The Untold Story About Gerald McClellan: "It Just Seemed Like Nobody Cared"

31:15And then all of a sudden you hear Ferdy Pacheco say, wait a second something's wrong with Gerald McClellan he's sitting down in his corner not on the stool on the canvas and you see him just kind of sitting there and he's just looking up he's just blinking he's trying to figure it out the camera pans back to Nigel Ben celebrating panning out to the crowd and you hear these roars and you hear these roars and it's like it's just it's just it's devastating it's unsettling because I know I know what's happening right now I've seen this movie before And then all of a sudden he says, wait, wait, wait, something happened.

31:54Gerald McClellan is out. He seems to have passed out in a corner. And you see about five or six people. I don't know who were doctors or who weren't. They look confused. They put a neck brace on them. They put them on a gurney now. Now it's getting real. They're focusing less on Nigel Benn and more on Gerald McClellan. but the crowd is still going crazy. I don't think they understand what's going on. Then they put a mask on them. They put what looked like maybe oxygen, but it's like a manual oxygen where they kind of pump it. And now it's getting real. And you hear Jimmy Lennon Jr., the announcer, asking the crowd to move, pave the way for Gerald to get out of there.

32:38We need to get him to some help. We need to get him to an ambulance. And, man, Lisa, that thing broke my heart because you and I have talked, and I want you to elaborate on this right now, but so much time was going by. I mean, so much time was going by, Lisa, and they're confused, and they're trying to figure out what's going on, and he ain't moving. And you mentioned to me that if he could have been given, if he could have been administered oxygen quickly, he might have been saved from the situation he was in. Did I get that right? It definitely could have helped. He had a bleed on his brain, and his brain was swelling.

33:24Let me go back. I still, and I've asked the question several times, why that ref? You have a title fight. Why would you choose a ref? an unknown ref to ref the fight with no experience. Why was that ref in there? That's the key because someone should have known before Jero had to take the knee that there was a problem. Even the ringside doctors, with all the blinking, didn't acknowledge that there was a problem. Man, it seems like it was just, man, the other thing that really hurt about this situation was if he's counted out in that first round, this may never happen.

34:31if, and this is all speculative, you know, if the coach recognizes something is wrong and stops that fight and waves it off, who knows what could have happened. I'm sure something was obviously going on because Gerald was describing something isn't right, but, man. and then everything that happened after the final knockdown with the time wasted and different things like that. Those things, how often do you wonder about how different things could be if some of those check marks were handled right? Well, definitely, Andre. If the ringside doctor, anytime you get a fighter that, has any kind of pressure on his brain.

35:28You can look in his pupils, and if they're dilated, that's a sign that there's pressure. It takes three minutes for the doctor, even if you think something could be wrong, it takes three minutes, seconds, for the doctor to come and just check the fighter's pupils to see if they're, you know, if his pupils was dilated.

36:01It just seemed like nobody cared. That's what it seemed like. Gerald was in the wrong place at the wrong time that night. He should have never been there. I mean, I seen Frank Bruno. I don't know where he was at in his career at that time, but he's heavyweight champ for him, heavyweight champ. I don't know what type of suit that man had on, red or... I don't know what it was, but he kept... He was at the ring, hitting on the ring. Like, you can't do that. He's Nigel's best friend, I thought, or was back then. I don't think he is anymore, but he was then. And then another thing, when you mentioned Nigel being so energized.

36:55When we went over to England in 2011,

37:06one night I woke up Andre and

37:12I just looked up Nigel being on the internet let me see what this dude doing and I started reading that he tried to commit suicide and different stuff so I reach out to his agent. I emailed, I found his agent and I emailed him. And I called him. His name was Kevin Lushing. And we talked, but I didn't want to talk to Nigel. I guess I found comfort in talking to Kevin. So we talked for a while and he said, well, you know, how are things financially so I said well I mean I can't work I'm here with Gerald 24 hours a day and he said come over to England and we'll have a fundraiser and help you out so right away I'm like oh hell no I'm not going back over there or I'm not going over there because that was the first time I went and so I after about a year, maybe seven, eight months planning, I went.

