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League HQ News Ladder Fixtures Player Stats Tipping Union Rugby Heaven News Super Rugby Rugby World Cup Rugby Championship Six Nations Club & Provincial International Calendar Live Scores Cricket Cricket Live Scores AFL Real Footy News Ladder Fixtures Player Stats Live Scores A-League Football EPL Live Scores Champions League Live Scores La Liga Live Scores Horse Racing Golf Live Golf Leaderboards Motorsport Formula One Live Race Tracker Moto GP Live Race Tracker Tennis Live Tennis Scores Cycling Basketball Live Scores More Boxing/MMA Swimming Netball You are here: Home Sport Boxing Article 'When you think he is in darkness, that's a scary thought ... the darkness' Boxing Date September 7, 2013 (1) Be the first to comment Read later Daniel Lane When he was world champion, Nigel Benn nearly killed a man in the ring. A few years on, he tried to kill himself. Now a born-again Christian, he has finally found peace, training youngsters in south-west Sydney. Tweet Pin It submit to reddit Email article Print Reprints & permissions Click to play video Return to video Video settings Please Log in to update your video settings Video will begin in 5 seconds. Don't play Play now More video Recommended Click to play video Afghanistan claim SAFF Cup Click to play video Tyson backs 'good man' Gatto Click to play video USA secures World Cup spot Click to play video Physio saves goal then runs for his life Click to play video Qatar World Cup a 'mistake' Replay video Return to video Video settings Please Log in to update your video settings A moment with Nigel Benn Two time world champion boxer Nigel Benn, at the Blacktown PCYC where he volunteers with local youth boxing. PT4M2S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2t9p3 620 349 September 6, 2013 Autoplay OnOff Video feedback Video settings And God said, ''Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. - Genesis 1 AS A student at Sydney's Hillsong Church, Nigel Benn, nearly 50 and still fit as a fiddle, speaks passionately about "the light" of born-again Christianity, but the former world champion destined to be forever remembered as boxing's self-proclaimed Dark Destroyer remains a fighter at heart and he did not flinch when a flash-punch of a question found its mark. Benn throws a right at Gerald McClellan in their 1995 super-middleweight fight at the London Arena. Photo: Getty Images "Nigel," he was asked after coaching a boxing class at Blacktown PCYC. "I don't want to dance around it … but … you'll always be remembered for your fight against …" Advertisement Perhaps it was reflex but Benn, who along with monocle-wearing Chris Eubank was the best of British boxing in the 1990s, could not help but to beat his interrogator to the punch with two quietly uttered words: "Gerald McClellan." Benn's eyes softened as he reflected upon that night in 1995 when 12,500 of his countrymen, drunk on the adrenaline and violence that unfolded in the London ring, chanted ''NIG-EL BENN, NI-GEL BENN, NIG-EL BENN'' like football fans do their team. For 10 merciless rounds the mob cheered and sung as his fists hammered the tripe out of the American billed by Don King as his "little Mike Tyson". This two-time world champion, who would prefer to recite psalms than his fight record, has sought a humble life after overcoming numerous trials and tribulations including the mysterious death of his brother - and hero - Andy; running the streets at 12 and getting into fights and hooked on weed and women; 18 months in Northern Ireland as a British soldier; a very public battle with drug and sex addiction; and a highly publicised suicide attempt. He explained in a few seconds why he has refused to revel in the awe of those fans who described the McClellan bashing as "great". "It's very hard to see that fight because someone got seriously hurt," Benn said. "You can't say it was your best fight because someone is blind, [80 per cent deaf] and in a wheelchair. When you think [McClellan is] in darkness, that's a scary thought … the darkness." I remember way back then when everything was true and when We would have such a very good time such a fine time Such a happy time - Our House, Madness (1982) The Dark Destroyer was born in Ilford, London, on January 22, 1964, the sixth of seven sons to immigrants from Barbados. His dad worked at a car factory, his mother at the local hospital. His brother Andy, nine years his senior and a feared streetfighter, was Benn's ill-fated hero. "The best time of my life was living at my mum and dad's and watching things on television like Saturday Night at the London Palladium with Max Bygraves," he said. "We used to have bread, put butter on it with sugar and put it under the grill. That was our treat." His innocence died in 1972 when Andy plummeted through a glass roof at a nearby observatory. While Benn's father maintains he fell, Benn believes "racists" pushed him. Regardless, his brother's groin was severed in the fall and he bled to death. The tragedy crippled his younger sibling because, as he says,[url=http://www.longchamp-handbags-outlet.net]longchamp le