Chris Eubank

Boxing career

In 1988 he returned to England and became an established household name, mostly due to his showmanship before, during, and after his boxing matches. His boxing matches were screened live on terrestrial television in the UK on the Independent Television (ITV) channel at prime time. A lot of his time in the ring was spent looking down his nose at ringsiders. He fought in front of full arenas with every seat taken, he continued to win just as seemingly everybody desperately wanted to see him lose, he was inspired by a former American wrestler called Gorgeous George who realised that the customers would pay top dollar to see the downfall of an obnoxious fighter. Eubank rubbed people up the wrong way with his philosophy on boxing, life, and just about anything to anyone who would listen. He annoyed both opponents and fans like none had before him, while his Bertie Wooster English gent routine got him British tabloid space that he craved. He claimed to hate the trade that paid his bills by branding boxing a "mugs game", and he'd refer to boxing as his craft or his art rather than referring to it as fighting.

Related Topics:
1988 - England - Terrestrial television - UK - Independent Television - Arena - American - Gorgeous George - Bertie Wooster - English - British

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In 1990 he moved to the south coast town of Brighton in England and made it his adopted home, he still lives there to this day and remains a local hero. After 19 professional boxing wins (14 of which stoppages) in his home country, he fought fellow countryman and arch-rival Nigel Benn for the WBO world Middleweight championship on November 18 1990 and triumphed in winning the title, that was the first of 19 successive world title fights in which Eubank remained undefeated. For the main part of his boxing career he was trained by Ronnie Davies and promoted by Barry Hearn. He was the originator of true boxing arena entry, his theme song was the song "Simply The Best" by Tina Turner and he was recognised for his trademark posturing and vault over the top rope before a fight.

Related Topics:
1990 - Brighton - England - Hero - Nigel Benn - WBO - Middleweight - November 18 - Ronnie Davies - Barry Hearn - Tina Turner

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He defeated Michael Watson on September 21 1991 to win the vacant WBO world Super Middleweight championship, but in doing so left Watson suffering from permanent partial paralysis. Eubank very nearly walked away from boxing due to being saddened at the damage he inflicted, and the state in which Watson was left seemed to have an effect on Eubank who notably changed his style to a less risky, defence first manner. Eubank would constantly cite the nightmare of September 21 1991 as his reason for not going head first for knockouts and why he wanted to make his money and get out of the sport with his health. He remained world Super Middleweight champion until 1995 when the skeleton in his closet was found: Steve Collins was supposed to be just another routine defence of the title for Eubank but unfortunately he had terrible flashbacks to Michael Watson who he had in a similar position and purposely backed off Collins after scoring a knockdown (he was the first man to ever score a knockdown on Collins), Collins was clearly there for the taking but Eubank remained a passenger for the rest of the fight and lost a narrow points decision, he chose to lose a boxing match rather than risk taking a man's life.

Related Topics:
Michael Watson - September 21 - 1991 - WBO - Super Middleweight - 1995 - Steve Collins

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All of Eubank's world championship fights were screened worldwide. His world Super Middleweight championship defences against American boxers John Jarvis, Ron Essett, Tony Thornton and Lindell Holmes were screened live on the ESPN sports channel in the USA and are still shown on the sports channel ESPN Classic in the USA to this day. His re-match against Nigel Benn was screened live in the USA on the Showtime network. His last three professional fights were screened live in the USA on the HBO network.

Related Topics:
Super Middleweight - John Jarvis - Ron Essett - Tony Thornton - Lindell Holmes - ESPN - USA - ESPN Classic - Nigel Benn - Showtime - HBO

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In 1994 he was offered £10,000,000 from the UK sports channel Sky Sports for them to screen his boxing World Tour. Eubank wanted to fight James Toney or Roy Jones Jr. in Las Vegas to prove that he was the best fighter in the world before retiring - Eubank already had the longest unbeaten record in the world of boxing - but for one reason or another a fight against Toney or Jones failed to be negotiated.

Related Topics:
1994 - UK - Sky Sports - James Toney - Roy Jones Jr. - Las Vegas

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In 1998 Eubank moved up to cruiserweight where he twice challenged Carl Thompson for the WBO title. He lost both fights and subsequently permanently retired from boxing and the void left in British boxing when he retired once and for all is one that is still left largely unfilled. A self-admitted "narcissist", he watches his fights most days.

Related Topics:
1998 - Carl Thompson - British - Narcissist

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American boxer Roy Jones Jr. has admitted that he was inspired to jump two weight divisions from Light Heavyweight to Heavyweight after seeing the ammount of respect that Eubank gained in Britain after jumping two weight divisions from Super Middleweight to Cruiserweight at the end of his career. Also, Eubank had advised Jones not to fight Antonio Tarver because he'd have to lose around 20 lb (9 kg) bodyweight in order to compete in the Light Heavyweight division again, Eubank himself had to lose around 20 lb (9 kg) bodyweight in a short space of time to fight Joe Calzaghe at the end of his career and so knew how badly it had affected his performance. Jones didn't take Eubank's advice and ended up losing to Tarver.

Related Topics:
Roy Jones Jr. - Light Heavyweight - Heavyweight - Britain - Super Middleweight - Cruiserweight - Antonio Tarver - Joe Calzaghe

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