Chris Eubank PT II Against Steve Collins in the 10th round and the first fight with Carl Thompson, it seemed you let those fights slip away by not going in to finish the job when they were clearly there for the taking, was it the thoughts of what happened to Michael that held you back? Probably. That’s a piercing question, my friend. You fought Sugar Boy Malinga, Lindell Holmes and Graciano Rocchigiani who were all future or former world champions or both, do you feel these are underrated victories? In accordance with the fact that Malinga and Rocchigiani went on to beat Benn and Nunn for the world title, yes. And in accordance with the fact that Lindell Holmes was refused as too dangerous by Benn and Nunn, yes. Along with Michael Watson and Tony Thornton, all these fighters had the tightest defensive guards in boxing, and all these fighters fought the very best fighters of the world. And I slotted through more head shots than any of them on all of them, and landed more body shots on Graciano Rocchigiani than anyone. My accuracy may have been the best, my technique may have been picture-perfect and my foot movement may have been poetry in motion, but in other areas like being naturally fluid or blessed with athleticism, it evens out myself with McCallum, Toney, Nunn, Graham, Jones and Benn all as equal best. You fought Joe Calzaghe on about a one weeks notice in 1997, post-retirement and struggling to make even the light-heavy limit. You fight for the vacant super-middle title, your old WBO world belt that you defended so many times; what did you make of Joe at the time? I lost 20lbs in seven days because I underestimated him and thought I could beat him on heart alone. He had a very awkward southpaw stance, very hard punches from awkward angles that you couldn’t see, a very high work-rate and very fast hands in combination. I couldn’t use multi-directional foot movement or anchor my feet with punches because I had bad knees at the time. So his come-forward fighting and all around durability wasn’t truly tested like it could have been had I been in my prime. But he was clearly very good, and going to be very hard to defeat, which he never was. What are your predictions for the forthcoming domestic dust-ups between David Haye and Tyson Fury at heavyweight and Carl Froch and George Groves at your old weight, super-middle? Predictions? Haye and Froch are the favourites, and rightly so. The gulf in experience is immense and it will show in the ring, I mean how can it not? Tyson has to fight beyond what we’ve seen before to win and the same goes for George, he has to fight beyond what we have seen before to win. Will Haye’s inactivity play a part? David himself doesn’t believe in ring rust… Do you? To an extent, because the term arose from somewhere. Observers and trainers picked up on the fact that fighters tend to perform less well after a prolonged absence from competitive bouts, and coined a phrase for the phenomenon. It may sound brutish, or harsh, and I apologize for sounding brutish, but the matter of fact is that you simply have to always spar at 100% so that you are permanently at risk from injury. If you can do that, there won’t be ring rust. It’s not a physical thing. Going head-to-head in a combat sport with another human being who is trying their best to debilitate you, is a jarring, slightly unreal experience, far removed from day-to-day life. I think ring rust is a result of the psychological difficulties involved in trying to readjust to a fundamentally traumatic activity. Frequent competitive bouts both allow fighters to engage their skills unrestrainedly and accept and adjust to the unusual mental state required to attempt to cause physical harm to another human being for whom you have no personal animosity. A competitive bout might mean a professional match, or it might mean a gym fight, meaning sparring. So I both agree and disagree with David, if that’s what he says. How would Carl Froch fare in your era? It’s not fair to put Carl in my era. It’s unfair on him. Let’s put it like this: I’ve not seen in boxing, since or even ever, the kind of absolute resolve that Michael Watson showed in our rematch and Steve Collins showed in our rematch, ever. Certainly not since. How does a fighter cope with that maniacal-type resolve, along with an unbelievable bodily strength where you have to nearly kill a man to beat a man, or worse. It’s not fair to put fighters in my era. Anthony Logan wasn’t far behind. Since the second fight with Collins, I haven’t seen a resolve the likes of which Anthony Logan showed against me, or a destuctifying war the likes of which me and Nigel Benn showed or Nigel Benn and Gerald McClellan showed. It’s just not fair. Don’t mix the eras.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 19:04:25 +0000
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