Shillzz Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 The trainer seems like a complete imbecile. Yep, the second his gum shield started hanging out his mouth they should have got him out of there, and for him to turn round and say it was down to the referee to stop the fight!?!? He really was a horrible character. Acting like the responsibility for someone's health should come down to written rules rather than common human decency. You wouldnt sit down and watch anyone edge closer to the brink of death because you think it's someone elses responsibility to stop it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWalletInspector Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 It's very easy to blame the ref, or Johnson, for not stopping it in hindsight but no one was calling for it to be stopped at the time. Jim Watt said he quit, and the US commentators for Showtime thought the same. There was even a doctor commentating as part of the showtime team who I believe agreed. 3 ringside doctors, and none of them took any action. It's worth noting that this wasn't the first time he had started blinking uncontrollably like that. He had done it in his previous fight against Julian Jackson (which he won) and it had happened in sparring sessions leading up to the Benn fight. The way he was pushing his gumshield out of his mouth was unusual, but so was the frenetic pace of the fight. For me there is one person to blame for what happened that night, Gerald McClellan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 there was something really shady about the sister that i couldnt put my finger on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 It's very easy to blame the ref, or Johnson, for not stopping it in hindsight but no one was calling for it to be stopped at the time. Jim Watt said he quit, and the US commentators for Showtime thought the same. There was even a doctor commentating as part of the showtime team who I believe agreed. 3 ringside doctors, and none of them took any action. It's worth noting that this wasn't the first time he had started blinking uncontrollably like that. He had done it in his previous fight against Julian Jackson (which he won) and it had happened in sparring sessions leading up to the Benn fight. The way he was pushing his gumshield out of his mouth was unusual, but so was the frenetic pace of the fight. For me there is one person to blame for what happened that night, Gerald McClellan. So do you think he had problems before the Benn fight? Why do you say McClellan was to blame? Im not saying i disagree, just wondered. Im not a doctor, but is rapid blinking the sign of brain injury? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWalletInspector Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 It's very easy to blame the ref, or Johnson, for not stopping it in hindsight but no one was calling for it to be stopped at the time. Jim Watt said he quit, and the US commentators for Showtime thought the same. There was even a doctor commentating as part of the showtime team who I believe agreed. 3 ringside doctors, and none of them took any action. It's worth noting that this wasn't the first time he had started blinking uncontrollably like that. He had done it in his previous fight against Julian Jackson (which he won) and it had happened in sparring sessions leading up to the Benn fight. The way he was pushing his gumshield out of his mouth was unusual, but so was the frenetic pace of the fight. For me there is one person to blame for what happened that night, Gerald McClellan. So do you think he had problems before the Benn fight? Why do you say McClellan was to blame? Im not saying i disagree, just wondered. Im not a doctor, but is rapid blinking the sign of brain injury? From what I've read he definitely had problems before the Benn fight. I was reading an article from one of McClellan's sparring partner's (Tarick Salmaci) earlier. He said that they were sparring and after Salmaci landed a jab, McClellan started blinking just like in the Benn fight and they had to stop the sparring. It's not all that surprising given that it's reported he used to drain down from above 180 pounds for his middleweight fights (160lbs) and was then getting in with thunderous punchers like Julian Jackson. The reason 24 hour weigh-ins were introduced in favour of same-day weigh-ins was to give fighters the chance to fully rehydrate. With the focus being on brain fluids. A lot of fighters, like McClellan, just use this as an opportunity to push the boundaries further, to drain themselves of even more weight to give themselves an advantage on fight night. There's still been virtually nothing done to curb this, it's all to common for fighters to come in over a stone above the weight limit on fight night. It's not safe for them to cut that much weight, and it's not safe for the fighters who then face to face men much bigger than themselves. It's only the IBF who are now introducing 10% rehydration limits, which is a step forward. As well as that for McClellan being to blame, he decided to get in the ring with Nigel Benn. He agreed to the fight. Despite all the safety precautions in place, you're still taking blows to the head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted December 6, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 6, 2011 It was just the perfect storm of arrogance and ego. Shame to see that most of those to blame as still so keen to blame isomeone else though, even after all this time. I don't like looking for blame in anything really, life just happens to roll out shit sometimes but I saw it like this as well. McClellan had to much control over his corner. The ref was weak and Benn seemed to have extraordinary endurance, he took more punishment than McClellan, IMO. I would like to thank them both for what I reckon will go down as one of the most brutal fights I have ever seen (that and Eubank v Watson). