This week we have a bit of a change up, two fights featuring a limited boxer with dynamite punching power who fought in both the super welterweight and middleweight division, U.S. Virgin Islander Julian Jackson.
In the first fight he was fighting for the vacant WBC middleweight title after relinquishing his WBA super welterweight title and moving up in weight. His opponent that night was Nottingham born Herol Graham. Jackson was 30 with a record of 40 wins and just 1 loss that was coming from his first attempt at winning a world title, he had 38 wins by knockout. Graham was 31 with a record of 43 wins and 2 losses with 24 knockout wins.
This was the puncher versus the slick boxer, the power puncher versus the mover, how would it play out?
Round 1 Graham came out aggressive from the opening bell in his southpaw stance but got caught while throwing punches standing still in front of Jackson. This seemed to convince Graham to stay away from Jackson for a while and keep him off balance with his jab and elusive foot work. Jackson looked strong at the weight even though it was his first fight at middleweight. He seemed to have the slower feet of the two and looked to throw hard counters whenever Graham stopped moving in range which he did now and again. Graham seemed to be dicing with death in there as a few counters grazed his chin that seemed to raise up in the air when it needed to be tucked in. The round came to an end and Graham had won it on my card through activity.
Round 2 began with Jackson getting caught clean in his eye that seemed to bother him tremendously. He backed away to the ropes blinking out of his recently repaired eye, Graham sensed blood and looked to capitalise but was still open for counters with his chin up. Jackson was surviving but had very little lateral movement to work with, he was a knock out puncher not a slick mover and this limitation was making it difficult for him to stay safe. Graham was probing with his jab trying to swell up the already damaged eye, he sporadically fell into close range which gave Jackson a chance to counter which he did in spots. A double left cross had Jackson wincing again as he retreated to the ropes and switched to southpaw to protect his damaged left eye. From this closed side engagement of both fighters in southpaw Graham’s jab had a clearer path to Jackson and Graham was busier with it up until the end of the round. Big round for Graham.
Round 3 had both fighters start out in southpaw, Graham was doing his best work off of his jab and moving out of the way, Jackson was looking to land one big shot that he thought could end the night. Graham was looking very much like his stable mate Prince Naseem Hamed in this fight, he was relying on his reflexes and his ability to fight out of both stances which he did in this round. At one point Jackson lunged in looking for a heavy hook cross combination which Graham countered with a left hook that seemed to land on Jackson’s injured eye stunning him. Graham was winning this round however his head movement seemed more reactive than proactive and as a result he spent a lot of time with his head in the centre at 12 o’clock which made him vulnerable. Jackson was able to get some success with his own southpaw jab in this round which was powerful if not the quickest. Graham’s round.
Round 4 saw Jackson abandon southpaw and come out aggressive in orthodox stance. He was trying his best to get close to Graham but from range Graham had the speed advantage and Jackson was having to try to absorb Graham’s work and quickly counter. A couple of times Graham hung around trying to land shots on Jackson and paid the price with a sharp counter to the face, he seemed better served to play the long game and stack up points boxing with speed and movement. When they did exchange the difference in punching power was reminiscent of the Whittaker Trinidad fight we watched previously. Graham’s punches seemed army and slightly uncoordinated whilst Jackson’s looked welded to his powerful back and devastatingly powerful. Jackson got pushed back into the corner and Graham came into flurry, Jackson uncorked a right hook that knocked Graham out before he hit the mat. The fight was over and Jackson had become a two weight world champion after losing the first 3 rounds comfortably.
This fight seemed to me to show the skillful boxer looking to knock out the knockout artist and paying the price much like Pernell Whittaker did against Felix Trinidad. Sometimes what separates the greats from the very goods is the discipline to strategically fight to your strengths and fight without emotion.
3 and a half years later Jackson was still the middleweight champ, he had won 5 more fights all by knockout and was now matched up with WBO champion Gerald McClellan. This fight pitted knockout artist versus knockout artist, McClellan’s record was 27 wins 2 losses, 25 wins by knockout. Jackson at this point had a record of 45 wins, 1 loss and 43 wins by knockouts, fireworks were guaranteed.
