Nigel Benn KO1 Iran Barkley

By the time American boxing fans discovered the whirling dervish of devastation nicknamed 'The Dark Destroyer', Nigel Benn had already treated Britain's maniacal sports fans to some of the most breathtaking and exciting moments in recent memory. He was twenty-two fights into his career before he ever had to wait around to hear the judges scorecard. Every opponent before then crumbled at some point in the fight. Half of them didn't make it out of the first round.
His victories usually resembled a one-man Dionysian ritual of chaos and conquering, a flirtation with doom that would have seemed pathological had it not been conducted with the utter fearlessness of a Viking marauder. Stunningly reckless, altogether unconcerned about his own well being, willing to get hit, willing to get hurt, and willing to give himself no choice but to fight his way out of the hole he dug for himself. And by god he seemed to love every second of it!
Lacking any noticable interest in defense early on, Benn possessed a tremendous equalizer inside his gloves.
When in trouble, he punched back.
Hard.
Often, those punches rescued him from imminent disaster, and even more often they put his ill-fated opponents flat on their backs. So the Brits already knew about Nigel by the time those of us here in America caught on. They had seen him come within mere seconds of being stopped by Anthony Logan, only to fire off a left hook that he swung, almost literally, from the floor - a punch that sent Logan to the canvas so hard he looked like he'd jumped off a building. They knew about his persona, that of an all-action basher who tried with complete sincerity to decapitate whomever was unlucky enough to be in the ring with him. And they knew that as his opponent lay there unconscious he could be counted on to flash that mischievous grin of his while he flexed his biceps and showed off his remarkably sculpted physique.
In his day, nobody - and I mean nobody - loved being a fighter more than Nigel Benn. And the fans of Britain loved him like crazy.
But after suffering his first painful loss, one that appeared to have come almost from sheer exhaustion as Benn collapsed after absorbing a jab - yes, a jab - from Michael Watson, Benn decided to regroup, intensify his training, perhaps even learn to duck a shot or two. Bob Arum was only too happy to bring him to America, proclaiming him to be 'the British Marvin Hagler', and promising American fight fans a very special treat. The Hagler reference was questionable - though if Benn had possessed a sturdier chin, who knows? But give Arum credit on the other part of his statement. He certainly wasn't wrong there.
After a few tune-up fights in Atlantic City and Vegas in which he beat Jorge Amparo and destroyed Jose Quinones, Benn nearly hit a roadblock with the steel-chinned Sanderline Williams, a journeyman known not for winning fights but for surviving every slugger he faced, which also included future Benn opponent Gerald McClellan. Benn managed to win on points, but his momentum stalled just a bit. His next fight though, against the rugged Doug DeWitt, set him back on course, with Benn blasting DeWitt out for good in the eigth round for the WBO middleweight title, and he did so in wonderfully exciting fashion. But it was his next opponent that had fight fans giddy with delight.
Although Iran Barkley had lost his two previous bouts, including a classic back and forth slugfest with legend Roberto Duran, he was still one of the more dangerous middleweights in the game. His sheer size alone was frightening. A man who could easily balloon up to a full-blown heavyweight in between fights, Barkley possessed a punch that was much more damaging than his knockout ratio suggested. Years after his fight with Benn, when Barkley was considerably beyond his prime, he hit James Toney so hard that Toney would later proclaim 'I felt that sh*t two weeks later.' Barkley was a dangerous fighter, and highlight reels of his wicked knockout of Tommy Hearns played on newscasts constantly in the days leading up to the fight.
On the scorching hot Las Vegas afternoon of August 18th, 1990, with ABC's Wide World of Sports broadcasting the fight coast to coast, Nigel Benn (26-1 with 24 KO's) and Iran Barkley (25-6 with 16 KO's) met in the ring. Arum had already humorously gone on record saying that it was a waste of money to hire judges for the fight, and indeed, not a soul expected it to go the distance. It's doubtful, however, that anyone thought the fight would be as brief as it was.
Some have commented on Barkley's demeanor in the moments before the fight, suggesting that he was intimidated by Benn. Those familiar with Barkley and his fierce reputation dating back to his days in street gangs would refute the notion. Iran wasn't called 'The Blade' for nothing. As a youth he was known to be very quick with a knife. If anything, it was the problems Barkley had with his eye that concerned him, fearing a return of his detatched retina. And on top of that, it was well known that Barkley's father had died just a week before. Whatever the truth may be, Barkley did not look like a man who wanted to be inside the ring. And a split second after the opening bell it was understandable why.
