TOUGH DAY IF YOU REMEMBER MCCLELLAN-BENN FIGHT
Ex-Middleweight Champ Gerald & Lisa McClellan
San Francisco, CA– It’s been 20 years to the day since then WBC middleweight (160 lbs) champion Gerald McClellan collapsed in a London ring while engaging Nigel Benn in a WBC super middleweigjht (168) title fight. In hindsight, there were a lot of factors contributing to the permanent injuries Gerald suffered that night. He cut a lot of weight. Couple that with the bad officiating and Benn’s constant fouling. To say that the referee’s performance played a critical role in Gerald suffering life altering injuries is still to this day an understatement of the greatest magnitude.
GERALD & EMANUEL BECAME ESTRANGED!
Nobody has ever talked about the circumstances surrounding manager/trainer Emanuel Steward and McClellan. Each time the Kronk Gym Goldfather and I brought up Gerald, there was always a pained look in Steward’s eye. But one night I pressed him and he put it like this. “It boiled down to money. People were talking to him, the wrong people. You don’t think that (Benn) fight would have continued after the first round, if I were there?”
GERALD ASKED REPEATEDLY FOR STEWARD
Lisa & Gerald McClellan
When ex-heavyweight title challenger Gerry Cooney of FIST and myself hosted a benefit for Gerald and the now late ex-heavyweight champion Greg Page many years ago in Freeport, Gerald kept asking, “Is Emanuel coming? Is Emanuel coming?” Not knowing how to respond, I said something to the effect that he was working a fight in Europe when the truth was that there was bad blood between the McClellan’s and Emanuel. Again, the look Steward had in his eyes the one time we went real deep on Gerald was telling as his voice cracked while his eyes got moist.
LISA MCCLLELAN ONLY “REAL” SISTER I KNOW!
Although she can be testy, Lisa McClellan has been there with her brother for the two decades Gerald has been in the dark. Although he is blind and has difficulty hearing, Lisa has been both his eyes and ears as Gerald’s sole protector. That being said, luckily this wasn’t me for two of my sisters are so evil and selfish that I’d be on a San Francisco sidewalk somewhere selling pencils. In closing, this is a story of two champions, one in boxing and a champion in life. Thanks Lisa, you are all class baby.
Pedro Fernandez
20 YEARS SINCE GERALD MCCLELLAN TRAGEDY