The fighter
Gerald McClellan was one of the most dangerous punchers in American boxing in the early 1990s. A WBO and WBC middleweight champion, he travelled to London in February 1995 to challenge Nigel Benn for the WBC super middleweight title.
The fight
McClellan and Benn fought on 25 February 1995 at the London Arena. The bout was a brutal back-and-forth war. Benn dropped McClellan in the tenth, and McClellan slumped to the canvas. He was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot on the brain.
The injuries left McClellan blind, partially paralysed, and requiring round-the-clock care. He survived and has lived in his sister Lisa’s care for nearly three decades.
In Marbella
The Benn vs McClellan fight is one of the threads Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella uses to anchor its 1995 setting, with Tony Tucker desperate to get back to the UK to be ringside for his friend.