38:28And when we first got there,

38:34Nigel came in the room the first time I had ever met him. He came in the room and he kept telling me he was sorry. And I always wondered if this was an accident, because, like, I was sitting on the edge of the bed, and he came and he knelt down right here, like, on his knees. And he kept saying, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And I'm thinking, and even Gerald said that night when they met. Oh, Gerald was there. Yeah, I took Gerald with me. So that fundraiser, they wanted Gerald to be there. Yeah, I took him over there.

39:22and when he went to go talk to Gerald,

39:28Gerald asked him, I said, Gerald, it's Nigel Benn. And he said, Nigel Benn? And he started rolling up his sleeves like he was in a fight. He remembered. Yeah. And then he was like, I was just playing. I wasn't going to hit you, man. But he got that sense of humor. And then he said, man, you almost took my life. And then he said, Lisa, did he do it on purpose or was it an accident? And then that's when Nigel said he wanted him to cut the cameras off because we were filming it. So he went in the other room and cried. and um but Jero said to him this could have happened to either one of us you know but it always played in the back of my mind what was he so sorry for yeah did Don King promote Nigel Benn too Mm-hmm.

40:39It was also something that really struck me.

40:50Nigel Ben is celebrating. He doesn't really know what's going on. Gerald is getting worse and worse by the second.

41:03And at least I didn't see this. I didn't see the cameras paying to Don going over to Gerald. I saw Don celebrating with Nigel Penn. I understand that that's his fighter, but it's just interesting to me. If you look at the, on YouTube, there's the documentary, The Fighter of Their Lives. There's a 90-minute version, and there's a 60-minute version. We were doing a 90-minute version for the cinema, where you're going to be able to go watch it at the movies. Don King put a stop production on it. Like, we had to quit. We couldn't finish it. Well, anyway...

42:09So if you look on the 90-minute version, they sitting in the lobby at the hospital having a victory party while Jero was in brain surgery. Drinking champagne. Don, Nigel, all of them. They were the party. Oh, because he went to the hospital too. Well, Nigel supposedly passed out, but that's the only way to avoid the urine test also. Well, let me get to that real quick. And I want you to finish the lobby story.

42:50So, heard this, don't know if it's factual. But if you make it back in the U.K. to your locker room, Don't know what the rules are now, what they were back then, but this is what I heard. You got to pee. You got to give a urine sample. If you don't, you don't have to. He didn't make it back to the locker room, Nigel Ben. That same person that was roaring like a beast. Yeah. Now. Yeah. He spoke out and said it's exhaustion. So because he passed out, he went to the same hospital as Gerald, right? Yeah. Just let me take a half a step back. You said you, because of the time difference, you guys being in the States, this being, you know, the UK is eight hours ahead of the West Coast, five hours ahead of the East Coast.

43:34How did you get word of Gerald's condition that he had failed and was hurt? Donnie, the other guy that was in the ring, called. The friend. Yeah, the one that was related to our cousin. he called and said Gerald lost the fight and they took him to the hospital for observation so we was devastated just hearing that news and then about five minutes later he called back and said y 'all gotta get permission for Gerald to have brain surgery or he gonna die y 'all got five minutes to get him permission to do brain surgery And by that time, Gerald was already in surgery. So the decision had already been made?

44:31Yeah, Don King made it. Yeah. Did he have paperwork saying he was next of kin and that he had the power of attorney to do that? No. Heck no. Then how could he do it? He did it. So Gerald is in brain surgery, trying to save his life. And who told you that Don and Ben were celebrating in the hallway? I saw the footage. I saw the footage. You can see the champagne bottles. Don Perignon. In that 90-minute version. Being passed around in the lobby. Ooh, not Don Perignon. Wow. Wow.

45:16What's the next update y 'all get after that phone call? Um, at that time, I set up, man, like an around-the-clock visual, Andre, where I called the hospital probably every four hours to the point where they were tired of me calling.

45:38and in the beginning, we had to get permission from Don for the nurses to even, for them to even give us any information. So I ended up calling the American Embassy and telling them he was no kin. To Don King. that he needed, you know, to be taken out of anything medical going on. By that time, my family was over there. My family made it over like four days later. We had to wait to get emergency passports. Did all you guys go over? No, just Gerald's girlfriend at the time, my youngest sister, and my aunt went over. And then about a week later, my dad went. And that's a young lady he had a child with?

