Benn/McClennan: Boxing is no game

The 12,000 fans in attendance and millions watching on television will never forget the night twelve years ago next month when Nigel Benn smashed Gerald McCellan to defeat in defense of his World Boxing Council super-middleweight championship at the now demolished London Arena.

Benn lived up to his nom de boxe (the Dark Destroyer) by recovering from a punch that sent him out of the ring, and a later crisis with a superhuman display of raw courage.

Even hardened boxing followers winced as Benn and McClellan attempted to bludgeon each other into submission. Midway through the ninth round, McClellan stumbled and was momentarily motionless. I turned to a colleague and said, “There is something seriously wrong with this guy.” McClellan in fact was only a few minutes away from feeling the full effect of a massive blood clot on the brain. He was carried from the ring on a stretcher and surgeons at the Royal London Hospital fought to save his life.

But when he returned – against medical advice – a few weeks later to his home in Freeport, Illinois he was blind, deaf and paralyzed. He will spend the rest of his days in a wheelchair, cared for by his sisters Lisa and Sandra.

An inquiry held by the British Boxing Board of Control attached no blame for the awful fate that awaited McClellan that night in London but plenty were prepared to call the referee’s judgement into question and serious questions could have been asked of McClellan’s cornermen who must have seen that McClellan was in a bad way when the bell sounded to end the eighth round.

A British fighter in a similar plight would have been cared for by the State, but as no such system operates in his own country McClellan’s savings and the donations he received have gone to paying medical bills.

Benn, 43, father of seven children and a born again Christian, now lives quietly in Majorca. Six months ago he was watching TV when he caught a documentary about McClellan’s grim struggle to cope with his disabilities.

Benn, who attends three theology classes a week, is a person far removed from the former soldier and street fighter who made a fortune with his fists. “As I sat there looking at Gerald, I was overwhelmed with compassion. I thought it could easily have been me in that condition. Looking at my wife Carolyne and the kids I realized how lucky we are living so comfortably in the sun. It was then that I decided to do something to help Gerald.”

Benn telephoned his agent and friend Kevin Leushing, a former welterweight contender, and told him how he felt. Leushing suggested a fundraising dinner in London, with McClellan and his sisters as the guests of honor. “We were both delighted when they (the McClellan’s) accepted the invitations,” Leushing said. “Boxing people always rally around when it comes to one of their own and there is no more deserving cause in the sport right now than Gerald’s whose plight shows just how dangerous boxing can be.”

With tickets selling at £100 ($200) it is hoped that around £150,000 ($300,000) will be raised at the Grosvenor House Hotel on February 24. Leushing is confident that many prominent fighters, past and present, will be there, invitations having been sent to Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno, Chris Eubank, Joe Calzaghe, Michael Watson, Barry McGuigan, Alan Minter and others.

Benn has not set eyes on McClellan since he saw him lying in a coma in a hospital cubicle after their savage fight. He said: “It certainly won’t be easy for me and it’s bound to be emotional for both of us.”

As a result of McClellan’s condition the British Boxing Board reviewed its already stringent safety measures. A paramedic team had to be present at every boxing promotion with an ambulance standing by to speed stricken fighters to hospital. Small promoters complained that they could not meet the cost of the Board’s instructions but were faced with going out of business unless they complied.

McClellan’s plight is just one of the reasons why boxing ought never be referred to as a game.