BoxRec

Hot seat: Chris Eubank
By Matt Slater, January 2008



Not a week goes by without Time Out readers getting in touch to say they have seen larger than life former world boxing champion Chris Eubank out and about in Dubai. The dapper sportsman has been spotted sauntering into Double Decker, watching the tennis championships, enjoying afternoon tea in the Burj and cheering on a winner at the horse races. Matt Slater caught up with the flamboyant pugilist to discover what he is doing here and to find out whether he is really as eccentric as people think.

Chris, from the amount of times you are spotted by our readers it would seem you never stay in. Are you living in Dubai permanently?

I have been coming here for 12 years now and once promoted my own fight at The Aviation Club. I have family and friends here and decided to make it my base a few years back. It is a great place and I like to go out and do things and meet interesting people. I have a lot of business interests and I am currently involved in an upcoming white-collar boxing event. I am helping to train normal people for several weeks and at the end they will then have a boxing match in front of spectators.

How was your Christmas and New Year?

Fine, thank you.

Will people pay to watch two overweight businessmen knock the living daylights out of each other?

It is not about that – it is about discipline and control. They will learn how to be involved in a boxing match in terms of the strategy and skill needed. You will not see people going in with big windmill punches looking silly. They will box properly and for those involved it will change them as a person.

You held one last year as well. What were your first impressions after watching ordinary office folk train and spar?

That they were a group of heroes. They were doing something that is selfless – raising awareness and money for children’s charities. So they were already winners in my eyes. But my job was to make them understand what the event was really about, same again this time. If they think it’s just about raising money for the children then they have not understood what the task is about. The means by which they are raising money is one that takes a lot of concentration, sinew, resolve, conviction, determination and suffering. They have to equip themselves mentally as well as physically.

They are warriors and there is a warrior code which one has to adhere to. The code that I describe involves striking your opponent – not an easy thing for your average white-collar worker to adapt to having trained alongside each other for several weeks and developed solid friendships. But that is where the mental preparation comes in. When they get to the ring that night they will have to secure points by hitting their adversary, who they respect and like. They have to strike them. Their opponent will strike them. They will get hit.

As always, Chris, it looks like you have just stepped off a fashion shoot. Apart from when you have actually just got out of bed, do you ever look like you have just got out of bed?

I always look smart and I always carry myself properly. What you wear and the way you wear it says a lot about someone. Look at you for example – you have your top button on your shirt undone and you are saying, ‘Yeah, I am a relaxed kind of guy.’ If you do your top button up you will look like a geek. You would look like Forrest Gump. Not that it would be a bad thing to be Forrest Gump – he does a lot in that film. Anyway, what I am saying is that how you feel works with how you dress. Look at me – I have my tie absolutely perfect, my suit fits just right and my shoes are polished. I mean business.

I see that you can’t be bothered with your hair any longer and so have just taken it all off...

I used to fly a barber down to Brighton from Manchester every eight or nine days for around 13 years. Each cut would cost me £300. He would actually sculpt it. But one day I read a quotation that said: 'They say God gave very few men perfect heads, the rest he put hair on.'

Last year, yourself and George Foreman did a series of sportsmans dinners and people are wondering if you have any planned for this year and who may accompony you this time around?

I will get back to you on that.

A lot of boxers do very little after retiring from the sport. Did you always have an eye on what you would do after your last fight?

No, because when you live the life of a fighter, that is all you do. You are up very early around 5.30am and train all day and then in bed by 10pm. You can’t have a day off for rest. To be the best you have to have that discipline. However, I knew that I would do other things one day and that it would involve boxing.

How would you have fared against ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard?

That’s not for me to say. What you are to do is you are to keep all the eras to themselves. It wouldn’t be fair on them and it wouldn’t be fair on me.

Did you always expect you’d become a world boxing champion?

Not at all. You have to understand that it’s a slow process. I started at 16. After two years I knew balance, how to stand, how to throw 1-2s, how to throw a straight left jab, how to throw a straight right hand, how to side-step, how to catch and counter with a straight left hand and how to catch and counter with a straight right hand. That’s knowing perhaps 5%. Sorry if I’m getting a little too technical for you!

No, you’re all right. So when did you realise that you could ‘make it’ in boxing?

When I was about 22. I beat a world class fighter in the novice stages of my career, won 10 out of 10 against a fighter who was widely seen as a testing ground for future champions, and displayed my entire repertoire in less than two rounds against a journeyman boxer from Canada. Then I knew that the six or seven years of focus, application, abstinence, perseverance, isolation and self-belief had paid off and that I could go on from there and win the title.

