Interesting thoughts of Eubank! (New)

[coghaugen11]

From an online boxing blog, in LV


How do you feel about the state of British boxing today compared to your day?

Well, that's for other people to say according to being compared to my day. In my day you had some supremely talented boxers to watch like Herol Graham and a young Colin McMillan and a young Naseem Hamed.

You also had very very hard hard top fighters like the terrific Barry McGuigan and Paul Hodkinson.

Today, it's so much easier to win and keep a championship because it seems there are more titles than there are fighters!

People don't box anymore, there aren't boxing gyms on the street corners of the cities like there used to be; for both sides of the Atlantic I'm speaking.

Nigel Benn, Naz - two of the greatest punchers of the world, if truth be told.

In Lennox Lewis you had a master boxer and sledgehammer puncher and big performer, who would go on to be a great fighter.

Other big guys, Frank Bruno, Herbie Hide; they had the punching abilities in them to shake up anyone, as David Haye has today. But there were three of them back then.

To have guys like Mike McCallum to have to contend with, I mean man. Some of the best fighters ever, in their prime, wouldn't go near this particular man, apparently so.

I, personally, certainly wasn't going to risk my livelihood with that guy unless he was mandated - and there are no Mike McCallum's around today, believe you me. And I kid you not, my friend.

But no, I mean. David Haye. David Haye is excellent. Amir Khan has done excellent and Carl Froch is doing well. And they're all doing well.


You're very honest in stating that you avoided the likes of McCallum and others like James Toney for instance. Do you think other fighters have that honesty?

Facts don't lie, objectivities don't lie. I never dodged a fighter. Of course I wasn't going to defend against McCallum or fight Toney unless it was worth my while, if it wasn't mandated.

To put yourself in my shoes, it means giving yourself up to loneliness from 16 to 25 or 16 to 30 and surrendering your life every day. By loneliness I mean zero social interactions, no recreational substances of any kind.

You only do that to actually gain something in return, and for me that something was money, and I was always honest about that. That's my integrity.


Do you think there should only be one world champion?

Of course there should. It hurts the integrity of boxing as a sport that there's not one champion of the world per stipulated weight-class. And that is why I don't view it as sport, I view it as a business. Because that's what it is. And a brutal blood business at that! Which is just truth.


Many people feel that apart from Nigel Benn, the opposition you fought was maybe lacking!

Well, that's crap! Excuse my base wording and bad language, but that is very crap... very crap. A professional boxer is dangerous, he knows how to punch with full rotation of his body.

The man in the street wouldn't last 15 seconds with 97.5% of all professional boxers all around the world, ever, in or out of the ring.


More relatively, then, compared to your peers and the attention you got as champion in your day!

I don't know, I mean that's obviously a subjective view. From my subjective view, Benn wasn't the best that I fought. Michael Watson in our second fight was very nearly unbeatable that night.

You say relatively? I had about a dozen fights in fighting Anthony Logan and Randy Smith, no money, and they'd given all the world's leading middleweights difficulties when the middleweights were pound-for-pound the best boxers and punchers.

Ron Essett was more slippery a fighter than any of the Americans Nigel Benn ever fought in his career.

Graciano Rocchigiani was 35 fights, 35 wins and a giant for the weight in his backyard overseas and a southpaw on top of that.

I had some very difficult tasks and I never took a break.


Just talk to us about Benn and Watson for abit, because they are your signature fights...

What do you want to know?


Was it apparent they'd be rivals of yours?

Oh yeah, I mean I was studying those two about three or four years before I fought them. I knew they'd come. I was ringside when they fought eachother and I didn't miss a millisecond of it!

Nigel was arguably the most dangerous puncher out there and he tried knocking Michael out with everything, so for me Michael had the best defense out there that wasn't evasive.

So they were mighty tasks, to overcome these men. In the rematches against these men, against me, the return matches; Watson improved his offense tenfold and Benn improved his defense tenfold.

So all four of those fights were such mighty mighty tasks for me, they really were, and it fills me with pride to this day and will always that I beat them both and didn't lose.

They were my age, they were my race, they were my nationality, they were in my profession, and they excelled at what they did. They kept me in the gym and gave me a pretty good life! I thank them both for that.


How do you recall the (Joe) Calzaghe fight?

The main thing I remember about Calzaghe was how hard he punched. I thought he had bricks in his gloves at one point. On top of that - he was big, he was strong, he was hearty, he had fast hand speed and he had a very awkward southpaw stance.

He was unbeaten, he didn't know how to lose. I actually lost 20 pounds in a week and was preparing for a righty light-heavyweight. (Laughs) Has there ever been many more difficult tasks?