46:30Yeah. Okay. He gets through surgery, and he's in a coma for 11 days. I can imagine what the mood is, but what are y 'all doing? Is the family, is your father and the mother of his child and his girlfriend still there? Yeah. What's going on there? My dad and Angela stayed there, so we were getting daily updates. My dad was calling me pretty much regularly, probably about four or five times a day, asking me questions. He didn't know anything that was going on, just telling me tests that they were running, just different stuff. Angela, she really didn't know either. To be truthful, they were scared over there.

47:23They were really scared. And especially when the rumor came out that, man, they did something to Gerald over there. So they was really afraid to be over there. I don't understand why this has not been more of an investigation. I don't know how many investigations have been done with the boxing British board or even criminal. Like, these are some heavy accusations. A tainted mouthpiece. I, the only reason nothing was done about it, Andre, was because at this point, we don't know what the future look like, if Gerald gonna be well, or if this is gonna be for the rest of his life. you know so we started holding on to the little we had you know or he had because we didn't know what you know we were we were spending two thousand dollars a day for him to be after he came back to the United States the hospital he was in because there was no insurance so we was having to get him 60 grand every month out of your pocket yeah so he was in a coma for 11 days what what happened when he woke up was your father there did he see he didn't wake up he okay even though like they put him in a self-induced coma okay and that was just so he's not aware of what's going on to try to let the swelling go down in his brain.

49:05So they kept him in the self-induced coma for 11 days. So after they lifted the stuff that kept him in a coma, he still was comatose. So he didn't, it was July before Gerald even said a word. How many months was that? Well, he still had the trachea, so that kind of stopped him from being able to talk. So this was like February, March, April, May, June, July. Still over there? No. He came back April 28th. Okay. But he was still out, unconscious when he came in? Yes. Really? Yes. He had to be med-vacked. It had to be a doctor. It was a whole surgical team that had to fly back over with him. He's back in the States.

50:04He wakes up, and you have the prognosis. Now the doctors are saying this is what it is. This is what it might be. What are they saying once you guys kind of get on the other side of at least him being in a coma? Well, they originally flew him. Don had him. We didn't have any decision on any of this. Don flew him to Ann Arbor, Michigan. He went to a hospital there, and it wasn't—I didn't see anything special that they were doing for him. So I got on the phone with—I met the Mavac plane over in Michigan. and my dad came back on the plane with him. He was on the MedVac plane. So we made preparations to move him to, my dad was living in Wisconsin, so we moved him to Wisconsin to a coma recovery program.

51:07And there, when he got there, we didn't know anything because nothing came over from England. and, like, we didn't know that he was blind. We didn't know the amount of damage or what he was capable of doing. How is that even possible to hope? We didn't have a clue on any of that. He just got off the plane. He had the trachea, and they had the, when they brought him off the plane, they had to unhook him from, like, the vent system on the plane. So they was bagging him, like, when they took him out the ring. and they got him in the room, they got him settled and that was the first time I had seen him.

51:53In Ann Arbor? Yeah. And you said that's the hospital where you said my brother ain't staying. Yeah. And I remember when the nurse first came in and I was devastated it because like when you when you have all that trauma like his head was like still real swollen so it didn't even look like a normal person size head because he had had um just from all the trauma and the swelling. So it was really hard to see them. And I remember that day, I asked the nurse if they could leave, and I stayed in the room with Gerald.

52:54And you know how when they say people in a coma, they can't understand you? So I wanted to see if he could understand me by how he was going to react. So I said something about us fighting as kids, and I was sorry that I loved him or something, and a tear fell. That's how come I knew he understood me at that time. or he was aware of what was going on. So he stayed there a couple days, and we moved him. And there they started getting him up, walking him. Like I said, it was a coma recovery program, so they knew that when somebody walked in the room, Gerald didn't. If you hear a door shut, you usually look around.

53:54Like, if you make a noise or something, he didn't look. So that's how they kind of figured that he wasn't, they call it tracking. So he wasn't tracking. So they started doing tests, and they found out that he was blind. And as the days went on, he stayed there until, like, September.

