually wanted to kill Nigel Benn.”
McClellan had to be respected as a formidable world-class fighting machine, but for me he was an extremely flawed human being.
His hobby was breeding fighting pit bulls. How can anyone possibly warm to anyone who admits to tying up the muzzle of a labrador and throwing it into the jaws of his prize pit bull and watch it being torn to pieces?
Because of his violent reputation, McClellan was a 1-3 favourite going into the fight that was choc-full of drama and controversy from the the start.
Just 35 seconds after the opening bell, McClellan trapped Benn against the ropes and – with both fists crashing against his skull – forced him out of the ring onto the apron.
Recalling the moment, Nigel said “I didn’t know a man could hit that hard.”
Nigel Benn was sent flying out of the ring in the first round, such was McClellan’s power[/caption]
The pair fought until the tenth round in a savage war of attrition[/caption]
Benn managed to scramble back with the count on nine, but it seemed impossible for him to survive.
Yet he tore into McClellan with both hands and it was obvious we were about to witness a sensational non-stop battle of attrition.
From then on, the action ebbed and flowed with a violence that was frightening in its intensity.
In the eighth, a desperately-tired Benn was floored by a tremendous McClellan right.
Nigel got up to take the mandatory eight count and, as he stood in a neutral corner swaying like a sapling in the wind, his face grotesquely swollen, he looked more like the Dark Destroyed than Dark Destroyer.
He seemed to have little chance of pulling through.
Yet somehow, from somewhere, he managed to dredge up a few more ounces of strength and willpower and once again launched himself at his tormentor.
He shook McClellan with a right to the chin and that was the moment the American looked fearful and started to crumble – perhaps realising he was faced with an unstoppable, unrelenting force.
Two rounds later, another Benn onslaught sent McClellan to his knees. Managing to haul himself upright he was met by a short right uppercut.
This time – fully conscious – he stayed down on one knee as French referee Alfred Azaro, counted him out.
McClellan eventually sank to his knees and failed to get back up after Benn’s barrage[/caption]
The pair have since been reunited after McClellan’s life-altering injuries[/caption]
Benn also ended up in hospital but avoided any serious, long-term injuries[/caption]
I’m ashamed to say I was guilty of thinking McClellan had committed boxing’s cardinal sin and had decided he’d taken enough punishment and quit.
At that moment – before the stark reality set in – the crowd had worked themselves into a frenzy of excitement at having seen Benn’s unbelievable courage prevail against the odds.
There have been many theories that McClellan – who showed signs of distress after being accidentally head-butted in the ninth – could have finished beaten but unscathed if the rookie referee, in charge of only his second world title fight, or Johnson had read the signs correctly and pulled him out.
We will never know.
There’s no doubt that Benn, 61 – four years older than McClellan and now living in Sydney – was so traumatised it changed his life completely and led him to become a born-again Christian and preacher.
Several years later, Nigel said: “Sure I wanted to win – but not at that price. On that night my heart went out of boxing. Let me tell you something – inflicting that kind of damage does something to you.”
Benn was back at the London Arena five months later, knocking out Italian Vincenzo Nardiello – but he was never the same fighter again and he retired after losing what would be his final three fights.
For a time there was bad blood between Benn and the McClellan family – Lisa felt Nigel hadn’t shown enough remorse or compassion for her brother.
But, in 2007, the rift was healed when Benn helped organise a star-studded charity evening at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, that raised £200,000 for McClellan.
That money has helped to make Gerald’s life as comfortable as it can possibly be.
However, I suggest no amount of cash is any sort of consolation for a young man in his prime having his future shattered in under half an hour.
Benn showed off a cut cheek as he suffered a fractured nose, fractured jaw and kidney damage[/caption]
McClellan was in clear distress as Benn unleashed a flurry of blows[/caption]
