IT IS 30 years ago to the day that Nigel Benn, with an almost medieval ferocity, battered American Gerald McClellan to retain his WBC world super-middleweight title.
McClellan, having won all but two of his 31 fights by KO, prophetically said two months before he met Benn: "You have to go to war.
Ironically, Benn was taken to the same hospital and placed in the same ward as McClellan suffering from extreme exhaustion, a fractured nose, fractured jaw and passing blood in his urine due to kidney damage.
Just 35 seconds after the opening bell, McClellan trapped Benn against the ropes and - with both fists crashing against his skull - forced him out of the ring onto the apron.
A 12,000 sell-out London Arena and a further 13 million viewers tuning-in live on ITV watched horrified as McClellan was transformed from a superbly fit athlete to a shell of a man lying unconscious on the canvas as three doctors and an anaesthetist fought desperately to save his life.