pliage[/url], "demons" took root in his soul. "There was a lot of anger in me," he said. "My smoking was a rebellion. Some people would say [Andy] was my hero. He was a hard nut with his hands. I was like a little cub [following a lion]; it was hard for me to deal with. "I took on his spirit. If you look at him, compared to kids nowadays … nuthin' like that. He weren't out stabbing people, weren't out shooting people, he was just out fighting people. It was just, like, fisticuffs, not like mugging old women, burglary … he was just a fighter. "I took on his spirit. Before I became a Christian I had to deal with the demons. I was eight years old. I used to think, 'why am I like this?' I took on his persona. My dad was more worried about [my older brothers] going out than me. At 12, I was out until 7am because he thought I could look after myself … that's the way it was in 1976. Things were different." It was on the streets where Benn became addicted to weed, ecstasy and sex. He has said, however, that even at his lowest ebb he always respected his parents and even spared a thought for his father when he started training kids for free at Blacktown. "One guy was swearing," he said. "I said, 'do you mind, I don't like swearing,' and he said, 'that's not my problem, that's your problem,' and I had to change because I'm in his environment. But because he knew how I felt, he stopped. Where I grew up if I swore my dad would knock it out of me. You just never swore." I'm up on the hills, playing little boy soldiers, Reconnaissance duty up at 5.30. Shoot, shoot, shoot and kill the natives, You're one of us and we love you for that. - Little Boy Soldiers, The Jam (1979) When Benn joined the British army he found a place where he, and his demons, could thrive. He adopted a regimented soldier's voice when his military service was raised. "Four years 256 days. Army number 2460461, Fusilier. First Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers - Sir!" he says with a snappy salute. "They were hard men … I was like a little boy [17] when I went in there. "I served 18 months in Northern Ireland and that was very scary. I remember when we were told do you want the good news or the bad news first. We wanted the good news - we're going to Cyprus. The bad news? We're going to Northern Ireland first. All the black blokes looked at each other and thought, 'that's really funny.''' It wasn't. While Benn never experienced the level of camaraderie he enjoyed as a soldier - before or since - he gained an insight into the sorrow of war. "The only way one corporal's wife [after six men were killed in a car bombing] could identify her husband was by his arm that was [found] 600 metres away. They went on a fishing trip and [the IRA] took out the front of his dashboard and packed it with explosives. "So it was scary PLUS I stick out like a sore thumb in Northern Ireland - you don't see too many black Paddies, do ya? I found the Irish lovely people. I didn't want no trouble; just had a job I had to do … they were fighting for their freedom and their rights. It was too political for me … I just got to do a job." When Benn returned to civilian life and made a name for himself as a boxer in between working as a store detective, he feared his military service made him a target. "Because you were there, you check out under your car and everything," he said. "They have the light sensitive device, light hits it and BOOM you burn up … trigger mechanisms … You're nervous when you get out, especially when people say, 'oh yeah, he was in the army.'" In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of ev'ry glove that layed him down Or cut him till he cried out In his anger and his shame - The Boxer, Paul Simon (1968) Nigel Benn still flays the heavy bag at Blacktown with a world champion's touch. He punctuates the volley of bullet-like shots to yell instructions to the group whose origins are Aussie, Samoan, Lebanese, Sudanese and from lands in between who follow his orders without question. "If they're in the gym they're not out on the streets selling drugs," he said of the group. "If they're in the gym they're not outside fighting. I'm helping to discipline them. I'm trying to be a father figure who they can come to and talk to about their problems - not just their training but about what's going on. I want to be able to 'do' life with them." Benn started training at the PCYC not long after he and his second wife Carolyne moved to Australia a year-and-a-half ago. The former world champion who lived in Spain, Florida, Los Angeles, Jamaica and Barbados said he was blessed to be in Sydney. "My wife said let's go and look at Australia," Benn said. "I said, 'Australia? Why do you want to look at Australia for? Everything venomous lives in Australia. I don't want to go.' Anyway, she twisted my arm. "We love it. I go to Hillsong College and it's been an absolute blessing. It's incredible. The church I went to was down the nose but here it's like there is no condemnation. Everyone is free. There's laughing in church, they're worshiping and wearing jeans. "All my life I've had people serve me. Now it's nice to cut people's