On top of all that, he puts me down in the opening 15 seconds, for only the second clean knockdown of my life. (Laughs)

Joe obviously went on to be an exceptionally great world champion.


Who was the hardest man you fought?

Henry Wharton. I hit him with everything, over and again, and he just soaked it all up with hardness on the way in.


What stands out for you, Chris, in terms of you, looking back on your boxing life now?

I think the meteoricness of what I did. I first started boxing when I was nearly 17 years old in New York, I was 18 and just turned 19 when I was getting on television screens as an amateur and professional, in the Madison Square Gardens and Casino/hotels.

I defended my world championship against certain men that I used to watch on television when I was still a school kid, as championship fighters or in world-class fights.

I don't think anybody really did what I did, in a meteoric sense. Not just boxers. From being homeless and penniless at age 22, to being a millionaire at age 24, for example. It's a little bit 'out'.

[housesecond]

The older he gets the more i like him. Top bloke.

[Deserter]

The older he gets the more i like him. Top bloke.

x2. Thanks for posting that Coghaugen as I really enjoyed reading it

[SteveO]

Great read, thanks for posting. I've always liked Eubank.

[coghaugen11]

Eubank on Haye: http://www.talksport.net/mediaplayer/me ... ediaType=1

[n1ebf]

coghaugen...ur always posting on Eubank...he a relative or something? In fact I don't see u post on much else. Not a dig, I'm just curious.

[jamesmcdonnell]

bit of hypocrisy there, one minute he's saying that everyone out there now sucks, then when questioned about his own list of poor opponents, he says that every professional boxer is dangerous, and the man on the street wouldn't last 5 seconds with them. WTF?

Also, lets not forget that Eubank was the beneficiary of the fact there were several belts, as he held the lightly regarded WBO belt for much of his career - so he's hardly in a position to criticise the sport for having too many belts now is he?

I like Eubank, but he doesn't half chat some cobblers.

[overhand_right]

Exactly what I was thinking James, Eubank benefited from paper titles. Does he ever win a middleweight title with Michael Nunn around to box his ears off? Does he pick up a title at super middle later from Iran Barkley, James Toney, Roy Jones et al?

One champ per division and a multitude of British 'champs' never become world champs. Eubank, Collins, Woodhall, Reid, and end up probably regarded as lightly as poor old Henry Cooper who could only challenge the absolute elite for the title and as such seems to be dismissed by the brits around here.

Benn, Calzaghe probably pick up a belt but don't reign that long.

Eubank's excuse that these dangerous guys 'were never my mandatory'... that's because no serious fighter gave a crap about the WBO belt in those days. It's been to the detriment of boxing that that attitude has changed in the last 5 years in my opinion.

[Greg Nicholas]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... ds-newsxml

[Greg Nicholas]

Chris would prob never of beaten Nunn in 1990/91 , i agree, but then again there is no MW today on Nunns level, none today on Mccallums level or with Benns or Jacksons punch..

[Old bones Ian]

Here's a little clip i added to youtube, check out Eubanks changing room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdJ6ze-6EQ0

[whiskey]

Here's a little clip i added to youtube, check out Eubanks changing room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdJ6ze-6EQ0

haha

10/10

[Finn]

I think that was one great thing about Eubank he has always been open about how he boxer for the money.

You would get PBF coming out and saying "i didnt want a fight against - a, b, and c - because they're dangerous and i dont want to put my neck on the line unless im going to get paid really reall well."

We all know thats why most of the big fights dont happen - Calzaghe v Jones Jr for a start - calzaghe wouldnt put his unbeaten record on the line and fight for a lesser share of the purse and Jones wouldnt risk his reputation on the line to fight a relatively unknown in the US fighter like calzaghe.

[Bricks]

Exactly what I was thinking James, Eubank benefited from paper titles. Does he ever win a middleweight title with Michael Nunn around to box his ears off? Does he pick up a title at super middle later from Iran Barkley, James Toney, Roy Jones et al?

One champ per division and a multitude of British 'champs' never become world champs. Eubank, Collins, Woodhall, Reid, and end up probably regarded as lightly as poor old Henry Cooper who could only challenge the absolute elite for the title and as such seems to be dismissed by the brits around here.

Benn, Calzaghe probably pick up a belt but don't reign that long.

Eubank's excuse that these dangerous guys 'were never my mandatory'... that's because no serious fighter gave a crap about the WBO belt in those days. It's been to the detriment of boxing that that attitude has changed in the last 5 years in my opinion.

Both of you are totally correct.
I like Eubanks and think he is a fantastic talker with a unique perspective , but at the same time he is hypocritical and pretentious.
He took umbrage at the statement his competition wasnt great.