Displaying the same kind of crazed bravado the British fans knew so well, Benn immediately ran up to Barkley and slammed a vicious right hand into the side of his head, stagerring his much bigger opponent instantly. A flurry of brutal punches followed. Although Barkley was firing back Benn seemed the stronger of the two and repeatedly charged into Barkley. After pushing him to the ropes Benn landed a sweeping overhand right that sent Barkley falling momentarily to the canvas. Although it was a knockdown, Barkley hopped back to his feet before the referee could intervene. Benn, naturally, hit him again, this time it appeared on the back of the head. The referee, Jose Padillia, gave Barkley the standing eight count, and then the match got really entertaining.
Benn jumped on him again and landed with success, his underrated handspeed firing off blistering shots, but as always he was careless with his defense and Barkley fired a perfect left hook that shook Benn to his knees. Wobbling backwards clear across the ring, Benn found himself on the receiving end of Barkley's punches, and while they may not have came with the speed and fury of his own they were scoring nonetheless. Benn retaliated, but moments later was blasted with another left that seemed like it might send him through the ropes; he was clearly in bad shape. And just as he had done back home in England, he found that the best solution was simply to keep punching back. While Barkley was still pressing the action, and with Benn still on shaky legs, the Dark Destroyer landed a beautiful uppercut that stunned Barkley. Another flurry followed and soon they were in the center of the ring trading blows back and forth.
But Benn's superior handspeed paid off, and a brilliant combination sent Barkley to the canvas again, and much harder than before. This time, Benn didn't wait for Barkley to rise before throwing another punch. While Barkley was still on all fours Benn fired another right hand against Barkley's head, which nearly toppled him over. When the fight was over Benn would claim he had no memory of hitting Barkley while he was down and frankly, given the adrenalin-fueled insanity that seemed to possess him, it sounds believable. He was clearly so determined to destroy Barkley that he probably paid little attention to insignificant details like whether his opponent was up on two feet or down on his hands and knees. Still, Benn is lucky that there were no points deducted.
After Barkley arose, his very vocal corner going nuts over Benn's actions, he seemed despondant. It's not fair to say he looked beaten, because he didn't, but in the face of a man hell-bent on victory there appeared to be little fire inside of Barkley. Maybe he misjudged the scenario. After all, he had taken a horrific beating from 'The Hitman' years earlier and come back to win. Perhaps he thought this would be no different. But as the fight resumed he allowed Benn to charge into him yet again, with Benn landing another brutal shot that sent him to the canvas for a third time just as the round was ending. Again, Barkley stood up immediately but this time his legs were very shaky. For a moment it looked as if the bell would save him, but the WBO rules called for a three-knockdown rule to be in effect. Though the referee seemed hesitant, the fight was waved off and Benn raisd his hands in victory.
In retrospect, it seems hard to believe that the fight lasted only three minutes. It had very distinct parts to it - Benn's hard charging initial onslaught that dropped Barkley, Barkley's comeback that had Benn in very serious trouble, and lastly Benn's recovery and victory. It had three official knockdowns, two unofficial but ridiculously blatant fouls, and more action in one round than you're likely to see in many entire twelve round matchups. Some may argue that out of all the KO victories Benn has scored, this doesn't qualify for a great 'knockout'. And it's true that Barkley was up and on his feet when the fight was stopped, rubber-legged but still capable of continuing. And it's certainly true that Nigel Benn has scored much more picturesque knockouts than this one. But this was a perfect microcosm of who Benn was in the early 90's, and as a historical document it serves that purpose nicely. Everything you could ever want to know about his popularity as a fighter is right here, packed into three minutes of delirium.
Benn would have a superfight back in England before 1990 was over, losing to his arch-nemisis Chris Eubank by TKO, and would see a successful rematch, which he should have won, marred by a controversial draw three years later.
So no, this fight with Barkley wasn't Benn's greatest performance; we all know what that was. Nearly five years later, when he was brought in to be the sacrificial lamb for Gerald McClellan, the young, rising star of Don King's stable, he stunned every boxing fan on both sides of the Atlantic by surviving a murderous barrage of punches in the opening moments of the first round, crawling back into the ring (at the count of nine, by the way, despite what some revisionists here in America would have you think) only to stagger McClellan badly in round four and go on to fight one of the greatest fights in the history of the sport, emerging triumphant in the tenth. But that Nigel Benn was different from the buzzsaw that fought Barkley. He was older, a bit slower with his hands, more cagey in his defense, a little less of an uncontrolled Uzi and more like a precise shotgun. Unfortunately, the tragic aftermath of the fight overshadowed Benn's amazing accomplishment. People didn't want to think about what happened to McClellan, so they stopped thinking about Benn's performance as well. Perhaps now that more than a decade has passed and the fight is available for viewing by anyone on YouTube, a proper reappraisal can emerge and a new generation can see one of the boxings all-time greatest showings.
Although he stayed in boxing a year too long and lost his final three fights in 1996, he remains one of the most beloved 'bad boy' figures of the modern era. And if you want to show someone the reasons why, and you only have three minutes to do so, look no further than his battle with Iran Barkley.