Round 1 both came out firing, not much feeling out, lots of power punches being thrown with not much thought of distance and defence. Roughly a minute in, McClellan threw a double jab overhand right combination, the right hand landed around the temple and staggered Jackson, his knees buckled and he almost went down. McClellan poured it on trying to add to his amazing number of first round knockouts. Jackson did a good job weathering the storm before catching McClellan with some of his own counters when he got too aggressive looking for the finishing blow. A lot had transpired and we were only just 90 seconds into the fight. McClellan was throwing everything into his punches which left him off balance when Jackson slipped out of the way, Jackson was using some good head movement to avoid the long right hands now more often than not. Into the last 30 seconds and both fighters seemed happy to clinch up for a time, the round was winding down and Jackson had survived an early scare. McClellan’s round.
Round 2 began with both fighters looking to jab and box a bit, Jackson had a solid yet stiffness about his work whereas McClellan’s jab was snake-like, fast and biting. When he doubled and tripled up his jab and looked to keep distance he looked a classy operator however that killer instinct would come out quite often and he would lunge in sloppily and untidily fall past Jackson or lose his balance. Both fighters looked to target the body, McClellan doubled up his attacks with left hooks while Jackson attacked both the liver and the spleen on either side of the torso. McClellan showed his amateur pedigree in spots with some dancing footwork to return to centre ring when Jackson came forward. Jackson was still very cognizant of McClellan’s right hand and was sliding past it, getting under it or managing to block it. Around a minute left in the round Jackson landed a clean right hand that convinced McClellan to become a boxer for a while. Jackson was growing in confidence and McClellan was starting to noticeably breath through his mouth, perhaps the effort to finish the fight in round 1 had taken something from his energy. The round drew to a close with Jackson looking good and taking this round on my card.
Round 3 began with McClellan looking to establish his lightning fast jab, when he jabbed consistently he was looking good making it very difficult for Jackson to get into range. He kept this going for the first part of the round limiting Jackson to occasional scoring shots from out at range. Jackson responded halfway through the round by launching power punch combinations looking to burst in on McClellan, nothing was landing clean but this made McClellan less able to dictate due to Jackson’s own power. With a minute to go Jackson complained to the referee who called time, the fighters restarted and McClellan picked up where he was at the beginning of the round jabbing sharply and looking to land the occasional power punch. He kept the offence going and as the round came to a close he seemed to me to have taken this one comfortably.
Round 4 saw McClellan jabbing well to start off with, once he had established that he would come in with a right hand or left hook off of the jab all the while being mobile and feinting. A minute went by with McClellan looking great keeping the range and fighting behind his jab but then all of a sudden he would swing hard with his right hand and miss colliding untidily with Jackson and ending up in the clinch. He would then after a scrappy sequence go back to boxing nicely again making Jackson look limited and lead footed. Jackson was largely ineffective in this round, limited to a few big swinging combinations when McClellan stopped boxing and got back to brawling. McClellan’s round.
Round 5 saw Jackson look to get closer to McClellan, stalking him around the ring and looking to land big with both hands. McClellan was showing some cute defensive nous in this round moving laterally, ducking under shots and pivoting round the linear Jackson. Where Jackson did have some success was in his targeting of McClellan’s body, he was chipping away hoping to slow down the faster feet of McClellan. One of these shots went low, dropping McClellan who was given time to recover by the referee, as they restarted Jackson continued his assault and it seemed like McClellan was being discouraged by it. Then within a second of that McClellan caught Jackson flush with a right hand lead that shook him to his core, McClellan followed up with a left hook and a follow up leaping left hook which laid Jackson out flat under the bottom rope. Jackson somehow got to his feet but he looked wobbly, McClellan swarmed on him and landed another flush right hand that sent him to the canvas once again, Jackson got to his feet but was badly dazed and the referee waved it off thankfully.
McClellan had now won his second title at middleweight and had done it like he won most of his fights, by thunderous knockout. Jackson would regroup from losing his title and win three fights before challenging McClennan a year later only to lose again, this time by 1st round knockout. He would go on to reclaim championship gold in March 1995 before retiring from the sport in May 1998 with a record of 55 wins, 6 losses and 49 wins by knockout.
McClennan followed up his first defeat of Jackson with 3 consecutive 1st round knockouts including their rematch, he would then move up in weight and fight for the WBC Super middleweight championship against hard hitting Nigel Benn. This would tragically be McClennan’s last fight as he suffered brain damage during his 10th round knockout loss which left him with severe injuries. McClennan’s record stood at 31 wins, 3 losses with 29 wins coming by knockout. What did you think of this week’s fights?
Come back next week for another fight of the week retrospective trip down memory lane.
All fight of the week fights can be found here.