Is it right that you practised Kung Fu also?

My gift was that of a granite constitution, most top boxers have gifts in fluidity and flexibility. In my boxing training, I had to repeat each punch and each move 10s of thousands of times to perfect it and would only subconciously use it in sparring and fights until it was perfected. I delved into the martial arts world when I was about 20 to take stretching exercises and practise various forms. I would subconciously use certain stances and moves in sparring and fights and it would confuse the other fighter. It was an evolution process.

Usually you find those with gifts in fluidity and flexibility haven’t bothered to learn how to absorb and soak up punishment and so fall short of true greatness due to not being the proper package.

What’s the greatest film ever made?

Once Upon a Time in the West. I’ve watched that on average about once every three weeks for the past few decades. The music is the most soothing of all soundtracks I’ve ever heard, and Charles Bronson is inspirational to the point of bliss. That harmonica and that very cool, laid-back gunslinger is just the best. He’s the man!

Finally Chris, my girlfriend came home last week to tell me how charming you were. You gave her a few nice compliments after she got off an escalator in Mall of the Emirates. Should I be worried?

I am glad she felt charmed. I believe that men should always act like proper gentlemen. I always open doors for women, always allow them to go first through doorways and always have impeccable manners. A lot more men should be like that.

For more details on the charity white-collar boxing event, to be held in March, contact Thomas Kelly on 050 559 2641.









Wonder how he gets his money..?

'Once Upon a Time in the West' is an awesome film, widely regarded as the greatest western ever. Excellent choice Chris!

He said he's 15 stone and easily handling Scott Welch in sparring, as well as dealing with Herbie (Hide) and Carlos De Leon's son. Interesting.

Some stuff from his book i found on the net..



This is how the situation resolved itself - George Foreman showed me the higher thinking and I acted on his advice. I was staying at the Midland Crown Plaza in Manchester. Mr Foreman and I had exchanged telephone numbers and we later met up in my hotel room, where we spent two hours talking about religion, life, virtues, being an older man, being in the public eye, all manner of things. One of the first pieces of advice he gave me was regarding fans. He said, 'I saw you on the TV today giving out autographs and they got something from you, they went away with their eyes lit up, but you got nothing. That's because you didn't make eye contact with anyone.' I watched the tape and he was right, so from then on, whenever I gave an autograph, I try to make eye contact. The fan sees you as a person, not just a celebrity or a puppet, and that is much more rewarding for me as a result.

However, the crucial piece of advice George offered me was regarding Naz. Foreman had seen a press conferece for Thompson 1 where several people had shouted me down and had been very abusive towards me. I didn't have a microphone so I could not reply, but nonetheless I remained dignified throughout and never lowered myself to their level.

Speaking to me in my hotel room, George Foreman said, 'I saw how you handled that press conference. I always knew Chris Eubank was a man of good conduct. But seeing that, you went up 20 times in my estimation. You didn't get up and walk out, you didn't shout back, you didn't retaliate or attack, you were calm and you rose above it.'

--

Then he came round to the subject of Naseem. He said, 'Naz is just a kid, he needs help. If you've ever liked this kid, if you've ever seen anything of worth in him, then next time you see him, just bring him towards you and give him a hug.' That was the first time in all those years that anyone had told me to take the higher ground. All my friends and supporters were understandably still smarting from Naz's words, that was a natural reaction. George Foreman didn't see it like that, he took a very different view, the higher plane. Hug him and help him.

I thought about George's words. I recalled way back when Naz and myself had first begun to know each other. I thought he was a good kid. I dwelled on the events and the more I thought about it, the more I knew George was right.

Since that day in 1998, I've been calling Naz and giving him advice. I didn't hug him the first time I saw him after George's advice, it was not appropriate, but the second time we saw eachother we made our reconciliation. I said to him, 'The past is the past. Leave that where it is. I will move forward with you.'

In some ways, the advice I give Naz is useless, because you can pass these things on but ultimately you learn best by making your own mistakes. So Naz and myself get on again now, because I dropped it, I rose above it and in so doing I am a better man than before. Naz, in return, has been a help to me in many ways. He inspires me with his boxing ability. I follow his career with fascination and look to him to become a man of integrity. How he reacts to what was a comprehensive defeat against Marco Antonio Barrera will perhaps demonstrate whether he can go on to become a great fighter.

