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?"