54:22where we seen other people come in just as bad as Gerald and walk out the door. Wow, really? But his wasn't happening like everybody else's, so we decided to just take him home. How did you, I read where you guys did it as a family initially, and then slowly but surely, you became the sole caregiver. How long have you been the sole caregiver of Gerald? Probably about 14 years now. It was my youngest sister, my oldest sister, my dad, my brothers. But life went on, and so did they. Mm. You just see people slowly just not being able to... My oldest sister has some health issues. Mm-hmm. But she hung in there with me as long as she could.

55:21Now, this situation with Gerald really affected Roy.

55:27And from what I read, he was just unwilling to come visit Gerald while he was still active. He helped a lot financially. But he did help, though. Oh, yeah. He did help, though. He just couldn't stomach seeing Gerald in that state while he was still an active fighter. I remember I used to talk to Roy's attorney all the time, Stanley Leving. He would help me with legal stuff for Gerald.

55:55But at one point, he wanted Roy to quit. so he wanted me to write Roy this letter about just the things that Gerald was going through. But yeah, he was affected by it. I know they...

56:20Roy's dad helped my dad financially when Gerald and Roy was like internationals. So they were good friends. Did Roy respond to your letter? I sent it to Stanley. He didn't respond back to me with it, but I sent it to Stanley. Okay. He must have been because he kept fighting.

56:51Have y 'all felt, the family, have you felt supported by the boxing community throughout these, how many years has it been? 29. Not always, no. For the longest, we didn't communicate with anybody from the boxing world. I mean, a few of Gerald's friends. but I only started having a relationship with the WBC probably 15 years in. Never heard from them. Never heard from the WBO. Never heard from any of them. Never heard from like Jarrell's best friends, Michael Moore and all those guys. Never heard from them. Also Crunk Fighters. Yeah. I mean, we do now. over the years, but when it first happened, it wasn't my support from the boxing community.

57:55Man, I know for me, and I talked to you a little bit about this when you came to the gym. I'm not saying it's right, but we got to deal with the reality of what could be every time we step in the ring, and that's not just fights. As you know, it's sparring, too. and I talked about this with Roy and the fellas today but you know

58:21it's tough for a fighter man to see that as I know you know the family has its own struggles and they're like man reach out but it's tough sometimes the financial piece is one thing but to physically show up and see that very very difficult and I know I know I suppressed it. I knew about Gerald's story, but I know I suppressed it because I'm just trying to put that possibility, that's too real right now. And it's tough because that might not be the right thing to do, but that's a lot of fighters' reality, and I know that just from firsthand experience. The biggest struggle I've had, Andre, since we started the foundation.

59:11Tell me a little bit about the foundation.

59:17The Ring of Brotherhood Foundation. Me and Pastor Kevin, we started working on filming. I mean, we wanted to help fighters, but we wanted to film the help that we were giving them. Not just where are they now and then throw them away. We wanted to find these guys that were suffering and do stuff to make their life better. Do things to give them a better quality of life. So we did a scissor reel, 12 creative for Sean, and we pitched a scissor reel. We got some great response from Netflix, a couple other places.

1:00:12So we started looking deeper into what the fighters really needed and what they weren't getting. So we started the foundation. We got a team of doctors that, a clinical research committee where we can give specialized treatments to a fighter, even if he's not suffering from brain trauma. is things you can do to keep from getting, you know, to keep your brain healthy. And then those that are suffering, there's different treatments. Is this through your doctor? Tell me the doctor's name again. Dr. Mark Gordon. But there's more. We have several. It's probably seven, eight doctors. a couple scientists, some people from the stem cell world.

1:01:23So it's a group of people who just want to do what's best for these athletes and to provide treatments. So that's why we ended up starting the foundation to be able to not just help with housing and any kind of treatments they need. I've worked with Mauricio for like 12 years now. I kind of stepped up to the plate. I started going to like boxing functions, and I started seeing all these fighters that you could clearly see something's wrong. And everybody's acting like... It's normal. Yeah. So I would say, hey, are you getting help from WBC Grant? They didn't know anything about it. So I started doing, I got at least probably 16 fighters, Andre.