But can you imagine Eubanks having to endure what herol Graham did. Graham was 40 fighst unbeaten and was the no 1 contender for the MW title in 1986. There was only one champion the fearsome Hagler who was seemingly from another era of the philly wars of the 70's when a single city of philapdelphia hosted dozens of middleweights who surely would be better than anything in the world at 160 right now.

To be honest I think the middleweight division for the 4-5 years following the post Hagler-SRL fallout was the strongest it has ever been in the last 25 years. Nunn,McCallum,Toney,Hearns,Duran,Barkley,Jackson,Graham,Kalambay,Collins, Watson, Benn etc etc not to mention SRL , Terry Norris and John Mugabi hovering around.

Eubanks did fight and beat benn and watson who really at the time the best in the UK if not europe (kalambay) but unlike benn and watson he didnt take on the higher level of foes.

If the middleweight division at the time Eubanks campaigned in it, had had only one champ. I cant see Chris having beaten a Hagler,Hearns, Nunn, Toney or Mccallum. the second tier lets say a 38 year old duran, kalambay and Graham he may have beaten at his best. He did beat Benn and watson after all who belonged in this tier too.
1987-1991 was a magnificent time for the MW division and the fights we did see

Duran-Barkley, Nunn-Kalambay,Hearns V Roldan, Mcallum V Graham,Tate V Olajide, Eubanks V Benn, Benn V Barkley, Jackson V Graham, Kalambay V McCallum, to name a few.

[superpunchout]

If the middleweight division at the time Eubanks campaigned in it, had had only one champ. I cant see Chris having beaten a Hagler,Hearns, Nunn, Toney or Mccallum.

On paper you could discredit what I am about to say with contemptuous ease but with the exception of James Toney, I think a motivated Eubank could have beaten all of the above one way or another.

[coghaugen11]

Eubanks did fight and beat benn and watson who really at the time the best in the UK if not europe (kalambay)

I dunno, Kalambay was never the same after Nunn knocked him out in a round.

[coghaugen11]

If the middleweight division at the time Eubanks campaigned in it, had had only one champ. I cant see Chris having beaten a Hagler,Hearns, Nunn, Toney or Mccallum.

On paper you could discredit what I am about to say with contemptuous ease but with the exception of James Toney, I think a motivated Eubank could have beaten all of the above one way or another.

I can see him beating Toney with his jab, can't see him beating Hearns.

Hagler and Hearns were like years before Eubank got into world contender status..?

[coghaugen11]

An interesting thing is Eubank knocked down Herol Graham in an opening round of sparring the day before the Nunn-Kalambay fight, believe it or not.

According to Johnny Nelson, Eubank actually knocked Graham out.

[Old bones Ian]

Here's what Herol says on the subject of that 'KO'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3pILRBdv1s

[coghaugen11]

Eubank in an interview in Spain just before the Graham-Jackson fight, 'In the 1st round, yeah ... I didn't put him on his bottom, I put him on his back! That's how hard I hit him.' (on the sparring 'KD' of Graham..)

[Finn]

I think eubank at his best was probably one of the best fighters to fight at middle and super middle weight and certainly one of the most entertaining.

i think he would have bested toney.

[overhand_right]

If the middleweight division at the time Eubanks campaigned in it, had had only one champ. I cant see Chris having beaten a Hagler,Hearns, Nunn, Toney or Mccallum.

On paper you could discredit what I am about to say with contemptuous ease but with the exception of James Toney, I think a motivated Eubank could have beaten all of the above one way or another.

You think Chris Eubank could have beaten Marvin Hagler....?

But, he could not beat James Toney?

Where to begin with comparing Hagler and Toney's middlweight form, before even getting to the fact that Hagler was absolutely too good in every single department for him to ever lose to Chris Eubank.

[coghaugen11]

Marvin was amazing in the late 70s and early 80s, he had the absolute package apart from being southpaw and granite-chinned with a concrete head and ultra-tough. He could counter-punch with perfect timing, lead off with perfect timing, he had great balance and deceptive reach and he didn't tire. That Hagler was the best MW ever for me.

You know, Hagler's PRE-world title opposition was better than Calzaghe's world title challengers!

But, the popular '85-'87 Hagler, all-out marauding, would lose to Eubank, Toney and Calzaghe.

[whiskey]

I liked Eubank, he brought a different angle, his posturing was hilarious - and he could be exciting on his day.

But he's dining out to often on his tales of 'Benn etc' and has become a bit tedious over the years - and he wasn't top 3 when he had his title... more like top 10.

[coghaugen11]

Ofcourse he was top 3. We all know it was Nunn, McCallum and him or Nunn, Toney and him. In '92 we all know he was a better boxer than Barkley.

He was awesome.