BoxRec

Yes, poor old Michael. I thought he was the most talented of the three, and would have gone on to achieve a great deal more. His taming of Benn and the way he controlled Eubank in the 1st fight, and for the majority of the 2nd, showed that he had all the tools neccessary to become a world champ. He got shafted against Eubank in their first fight, and but for a foolish error (not protecting himself when the ref waved them together), would have beaten Eubank in their second.

Great days for British boxing, which we may never see the like of again sadly.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Yes, poor old Michael. I thought he was the most talented of the three, and would have gone on to achieve a great deal more. His taming of Benn and the way he controlled Eubank in the 1st fight, and for the majority of the 2nd, showed that he had all the tools neccessary to become a world champ. He got shafted against Eubank in their first fight, and but for a foolish error (not protecting himself when the ref waved them together), would have beaten Eubank in their second.

Great days for British boxing, which we may never see the like of again sadly.

Chris has to live with what happened, but it was McCallum who made Michael a lesser fighter. Mr Duff put him in for that way too soon and he predictably got a hammering from one of the most underrated fighters of the era.

Well, I've heard this theory trotted about a lot, but there's no evidence to back it up whatsoever. Yes, it was a bit soon, but Michael himself claimed in his book that he had an injury in training camp which forced him to fight a different fight to the one he planned, having to chase McCallum down.

Fact is, Eubank landed an uppercut which whipped Michael's head back, compressing the spinal cord and the base of the brain, and causing tearing to the brain surface and swelling. This wasn't caused by the beating he took from McCallum, if he was a lesser fight afterward, then why was he handing Eubank's arse to him in the 2nd fight? Eubank was absolutely exhausted and badly hurt, and dredged a punch up from the pit of his stomach, it was his last hurrah in that fight, and it was he who was on the end of a beating for most of that fight, not Watson.

Watson did look drained vs the superior McCallum, but he looked super strong in the 2nd Eubank fight - he seemed to have learned, come back stronger, and benefited the move up to 168 lbs.

Any fighter who looked bigger than Chris at 12 stone, must have been struggling to make the 12 stone limit - Watson did, so I would imagine he was very drained at Middle. Although, his first fight with Eubank (which he won, in most eyes) was at Middleweight.

After his London Marathon truimph, Michael was in the public eye a few times. On a few occasions he was on TV with Calzaghe, he looked bigger than Joe.

James,

Where did you get your information from re: Watson's injury. Just curious, I always assumed it was an accumilation of the punches as opposed to the KD blow.

I remember reading a report around the time. It was speculation on their part, but they suggested the trauma was caused by the final uppercut. It was clear Watson was fooked after that punch, he didn't know what was going on when he came out for the next round.

I do know that blows that cause high torsion (where the head is spun around on the vertebrae or rotated upward as Michaels was) often cause brain injuries, as the brain is forced violently against the side of the skull.

Did Watson's head hit the ring apron on the way down as well?

i'm sure his neck snaped back after hitting the bottom rope

Goz wrote:It's Eubank!

Actually it's EUBANKS as in Simon and Peter his brothers being Eubanks.

He dropped the 'S' by choice as he thought it sounded better.

Goz wrote:It's Eubank!

Actually it's EUBANKS as in Simon and Peter his brothers being Eubanks.

He dropped the 'S' by choice as he thought it sounded better.

Come a bit late there, we've already been through all this.

boxingchat wrote:

Goz wrote:It's Eubank!

Actually it's EUBANKS as in Simon and Peter his brothers being Eubanks.

He dropped the 'S' by choice as he thought it sounded better.

Your comments on the SN will-they-wont-they Enzo v Haye pantomime would be more welcome, rather then reinterating a fact that has already been commented on several times..

Yes Boxingtrap's normally ubiquitiously voluminous mouth seems remarkably tight lipped on the subject, given his frantic opining on matters regarding other promoters previously.

Watson was quite an average fighter, it has to be said, until the second Eubank fight where he was leagues above anything we'd ever seen from him before.. to this day Eubank maintains Watson possessed "superhuman strength" on that fateful night and "abnormal stamina", and everything Eubank hit Michael with - nothing, Michael kept on coming. He was like a man possessed.

But come on, before that Watson didn't ever really show much. All he had to against Benn was tuck up! Let that maniac punch himself out by whacking arms and gloves, Benn fought like a berk that night. And against McCallum, he looked so one-paced and average. And in the first Eubank fight, he just didn't do anything! Eubank made him look very slow and static. Eubank boxed out of his skin for five and six rounds (first fight), picking up every round and making Watson look bad, until dehydration set in badly because he'd lost 19lbs in four days and actually passed out the day before. Eubank could barely even stay stood up after six rounds, and was fighting on empty by the 10th. That exposed Watson, because Eubank was clearly there for the taking when all the strength drained away from after five or six rounds.