1:02:14I do the applications every year. All the documents they need, I help them get their documents, get the money, help them get cars, apartments, houses, everything. So I'd already been working with Mauricio, helping with the fighters get the grant money. so we pitched the idea what we were doing to Mauricio and he was very supportive and probably has been I ain't going to say one of our biggest supporters but he's been a big supporter of what we're doing

1:02:58Virgil definitely look out and help us a lot we got a couple trainers that

1:03:09that go hard for us and the biggest issue is the fighter because they don't want to hear this they don't want to know about it a lot of them don't even know Andre when you get dehydrated your brain's without fluid a lot of them don't even know that We went over to Mayweather's gym. A lot of the young guys over there didn't know that. We went over to the other gym here in Vegas. Top rank. Top rank, yeah.

1:03:47There's no education in it for the fighters. No, not at all. We in the dark ages still. Yeah. Yeah, so just to even be able to have nurses, we got some nurse practitioners, some nutritionalists, that we want to be able to just help them have better lives. Yeah. You know, take care of themselves. And the ones that are in need of help, you know, to be able to hook them up with Dr. Gordon and some of the other doctors and get them some help. Man, it's scary, Lisa, seeing the aftermath. Man, it's scary. I saw a video when you were at the gym of Livingstone Bramble. And it's a man, you know, he was before my time, but I grew up watching him.

1:04:40I watched the tapes and watched him online. And you just stop hearing about him. Yeah. So you just stop hearing about him. So you assume that... They must be doing good. They're fine, but then you see a video like that. And I'm looking at Livingstone, and he just, his eyes are dilated. And he's just, he's out of there. And they're talking to him, and it's like, he's just not responding. Same thing with Wilfred Benitez. Yeah. Who you've helped his family a lot. You moved him from New York to Illinois. Got him a bed, the proper bed that he needed. They were living in Chicago. Some of his friends moved him from Puerto Rico when his house got damaged.

1:05:23But they were living on a second story in Chicago. Oh, Chicago, okay. Yeah. So I moved him from Chicago to Freeport, which is two hours, in a one-level home. So she didn't have to try to get him up and down the stairs. But Wilford's not in good shape. I've seen him. I've seen him. There's a lot. I just read today that Marlon Starlens was put in a nursing home. Really? Because of Demetria. Yeah. I see him at the Hall of Fame all the time. Yeah. Man, I see him. And that's what gave me Andre about these. I'm not knocking the Hall of Fames. because I think it's great to honor, you know, our champions.

1:06:18But give something back. You know what I'm saying? Be able to help them when they need help. And I'm not saying that all Hall of Fames are not helping, but a majority of them are not. You know, I got a call when... Which Spinks passed? Michael? Leon. Leon. When Leon passed, I had gotten a call from a friend that his wife needed help with cremating him and she only had two days to come up with the money. I started with the Hall of Fames because those guys make a lot of money. When they go to the Hall of Fames, they sign autographs. Those people that are putting on the Hall of Fames, they're selling those autographs.

1:07:19And the fighters, most of the time, don't get anything. So I started there to ask for money to help Brenda, and we couldn't get a dime from the Hall of Fames. Even the International Boxing Hall of Fame? That was the first one I called. Huh. Yeah. What did they tell you? At first I asked him for the entire amount, and he told me he would call Brenda tomorrow. And I got all the way down to$100, and he still wouldn't give it to me. Oh, okay. Yeah. But we raised it. I raised it in like three hours. The Hall of Fame is constantly reaching out for donations. Yeah. And not only that, I mean, all the autograph stuff that they have, that stuff is being sold.

1:08:14That's the whole purpose of him having all the fighters signing gloves, because he's going to sell them and make a profit. And I just wonder why the fighters don't say, well, where's the money going from these gloves? or, you know, it's like the ones that are able don't ask those questions and they end up with nothing. You know, Junior Jones went to a... Poison. Call him poison. I love Junior. Junior is one of the nicest people you can meet. he went to an event and they gave him$50. But this is what it meant for Junior. If he didn't go to the event, he'd probably sitting at home watching TV doing nothing.

