By Samuel Lee
Having caught up with the star of European boxing of the 90s, Chris Eubank, via Twitter DMs on his verified account @gentlemanboxer, Eubank calls an upset in tonight’s Mayweather-Maidana clash!
“Mayweather is one of the best defensive eluders I’ve seen since Herol Graham and the likes of Michael Nunn and James Toney and to a lesser extent Bernard Hopkins. But at 37 his reflexes should be fading dramatically and his absorbance weakening from 20 years of heavy sparring. He has also had nine months out of the ring, so shouldn’t be sharp.
“On top of that, this Maidana is an Argentinian, and my experience of Argentinians is that they are the toughest racial people in the world when it comes to punching them. The kid is fearless, younger, fresher, stronger, undoubtedly hungrier and might be unknockoutable. He had no problem landing at will on Amir (Khan) and (Adrien) Broner.
“And the main factor is the law of averages and the numbers game, the probability. Mayweather has won 45 straight fights and the law of averages suggests he is due to lose very soon. Only two fighters in history out of 200,000 have gone beyond this mark and they are the great champion Joe Calzaghe and the legend of his own time Rocky Marciano.
“If Mayweather pulls it off tonight, I don’t think you can rank him above Joe Calzaghe, even though he would’ve equalled Mr Calzaghe’s prestene record. Joe beat me when I felt I still had three years in me and I gave it everything, and beat Bernard Hopkins who is still mastering younger champions to this day.
“Myself and Hopkins were fighters with 20 world title wins and boxing as well as ever in future bouts, and Jeff Lacy and Roy Jones were far more dangerous punchers than any Mayweather opponent I can think of.
“He would have to get to 47 and I don’t believe he will if Maidana and Khan are his next two fights. Maidana might be impossible to knockout and Amir might be impossible to outbox. Amir has a relative height, reach and speed similar to Thomas Hearns when he was under 11 stone (154 lbs) and has learned from smart trainers and ring experience. You might recall Thomas Hearns outboxing Sugar Ray Leonard for 12 rounds when he was relatively inexperienced.
“History and my own knowledge and experience suggest to me that Khan can win his next two bouts, no matter who they are contested against, and Mayweather can lose his next bout or an Amir bout. That’s what I call.”
Fascinating stuff from a fascinating fighter and man.
