Chris Eubank Sr, why do you feel Jr can overcome “Triple G” Gennady Golovkin?
I know what I see, and nobody knows boxing like me. Mathematically he has speed, range, movement, evasion, explosion and variety on his side over Mr Golovkin, and probably chin and heart and stamina and workrate. He blows him out. Sorry, he just does!
Jr has a punching ability like nothing else, and you can’t expect to just walk through the punches that Jr throws. Only one man in history I’ve seen who could’ve maybe done that and that’s Michael Watson on the night of our rematch – supernatural!
What are the main issues in the current boxing climate?
The main issue, if you will, are that the men are not as tough. They pull out of most of their scheduled fights with minor injuries, and end up fighting only once in a blue moon, in which the public need to subscribe to a particular station, to be tied-in, as well as pay a one-off fee to actually watch them, if they actually get in the ring on the scheduled fight date!
I never missed a scheduled fight date. It’s a cardinal sin. It would have Sugar Ray Robinson turning in his grave. I fought with a broken sternum, fractured ribs, dislocated elbows, severe knee injuries, a semi-swelled eye before the first bell, and so on and so forth.
In the day of Sugar Ray Robinson, he would fight on a fortnightly basis, for 15 rounds. If strength and conditioning and nutrition if so far advanced in this day, and the athletes supposedly so vastly advanced, then why can they not fight 12 rounds once in six months?
You say you know boxing like nobody else, could you elaborate on that?
I was taught by Adonis Torres, who was in the thick of boxing in New York City from the 20s to the 80s; seeing all the mobsters and gangsters operating. I know the business. I was the boxer who was the closest companion to Lennox against Holyfield and to Naseem against Barrera, advising and supporting.
I took my knowledge to the United Kingdom and experienced everything, came through everything, in every avenue of the business. I know this business, I know this art. I pioneered, I even made the United Kingdom the Las Vegas of boxing from 1990-1991 to 1994-1995, until Mike came back out of prison.
Nobody trained harder or more meticulously, and nobody negotiated harder or psychologically assessed the characters and goings on of this business and form of entertainment more meticulously so than I.
I started at the very bottom, without a penny to my name and unable to throw anything that remotely looked like a punch, and rose to the very top with the top record in the game and highest pound-for-pound earnings, and the most precise, picture-perfect punching technique. I know this game, so I will advise my son accordingly, because there is no better advise!
Will a third Nigel Benn fight finally happen?
Anything is possible. Nigel is steaming, I feel there is a bit of a beast within his spirit that needs to be released, that maybe he needs to put to bed to continue his journey that he is on. I can actually feel it.
And what better way for him to release it for good than to wallop his adversary around the head, namely myself. It probably should happen, but it’s out of my hands.
What were your five most difficult fights?
1. Watson 2
2. Collins 2
3. Benn 2
4. Benn 1
5. Schommer
When I first fought these great warriors, Nigel, Michael and Steve, I was able to school them. Not until I knocked Steve over and held mercy on him, I then schooled him, but before that there was a mind game where I wanted to hurt him. Second time around, they knew me – they had measured me for 9 to 12 rounds before, and they each came up with particular strategies that were vastly different from their first attempts tactically against me.
Actually the conviction of Watson in Watson 2 and the resolve of Collins in Collins 2 were really beyond anything I’ve ever seen in a ring, combined with the varying tactics and I am thrown right off, right?
Nigel in the rematch did not keep his head in the same spot for half a second, so mathematically how are you supposed to punch him in the head without timing it down to the split-second every time while executing at breakneck speed? He’s supposed to tire after a few rounds of constant head moves, but no – right through! I became more and more desperate! His stamina was ridiculous that night.
As far as Dan Schommer is concerned, mathematically he was always at the perfect distance where I would fall short by a centimeter or so, allowing him to counter with right hooks or southpaw lefts. He was a hidden master.
And your five greatest victories?
1. Watson 2
2. Benn 1
3. Rocchigiani
4. Logan
5. Schommer
Who will take Floyd Mayweather’s mantle as the king of boxing?
Amir Khan in the short-term, Chris Eubank Jr in the long-term.