1:09:09But if he went to the event, he got a good meal, some people made him feel special, asking him for his autograph. Calling him champ. Right. So he go and the people make money off of his name, him being there, and then they don't give him anything for coming. So they're still using him, even when his career is over. He's still being used. No, man, that's the game. But we got to change it, though. We got to change it. Yeah. And even with other fighters, when you talk about change, nobody seems interested. And I know it's a daunting task because this stuff been going on for a long time. One of the coaches that we work with, he was frustrated because he agreed, him and Virgil have been in the forefront of really helping me out.

1:10:03This particular coach, he worked with Shakira Stevens.

1:10:10He called me, he was frustrated. He's like, Ms. Lisa, the fighters don't want to hear this. I can't get them interested in it.

1:10:23And they don't. I don't know. I haven't figured out a way yet, but I'm going to figure out a way to get the message across. We'll figure out a way. Well, this is another step in that direction, and this is why we wanted to have you here today, Ms. Lisa. And, you know, it's not enough for us to feel bad.

1:10:57Everybody's busy. Everybody got bills and everybody has things they got to pay. But it's a space to reach out and help, you know. Gerald is a fallen soldier, man. And part of what we want to do with this interview is to get his name back buzzing where people start understanding who Gerald, G-Man, McClellan is, what's his story, what type of fighter was he, understand what happened and understand that it's not about a guilt thing with you, but just know that that can happen to you too. And if you fell on hard times, you would want some help too. You know, Gerald always said, Andre, that would never happen to him.

1:11:37Mm-hmm. But he was so...

1:11:44And I try to put myself in Gerald's shoes. He was 26 years old, very good looking, and was living life. And the biggest problem that's probably something my dad passed to us, Andre, it's like we don't have no fear of nothing. And Jarrell didn't have any fear. I mean, because I know that Jarrell knew something was wrong earlier before he took that knee. He just did. Because of the kind of person he is, everything has to be in check. Checked and balanced. Everything. and just him with the mouthpiece hanging out of his mouth. He didn't really see him, right. That was not him. So he knew something was wrong early on.

1:12:46He thought he was going to be able to fix it, and he wasn't able to fix it. That's what we're trying to do, though. You feel pain, you keep going. Yeah. You get buzzed, you get hurt, you keep going. I don't know a trainer or a liar that'll tell you the first time you tell them I don't feel right, just stop. They're going to assess you as best they can, and come on, man, and they're going to start to rah-rah you and put a battery in your back and tell you what you need to to go out there and keep fighting. But if you have...

1:13:19I don't know, I guess to think of a life of a young guy who wanted really bad...

1:13:30Right now, I know a lot of fighters that fight and don't get paid. They don't even get purses. Or they have to sell tickets to pay the opponent, and they still don't get paid. You know, because that's how bad they want it. So, I don't know. I guess it's hard to get in the mind of a fighter. it's really hard even with me taking care of Jarrell for 29 years and knowing everything about him he still with that fight mentality is very unpredictable very unpredictable but I don't know but we do have to figure out a way to change it well Ms. Lisa I appreciate you I believe this interview is going to help a lot.

1:14:27And, you know, we just don't want to, we want to, you know, hear all the smoke fight. We want to partner with y 'all and help you wherever we can. I appreciate it. And I'm going to ask you, you know, in your closing thoughts, like what is your message to the boxing community? And number two, how can we help? If they want to donate, if they want to assist, how can they help? How can they find you? We are starting a give campaign called Impact. And what you give will impact the life of a fighter. And it's on our website. and then there's a give button on ringerbrotherhoodfoundation.org. That's up right now?

1:15:22Yes. Okay. And my message to the boxing community is if we love these guys when they're on top, we have to continue to love them when they fall and be there to support them. You know, it's easy to pay$109 to watch a pay-per-view fight, but that$109 might help a fighter even get his rent paid, you know, or get some groceries. You know, it's a lot of them. I mean, if you think about it, Andre, look at all the guys that didn't make it to the top. They still got brain damage, too, and they don't have no resources. no one to help. You know, it's the ones that got a name. You know, at least if you throw the name around, somebody might pay attention.

1:16:23But look how many didn't get a name that still need help. Too many to count. Yeah. There's a lot of them out there.