gardens, to do the lawn, make a cup of tea, paint their house [as part of his religious devotion]. That's a blessing and I enjoy it. I had a life of sex, drugs … [a] suicide attempt. I was a liar, a cheat, a thief, but to be in a place where I was able to confess 16 years' worth of affairs to my wife - I mean, my wife [who introduced him to the church] doesn't like me saying this but she's my knight in shining armour … she stood by me. She gave me a few right-handers, but she stood by me. When I said the prayer of salvation and accepted Jesus as my lord and saviour all my addictions from drink, from sex and smoking weed it [clicks his fingers] all went like that. I was set free from everything. I wasn't tormented no more [by], 'oh you're wife don't know about this [illicit secret]'. My wife knows everything and we're more happier now." "I hit him, I hit him, yes, it's true, But that's what I am paid to do. Don't say 'murder', don't say 'kill'. It was destiny, it was God's will." - Who Killed Davey Moore? Bob Dylan (1963) Benn was not supposed to fight McClellan that fateful night. He was meant to oppose another American, Michael Nunn, who, at 188 centimetres, a southpaw and super-slick, would have proved an awkward opponent. After a dispute about the purse, King threatened to pit the Englishman against McClellan and warned he was a mini-Mike Tyson. "Oh really? I'm scared," Benn said with mock indignation as he recited the conversation. "I don't work like that. I had six brothers,[url=http://www.longchamp-handbags-outlet.net]longchamp sale[/url], we used to fight for breakfast, for food. I'm not going to be scared by anyone with two arms, two legs and a heart. It was more pride. I thought, 'how dare you.' I had five years in the army, 18 months in Northern Ireland." Benn was almost knocked through the ropes in the first round and seemingly in danger of being dethroned. He credited his cutman, the late Dennie Mancini, for providing him with the will to fight on when he pointed towards the American and said, 'Look at the state you've got him in.' The thought McClellan was hurt after the pummelling he had inflicted on Benn gave the champion heart and, in what became a dangerous tone, he chased the American in the second round. The fight ended in the 10th round when McClellan was counted out while he knelt in capitulation. McClellan's last vision was most likely of Benn's fists that had tortured him for 30 minutes. When he woke from his coma the-then 27-year-old little Mike Tyson was a shell of the man he was. "I came out of the ring with a damaged nose, damaged jaw, I was urinating blood for three days and there was a shadow on my brain," Benn said. "He came out of it paralysed and blind, 80 per cent deaf and in a wheelchair." Twelve years after the bout the pair were reunited when Benn organised a dinner in plush Mayfair to raise $250,000 to assist his old foe - but it took a toll. "You have to shout in his ear [for him to hear] and he said, 'Is this the guy who did this to me?'" Benn recalled. "'I know he didn't mean to do it.' All night I was emotional. All these thoughts going through my mind; couldn't wait to get out of there. Couldn't sleep … I was all messed up." Despite his effort to roll with life's punches and past pains, Benn reached a point where he could not take any more and he tried to end it one night when, at 37, he drove his flash car to south London and flushed a handful of sleeping pills into his system with wine. He waited for death but it did not come knocking. After a two-day sleep he rose determined to change the path that had caused such pain and hurt. When he has bade farewell, the champ, who plans to become a marriage counsellor in Australia, drew upon Philippians 3:12-15 as his parting shot. Nigel Benn always had the KO blow. "I am still not all I should be," he said. "But I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven." Maybe the Dark Destroyer has found what he has craved since he was eight years old. Peace. Heavy-hitter: Nigel Benn's stellar careerNigel Benn fought 48 professional bouts. He won 42, 35 of them by KO. His KO percentage was a phenomenal 80. He had five losses, was KO'd four times and had one draw, with Chris Eubank.The Eubank-Benn rivalry ran much deeper than that of Aussies Danny Green and Anthony Mundine. But Benn insisted he now respected his foe. ''He had a jaw like granite, he had muscles on top of muscles. You'd hit his jaw and he wouldn't move. It was like hitting rock.''He won his first world title, the WBO middleweight belt, in 1990 when he stopped US champ Doug Dewitt. He was knocked down in the second but knocked DeWitt down in the third. He knocked DeWitt down three times in the eighth.He won the WBC super-middleweight title in Italy in 1992 when Mauro Galvano was unable to box on because of a severe cut. Benn was declared the winner by a fourth-round TKO.Benn's 16-year-old son Conor wants to follow his father's footsteps and is training to fight as an amateur. The video Benn has on his iPad of his boy boxing shows an explosive puncher blessed with potential.
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