23.01.07 – By Michael Marley, Boxingconfidential.com: Jameel McCline was legitimately knocked out this morning. Knocked out by an anesthesiologist working with Dr. Michael Stoller at the Paramus (NJ) Medical Center. McCline tore the patella tendon in his left knee during his WBA heavyweight title bout Saturday night in Basel, Switzerland, and will be out of boxing for at least six months.
When he awakens from surgery or soon thereafter, the hulking heavyweight may receive some very good news. Instead of his TKO loss to Russian Giant Nickolay Valuev being his strike three, you’re out heavyweight title chance, there is a possibility that the World Boxing Association will consider or even rule that MCline get a fourth title try.
“Word is spreading and the YouTube.com video of the fight tells no lies,” McCline manager Scott Hirsch told boxingconfidential.com today. “I checked the scorecards and two guys had it 2-1 for Valuev while the third had it scored 2-1 McCline, In all fairness, I thought it was 1-1-1 but, in that third round, Valuev started making Jameel look quick. Jameel caught the champ with four or five good shots that included a couple of nice combinations. I invite the media, the fans, boxing industry people…everyone to look at the video and judge for themselves. This was a freak injury and it was not caused by any punch or punches.”
WBA supervisor at ringside was the veteran Renzo Bagnariol, an Italian who lives in Nicaragua. Hirsch had a chat with the supervisor after McCline, 36, was carried away from the ring literally screaming in pain. The 7-foot Valuev weighed 322 pounds for the title defense which improved his record to 46-0.
Bagnariol was traveling today but he sent this email to me: “I will be back to my office on Friday. I have not seen the replay but my first impressions that McCline slipped after throwing a failed punch. He then went to the floor injuring himself. It was a very unfortunate incident in my opinion.”
“Renzo told me he thought the fight was truly competitive,” Hirsch said. “He thought that maybe Valuev stepped on Jameel’s foot or they stepped on each other. He said he may recommend that the winner of Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev be mandated to defend the title against McCline. I got the sense that Renzo personally feels Jameel deserves another opportunity.”
Hirsch said he and attorney Mike “Bandwagon” Borao are formulating correspondence to the WBA office and Gilberto Mendoza Jr. in which they will make their “strong case” that the result of the bout be changed from a Valuev TKO victory to a no contest. Hirsch said they will cite historical precedents.
Keith Idec, North Jersey Herald News, had these exclusive quotes from the 6-6, 238-pound McCline before the heavyweight went under the knife of Dr. Stoller today: “I was beating that kid .I was getting to him. It was just like Mike said, I was recapturing my youth. I wasn’t that Jameel you saw in the (Chris) Byrd fight, or in the (Calvin) Brock fight, or the (Zuri) Lawrence fight, or in any of those other fights. I was back. It was like everything was in slow motion, except for me. I was feeling so good, and then all of a sudden, bang!”