England’s finest fighter of the 90s Chris ‘Simply the Best’ Eubank speaks on the chances of fellow countrymen Carl Froch, David Haye and Amir Khan as super-fights precede them, and much more…
Eubank on Froch/Ward:
“He has long arms and heavy hands, does (Carl) Froch, which gives him the luxury to punch from the elbow or shoulder. Unfortunately, Ward is not a fighter who stands in middle to long distance with his hands over his face – I saw him box (Mikkel) Kessler and he has good ring movement and is smart inside.
“Froch tries to box like Naseem Hamed without the speed, agility or flexibility that Naseem had. He’s very loose and relaxed though with a decent chin and a lot of resolve, and he makes it work for him.
“I just hope Ward underestimates the resolve and punch of Froch, so that he stands in front of him. Otherwise, stylistically, you would point towards Ward, if Ward fought strategically.”
Eubank on Froch vs past greats:
“I think, that the public think, he couldn’t hold a candle to us – myself, Michael (Watson), Nigel (Benn) and Joe (Calzaghe) – that’s what I think that the public think.
“You have to give the chap his due though – Froch is a good fighter.”
Eubank on Haye/Vitali:
“My advise, drawing from my own experience, would be for David (Haye) to come in light and fight a speed fight. I did against Graciano Rocchigiani and Carl Thompson – they were a stone heavier than me but I used the ring and the angles and I boxed them to pieces, bagging the first six (rounds) before they found their stride.
“Technically, David would need to bob-and-weave and hit-and-move. Vitali (Klitschko) isn’t as fresh and technically proficient as Wladimir (Klitschko), but he can absorb a blow infinite times better than his younger brother, so it may not be wise for David to go in and try to knock his head off, so to speak.”
Eubank on Khan/Mayweather:
“Amir (Khan) has an amazing amount going for him, Amir. He’s fresh, very accomplished, hungry and has major tools – exceptionally tall for a lightweight, exceptionally fast hands for such long arms, very good defensive guard, very good ring movement, very good body punching.
“(Floyd) Mayweather has more technical proficiency than Amir Khan, he’s more artistic, he has better reflexes and more experience in world championship fights – those are Mayweather’s strengths in the fight, if it indeed might come off.
“It works like this: who in their mind is willing to keep coming forward without regard for their health. If neither are willing, it comes down to who makes the better moves in the chess match, of which Mayweather would be expected to in any match. If one is willing, and the other is not a puncher, the one who is willing, provided he can absorb punches and applies his resolve strategically, is the winner at the end of it.”
Eubank on Psychology:
“The trick is to not show fear or nerves. Of course I feared Nigel Benn before I fought him – I had watched this man punch dozens of professional boxers into severe concussion in next to no time, sending them head over heels in the process.
“So I feared Nigel, but I wasn’t going to let him know that – because that would’ve been giving him an advantage to which he was not entitled, like ‘one-up’.
“I was nervous against Watson at first only because I saw nothing in his make-up to trouble me, yet the public and so-called experts seemed to think he would be able to get the measure of me and beat me, and I couldn’t see how; so that made me nervous!
“(Juan Carlos) Giminez had Roberto Duran down in the first round and he was of South American race, so I knew he could give and take, and I had to be wary. Lindell Holmes had been around the block and not ever been cleanly out-boxed, not even by the genius Herol Graham; the purest boxer in boxing, and he had knocked out Michael Spinks in the first round as an amateur – so, he could obviously box and punch.
“The German Rocchigiani was a giant of a man – about 6 feet 3 and a half – and a southpaw, and I didn’t like fighting southpaws. He was 35 fights, 35 wins and the former world champion. It was in his home town in Germany, very hostile. So this was going into the unknown in many ways.
“The other time I was truly nervous was coming against Henry Wharton, because in his fight previous to me he had knocked his opponent out cold in 30 seconds. I feared defeat, I didn’t fear death. Another dangerous left hooker, like Wharton, was the Welshman (Denys) Cronin.
“It works like this: the more nervous you are, the more fear you have, and the more fear you have, the more adrenalin is pumped, and the more adrenalin is pumped, the better you perform. The aforementioned matches, then, were my best performances.”
Eubank Sr on Eubank Jr:
“My son can be better than me because in my career I got emotionally involved in fights. But I didn’t have the grounding that Christopher has had. I would become emotionally charged in reaction to wrong behavior – (such as) Dan Sherry fight and Watson and Benn fights, Thompson II, Don King in Ray Close II, Naseem in Calzaghe fight, Mickey Duff in Ron Essett fight, and most of all the Steve Collins fights.
“In Christopher we have a young man who can remain stone cold and objective in my opinion, and if he can do that in all of his fights, he probably will be better than his father.”
Eubank on Herol Graham sparring story:
“Yes I did put Herol Graham on his shoulder blades heavily, but he out-boxed me before and after that occurance by making himself almost impossible to hit.”
Eubank on Naseem Hamed copy claim:
“And no, I did not take vaulting over the top-rope from Naseem – I did that before each and every one of my first 50 fights over 12 years and I did it to catch the attention of the crowd and judges, to let the crowd know who the star was and with the judges that they’d subconsciously focus on my work over my opponents work. And I never tripped once.”
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