1:16:35But even if, and this is something, when you said what could you guys do to help, what I wanted to ask, how many followers do you guys have, Andre, for your podcast, your platform? About two million. Ask everybody to donate a dollar. Look at the difference that could make. Who don't have a dollar to donate a dollar? Just ask your people, hey, support this, get behind these people. You know, it can make a big difference. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Man, this is another episode of The Art of War, and this is not an average episode, y 'all. I pray that y 'all watch this and you spread the word.

1:17:36you know as a boxing fan you know you're not obligated to do anything but you know it helps when like Miss Lisa said you can help beyond just fight night because we sacrifice a lot yes we're getting paid yes we want glory and yes we're doing this for our families but we're also doing this for your price of admission for your attendance so I would just ask you as a supporter of this channel to do a little bit of research on Gerald McClellan. Understand where he came from. Understand what type of fighter he was. He was a phenomenal fighter. Dangerous, dangerous man in that ring. If you can, go watch the Gerald McClellan, Nigel Benn fight.

1:18:19And get up to speed with this fighter. Who he was. What he sacrificed. And if you feel it in your heart to donate, man, we would appreciate that. And we thank you in advance. and for the current fighters right now, you know, Nazeem Richardson used to always say, man, you young boys, you think you young and immortal. Understand, man, that, and this ain't to scare you, it's not to, you know, get your mind messed up, but this is a reality. Like, this can happen to anybody. Like, the punch Gerald McCullen got hit with in that 10th round and the punches he got hit with leading up to him going into a coma, I've been hit with them punches a thousand times.

1:19:05But some reason I didn't have a brain bleed, but he did. So I just want y 'all to just understand that, that this is real. It's not a game. It's real. This can happen. And keep the game in perspective. It's a business, y 'all. It's not a game. And you just got to understand that in your negotiations. You got to understand that in your preparation. even the things you put in your body. You can't say you want to be a champion and you want to be the best in the world and you want to leave with your faculties intact, but you're drinking every night. You're using drugs every night. Yeah, I'm talking real talk to you right now.

1:19:45You got to put yourself in the best position that you can put yourself in to leave this gang with something left for your family. And when you're doing business with the promoters, with the networks, and everybody that's patting you on the back, just understand it's a business to them. Make it a business for you. We love the fans. We appreciate the fans. We appreciate their price of admission. We appreciate their hard-earned money. But understand something. This is entertainment for the fans. You got to keep that in perspective. Your life ain't worth dying for a fan to be appeased and to say, I had a good night, and then they go home to their families, and you in a hospital somewhere.

1:20:24So I'm not saying you don't engage in a fight. I'm not saying that you don't give the fans all you have. Just keep that in mind. It's a sobering thought so you don't get caught up in this game. You're more than just a fighter. Many of y 'all are husbands, brothers. Many of y 'all love other things, business. Some of y 'all are really good at different things. You're more than just a fighter. You may have done this for most of your life, but at some point, just like I had to, you got to make that decision to walk away and try to do it before the game pushes you out. Everybody don't get that option.

1:20:57But, man, take your life serious. It's a business. It's not for play. Don't put no poison in your body that'll hinder you from being the best you can be. Man, I love y 'all. I appreciate y 'all watching this. Please share this video and this interview with as many people as possible. And if God lay it on your heart to donate, man, we appreciate you for that, too. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yes, ma 'am. Let me help you up. You got it? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:21:30What I've done for the last 29 years and what I'm trying to do now is to do the fight for the fighters. Wilfred Benitez was in a situation where his sister Yvonne, his caretaker, needed help. so we relocated them to a one-story home with a wheelchair ramp so she could safely get Wilford in and out and helped her become as independent as possible as she continued to take care of Wilford.

1:22:21Come here. Yeah. Huh? The ones you had on. Oh, I'm in. I am. Go this way. Yeah. Come this way. We enjoyed them when they were in the ring. How can we not care about them now? My hope for the Ring of Brotherhood Foundation is that we'll be able to start a movement that we all continue to care about the fighters after their careers are over, the fighters that have been hurt, and the ones that need a help up. I know there is a lot of men and women out there

1:23:11that need our help, and I'm not going to let them down.

1:23:31This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.