Btw, it was reported in Boxing Monthly six weeks before the first Eubank/Watson fight that Watson was weighing 159 then (six weeks previous that is). So it wasn't being weight-drained that made Michael looked so bad in the first Eubank fight, it was a combination of being timid after what McCallum did to him and Eubank just being too quick and slick for him (until Eubank completely ran out of strength after five or six rounds - remember the weigh-in was on the day of the fight).

But Watson in the second Eubank fight, man, he kept the pace of a lightweight and was putting everything into every punch, and was half a stone heavier than he was in the first fight (and even six weeks before the first fight) yet, if you look, even more ripped! Scarey stuff. Eubank's claims that Watson must of been drugs in the immediate post-interview were genuine. Michael was just too strong, too powerful, too tough, too determined, too motivated, too fit for Eubank that night, how Eubank survived that shit I don't know, and actually winning the thing - all power to him!

Greg Nicholas wrote:But come on, before that Watson didn't ever really show much. All he had to against Benn was tuck up! Let that maniac punch himself out by whacking arms and gloves, Benn fought like a berk that night.

You make that sound a hell of a lot easier than it actually was, like saying in Zaire Ali just had to take a few shots until the big guy got tired. Credit where it's due that's one of the bravest performances I've seen and Watson showed a lot of smarts that night.

would anyone else have preferred to see eubank in with mclellan rather than benn in with the g man? would have been interesting to see how chris would have coped with that brutal firepower.

Riddick Blowe wrote:would anyone else have preferred to see eubank in with mclellan rather than benn in with the g man? would have been interesting to see how chris would have coped with that brutal firepower.

Not at all. McClellan would of been weerily stalking with his arms out in front of him and a concentrated/confused look on his face, while Eubank would be potshotting here and there and generally going about his business in his usual bizarre way.. then McClellan would catch up with Eubank, like everybody else did, and start out-working him.. and then the judges just about gift it to Eubank in the end, as always.

King and American TV weren't interested in Eubank's WBO title anyway, and Benn was a much bigger name in America than Eubank. And McClellan and Benn was a far more attractable fight all-around (for obvious reasons)!

Anyway, Eubank would of just priced himself out, asking for a hefty retirement fund to get in with a McClellan (or a Jones or a Toney). He hated the game ;)

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I remember reading a report around the time. It was speculation on their part, but they suggested the trauma was caused by the final uppercut. It was clear Watson was fooked after that punch, he didn't know what was going on when he came out for the next round.

I do know that blows that cause high torsion (where the head is spun around on the vertebrae or rotated upward as Michaels was) often cause brain injuries, as the brain is forced violently against the side of the skull.

Did Watson's head hit the ring apron on the way down as well?

How, explain can a head hit the ring apron on the way down?

To quote pink floyd....

A momentary lapse of reason.

It is just possible however, that somehow Watson's head momentarily entered another dimension and was therefore able to pass through the ropes before returning to this dimension.

I think it was the ropes wasn't it that Watson's neck hit.

My memories of the first Benn fight are very different to yours it seems Greg, I don't have it on tape

It's easy to say that all Michael had to do was cover up, but nobody before was able to do that and come out on top, admittedly, Benn was bowling over a bunch of gangly African game park wardens (Michael Chilembe springs to mind), but I still thought that Watson looked class.

Michael was totally spanked by McCallum, but Mike was a master boxer, the finest all round fighter of his era you could argue, and Watson just wasn't ready for that test yet. No shame in that. He tried to chase him down and pressure him, which backfired massively, but he gave it a go. McCallum would have brutalised Benn and would have beaten Eubank too, though in a closer contest.

I can see McCallum beating Benn, but he'd have to get up off the floor to do so.

As for Eubank, McCallum IMO admitted defeat when saying "The only way to beat Eubanks is to jump on him and not let him up for air" - McCallum was not a natural pressure fighter. Also, he avoided Eubank like the plague for most of 1990, Hearn offered him career-high purses. If you stood in front of McCallum you stood very little chance, his offense was absolutely top-notch, he could throw every shot in the book so effortlessly and only Roy Jones Jr could triple up the jab without even thinking about it like McCallum could, but Eubank, ofcourse, would not be standing in front of him. He'd beat McCallum to the punch and use his body sways to cause McCallum to fall short.