Product Description

25th February 1995 The Dark Destroyer vs the G-Man Nigel Benn and Gerald McClennan. Two men with a reputation to defend - a reputation for brutal, unforgiving combat both in the ring and outside it. Ostensibly, they were fighting for a world title and a lot of money, the stuff of professional boxing. But this fight was different. It was a rare collision of wills, and few present had seen anything like it. After ten of the most gruelling and vicious rounds that the sport of boxing has ever witnessed McClellan finally was defeated. He knelt in his corner on one knee in submission. But then he didn't get up. He was unconscious, a doctor came, an ambulance was called. This is the story of what brought these two men together on the night of 25th February 1995 and how that night changed them forever. It's a story too about those associated with the promotion of public fist-fighting, who bend morality to suit their needs. It's a story that attempts to unravel the glamour of violence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202228 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Guardian
"The boxing book to end all boxing books … compellingly unputdownable"

The Scotsman
"Solid, straight-talking and as rock’n’roll as sports writing gets."

Observer
"Powerfully taut account of Benn v McClellan brawl captures boxing’s farce and nobility"

Customer Reviews

Not what I was expecting from such a good writer
Kevin Mitchell's articles in The Observer are this country's most consistently entertaining, informative and insightful pieces of boxing journalism. Mitchell is plainly a highly skilled feature writer, with the rare and valuable ability to cut through boxing's tedious layers of hype and get to the core of the sport. Frankly I'd buy any newspaper specifically to enjoy his columns, which is certainly the reason I was so eager to read War Baby.

But the book doesn't do justice to his obvious talent as a reporter. It's cumbersome, stretching a detailed post mortem of one of the most crazily violent fights in history way beyond what is strictly necessary or entertaining. Padded out with hackneyed phrases and overly concerend with paying tribute to fellow boxing writers, I found it to be a terribly disappointing read.

Describing tough fighters as men who have 'been to the hard place', saying that the Benn-McClellan match was 'always going to be a two-ambulance fight', including lines like 'these guys missed targets like America missed the start of world wars'... It's as if Mitchell is trying to be the Raymond Chandler of boxing writers, and he simply doesn't pull it off. Sensationalistic details such as McClellan's penchant for dog fighting in no way do justice to the fight itself, or to the terrible injury suffered by McClellan. They seem to be included in order to provide a headline-worthy newspaper serialisation, and to be perfectly honest, the massively shortened version published in The Observer is all you really need to see.

Mitchell's attempts at writing black American dialogue are clumsy at best, and the while the book doesn't take a moralistic stance, it does feel like the writer has overstretched himself in churning out a 184-page tome based on a single, brief incident. Editorial judgements such as the 'fact' that McClellan would have knocked out Benn if his hands had been wrapped by his usual trainer are presented as indisputable truths, and the subsequent reaction in the newspaper's letter pages bear out my view that this is a book designed to provoke a popular reaction in order to shift copies. Kevin, I'll keep reading your Observer columns because as a newpaper boxing reporter, you're the undoubtedly best in the business. But next time you write a book, I'll check out a copy in the library...

War Baby
Anybody who has seen this fight would be advised to read this book, as so often with terrific fights there is always an aftermath unfortunately with this fight the aftermath left one through champion disapled and probably the best pound for pound fighter in the UK a shadow of his former self.Kevin Mitchell's account of the fight and fighters themselves is brilliant and I applaud him for giving so many fans a chance to look into Gerald McClellan's life after such a memorable battle back in '95.This book also looks at boxing as a sport from it's earliest day's and gives a good insight into fighters and their mentality a quality read and I definatley recommend it.

ABOUT TIME SOMEONE WROTE ABOUT THIS FIGHT AND ITS AFTERMATH
...for anyone who saw that fight, it was unforgetable: beautiful yet horrifying. I'd never heard of Kevin Mitchell, and it was a bit strange trying to decipher some of the english that our cousins across the sea use, but I thought it was a great book, and did a good job trying to explore the attraction to violence in twin cultures.