Naz is still a young man. Some people are not open to the sort of thinking that George Foreman bestowed upto me that night. I have said to Naz, 'You can be short in reality, but stand tall in your mind and you can be bigger than life.' I will watch all this transpire to see if he can make himself a great fighter, maybe even a legend in his own lifetime. He has that potential.

To become a legend, you have to go through stages. If you win the title in a dignified manner, then you are a good fighter. If you then get stuck down on the canvas, drag yourself up and carry on, win or lose, you are a very good fighter. If you lose, then do so with dignity, but if you come back and win, then you are indeed a great fighter. To make yourself a legend in your own time is another matter - to do that you have to win a fight that you can't win.

Winning the fight you can't is very difficult to achieve. Benn did that. He fought Gerald McClellan, got knocked down and battered, yet still won against a vicious opponent. All the odds were heavily stacked against him. At that point, he was a demigod. It must be said that I have heard boxing enthusiasts say that this made him a legend in his own lifetime and I agree.

--

I have been privaleged to meet Muhammad Ali three times. The first brief encounter was at the Brit Awards. Then I was on set with him during the presentation of the BBC 'Sports Personality of the Century' awards ceremony. There were various high profile boxers present, including Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Frank Bruno, Barry McGuigan and Naseem. They were all talking about what Ali had accomplished in the boxing ring and what the man meant to each champion, but for me this was missing the point, this had no weight compared to Ali as a man. So, I had to make the point. When Ali put his hand on mine, this great man who has Parkinson's Disease, I began to shake and stutter. The programme had to be moved on because it was live, so John Inverdale, the presenter, said, 'It takes Muhammad Ali to shut up Chris Eubank'.

The third time I met Ali was the next day at his birthday party at The Hilton in London. It was an honour just to be invited. I wanted to give him a written message, but only had two of my postcards. I couldn't give him the card featuring the caricature of me, so I used one which pictured me by the side of my truck. I greeted his security guards, then went up to Ali and leant down, put my arm around his shoulder, handed the postcard to him and said, 'Don't worry about the picture on the back. Happy Birthday, this is for you.' I pointed at the five names on the card and read out my words. 'This is what you mean to me: Moses, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali. Thank you very much, Chris Eubank.' He listened, then said to me, 'You make me feel so good.'

I gave the card to his wife and prefaced that by explaining, 'I'm not a sycophant or an idiot. This has been my life, these have been my role models. This is what has motivated me, not what a man does in his chosen profession. Truth is what I look up to.'

I am humbled by Ali's very presence. So many people ask the question about whether Ali would have been the best had he been fighting today. This is a nonsensical question in essence, because you cannot mix the eras. Of his time, he was the most talented heavyweight, the most brilliantly stylish fighter. However, before him you had Joe Louis who was a demigod. Before him you had Jack Johnson, who was also a demigod. And you have fighters today who are demigods, their hands move with more or less the same poetry as Ali's. The difference is this - Ali took a stand. Would I have the courage to do that? Would I have the integrity to do that? The point is this: it is incorrect to talk about his achievements in boxing. That was just his foundations, that gave him the stage to become an icon.

Nelson Mandela also took a stand. Twenty-eight years in prison for his beliefs, then released and made the president of the very country that had incarcerated him. This is one of the absolute icons of modern times. People can talk about taking a stand, showing their resolve, but Mandela did this at such a breathtaking level. Again, a legend in his own time, yet he has such humility. When I first met him, he said, 'It is an honour to meet you Chris.' He can't say that! I was just an ordinary guy honoured to meet Mandela. What am I supposed to say to that? He endeared himself even more with this comment.

You can't dislike the guy, there's a video on Youtube its bad quality , but the story goes , a group of lads are playing football on Hyde Park, jumpers for goal posts type of football. next thing a big 4x4 drives onto the park , out gets Eubank in jodphurs and waistcoat and just joins in with the game.

Class

Old bones Ian wrote:You can't dislike the guy, there's a video on Youtube its bad quality , but the story goes , a group of lads are playing football on Hyde Park, jumpers for goal posts type of football. next thing a big 4x4 drives onto the park , out gets Eubank in jodphurs and waistcoat and just joins in with the game.

Class

He's mates with the Missus and he's definately the nicest boxer I've met. She dragged him down the road so I could meet him. He spent bout 30 minutes chatting to me in a scummy burger bar and then apoligsed when he had to leave.

He still remembers meeting me, and my name, when I've seen him on the street in Hove a couple of times.