McClellan
went into the fight as the bookmaker's favourite at odds of 1-3, with
expectations that he would provide a repeat of his previous three
fights, all won by knockout. The fight was joint promoted by Frank
Warren and Don King. McClellan himself predicted: "I can't see anything
less than a vicious knockout".
Fight
Within 35 seconds of the
start of the first round, Nigel Benn was knocked out of the ring by
McClellan, but was able to properly recover due to a slow count by
referee, later timed at 13 seconds, still 7 seconds short of the 20
seconds allowed to return if knocked out of the ring. By the second
round, McClellan was already struggling to breathe properly, and according
to his sister Lisa, at the end of the sixth round he said to his trainer,
Stan Johnson: "I wanna quit, Stan", a claim Johnson denies.
The
following rounds were "a brutal, yet exhilarating back and forth contest
that saw both combatants give as good as they took". Benn gained control
of the fight for the following rounds, before McClellan came back
to take the eighth by knocking down Benn for a second time. In the
ninth, a tired Benn was missing his "wild" punches, and the force
of one caused him to fall forward and accidentally headbutt McClellan,
an incident which appeared to significantly affect McClellan's physical
well-being.
The fight entered the tenth round: McClellan had
never fought past the eighth round in his career. At the midway point
Benn connected with a right hand, causing McClellan to drop to one
knee The referee began his count until McClellan stood back up at
seven, and the fight continued after Asaro checked McClellan. Working
for American television station Showtime, commentator Ferdie Pacheco
described it as "the strangest knockdown I've see". Shortly after,
Benn connected with another right, and again McClellan dropped to
a knee, this time allowing Asaro to count him out. Pacheco's fellow
commentator Steve Albert opined that it was "one of the most bizarre
endings to a fight", while Pacheco himself accused McClellan of quitting.
Post-fight
After
the fight ended, McClellan walked back to his corner, where he collapsed
on his back after telling Johnson that he felt like there was "water
running inside my head". Due to the British Boxing Board of Control
amending their regulations following injuries Michael Watson suffered
after a fight with Chris Eubank in 1991, and the 1994 death of Bradley
Stone, an anaesthetist and paramedics were on hand to give immediate
medical attention to him by placing him in a neck brace and giving
him oxygen. Both fighters were soon rushed to the nearby Royal London
Hospital, McClellan underwent brain surgery by Dr. John Sutcliffe,
who removed a blood clot, while Benn collapsed in his dressing room
after the fight due to exhaustion, but was released the following
morning, before which he shook McClellan's hand and apologized. Sutcliffe
gave McClellan a better than 50% chance of survival but declared that
his career was finished. McClellan eventually spent two weeks in a
coma, and only left the hospital in August 1995.
In the ride
to the hospital, McClellan regained consciousness and asked Johnson,
"What the fuck happen? I got knocked clean out, didn't I?", to which
Johnson replied: " You didn't get knocked out. You went down to one
knee and you walked back to the corner and you quit".
Reaction
The
front pages of the following day's newspapers featured images of McClellan
lying in the ring, while there were calls for boxing to be banned.
A spokesman for the British Medical Association said "How many more
cases do we need of boxers playing roulette with their brains before
the government and the British Boxing Board of Control take seriously
what we say about the cumulative danger that boxing does?"