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 Benn seemed to have extraordinary endurance. I dont know if you saw it last night, but McClellan's trainer was hinting that he had taken something before/leading upto the fight, steroids or whatever, but yet waits 15 years before making an accusation. He claims there was blood on Geralds boots i think it was, which he said came from Benn, which they had had tested to show it contained some sort of performance inhancing drug. As Shillzz said earlier in the thread, a complete imbecile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted December 6, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 6, 2011 It was just the perfect storm of arrogance and ego. Shame to see that most of those to blame as still so keen to blame isomeone else though, even after all this time. I don't like looking for blame in anything really, life just happens to roll out shit sometimes but I saw it like this as well. McClellan had to much control over his corner. The ref was weak and Benn seemed to have extraordinary endurance, he took more punishment than McClellan, IMO. I would like to thank them both for what I reckon will go down as one of the most brutal fights I have ever seen (that and Eubank v Watson). Was more of a comment on what I saw last night than the fight itself. Both knew the risks going in and were both so full of ego they would literally have fought to the death. Don't think any of the people interviewed last night came out of it with much credit though. Having said that, without wanting to re-open the Noah's Ark thread, I was glad to see that Benn had come through things a better person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 I didnt get chance to watch the show last night, I will watch it on ITV player tomorrow but I did catch the extended trailer for this on the Boxing show on BBC radio last week. I am glad Nigel Benn has found happiness in retirement, he seems a completely different person to the guy who boxed in the 1990s, but he was one of the great champions of his era. I think McLellan's camp did just expect him to fall over like every other person who had been in the ring with him but Nigel Benn had a mental toughness that you just cannot buy. I dont think McLellan expected the fight to go long and I dont think he had a plan B when he realised he was in the ring with an absolute monster, and it cost him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 7, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 7, 2011 Benn seemed to have extraordinary endurance. I dont know if you saw it last night, but McClellan's trainer was hinting that he had taken something before/leading upto the fight, steroids or whatever, but yet waits 15 years before making an accusation. He claims there was blood on Geralds boots i think it was, which he said came from Benn, which they had had tested to show it contained some sort of performance inhancing drug. As Shillzz said earlier in the thread, a complete imbecile. Funny thing was his trainer said "it must be Benn's blood as Gerald never bled" When actually he did, when Benn fell and butted him on the way down. Anyway, I watched the programme. It was good, very insightful. McClellan's trainer looked like an absolute tool. It's quite obvious that someone should have noticed something was going on at some point in the fight. Whether that's the ref, the trainer, the doctors, whoever, I'm not informed enough to say. In my uneducated opinion, I'd have said the trainer should have noticed something wasn't right and asked a doctor to check him out. BUt I got the feeling McClellan could have both his arms broken and his eyes falling out and his trainers would still have sent him out to fight. The sister seemed a little strange, but she seemed to accept and forgive Benn at the reunion. I don't think it's wrong of her to have some bad feelings for Benn considering what happened, but to forgive him at the end was the right thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Just the contrast between Benn's sombre trainer discussing the fight and that idiot with his stupid hat in McClellan's corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWalletInspector Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 I thought there was a couple of things on Benn's side they could have included. I would have thought him being hypnotized by Paul McKenna before the fight was worth a mention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Just the contrast between Benn's sombre trainer discussing the fight and that idiot with his stupid hat in McClellan's corner. Completely. The guy was an idiot whichever way you look at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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