Chris Eubank: Philosophies of the ‘Fighting Peacock’
By Craig Henley
An exclusive dose delved from the fascinating mind of British Boxing’s most eccentric character, Chris Eubank!
Eubank, the former WBO middleweight and super-middleweight champion in the early to mid 1990s, provides us some good insight into his career, life and mindset – from his heyday, in his own articulate way – and also reveals to me the ‘best he faced’!
Eubank on ‘law of averages’:
"I learned about the law of averages through experience. In my adolescence, I was the youngest member of one of London’s most proficient shoplifting gangs of the early 1980s – we were making £500 a day when the average wage was £50 a week. I felt untouchable but eventually I got caught, where one day I stopped beating the system and lost.
"So I jumped bail to go to New York and start boxing. When I was a boxer in New York I worked as a bodyguard and would mind the fellow around the Boardwalk, analyzing Roulette results. In my own mind, I mastered the results; where the more often certain numbers and divisions come in on the wheel, the less likely they are to come in again, and vice versa, and over an extended period of time the law of averages would always balance it out in the end.
"I took these experiences into my boxing career in accordance with my attitude, and that attitude was that one day I must lost – I must come unstuck. The fact I had that attitude allowed me to accept defeat before it even occurred, because I always expected it, you see, and so it didn’t eat me up when it did occur, finally, in my 47th fight in September 1995.
"I spent a year on the Strip about five years ago and quadrupled my money in all – and we’re talking substantial amounts of money – just by holding my nerve.
"More than money, listen: I would never have been able to acquire the lasting respect in the last stage of my boxing career when I was actually losing fights, because defeat would’ve ate me up if I hadn’t already always expected it to occur one day – that in life, you lose as well as win, and it’s about portraying dignity in defeat and being prepared for that in advance; which helps allow you to come back for more.
"So the point I’m trying to get to is: the law of averages, and understanding the law of averages, is very useful in life, and especially for a very good boxer in a succeeding boxing career."
Eubank on ‘the universal law’:
"There is a universal law, and that is letting go. Let go. Don’t be angry, don’t be cross – be objective. This is especially true in boxing. If a fellow fighter tries to get under your skin before a fight, be forgiving or risk losing the fight."
Eubank on ‘lack of relent’:
"I was world champion for five-and-a-half years straight, not losing until my 24th consecutive fight as world champion. I was travelling the world and on the road for 15-and-a-half years straight as a boxer, apart from a 10-month retirement. I don’t think anybody did what Chris Eubank did regarding relent and the absolute lack of it – the absolute lack of relent.
"The lack of natural talent was made up for by lack of relent, that was the equation for me. I didn’t have natural talent to speak of, unlike other champions. It took me two years to learn how to throw the right hand and how to side-step, before I began on the left hook and how to bob-and-weave; which were even more complex. I trained seven days a week.
"I fought every seven weeks as world champion and that was very difficult because I had got myself used to fighting every two to three weeks in my amateur career and early professional career – fighting every seven weeks for the world championship didn’t feel like enough, it was too long between fights.
"The polar opposite to bone-idle would be an accurate description of me when I was boxing."
Eubank on his untold legacy:
"It’s satisfying and gratifying for me that I helped boxing as much as I did, that I was the one who taught the boxers themselves that they didn’t have to be slaves to managers and promoters. I signed for a manager and promoter to represent me on my own terms. (And) I was the first fighter to sign for a television company direct.
"I like to think I opened the floodgates for the most successful boxers to make more vast sums of money than pre-Chris Eubank – to have more comfort and convenience in their career. Without me, Naseem wouldn’t have enjoyed the career he had, (nor) Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton, Mayweather and so on."
I also asked Chris who had the fastest hands and feet, hardest punch, best chin, best lead hand and defense, best strength, best smarts and most skill out all opponents he faced.
For him, Nigel Benn had the hardest punch, fastest feet and hardest jab, while he felt Joe Calzaghe had the quickest hands and that Steve Collins was the smartest, and chose Michael Watson for best defense and Watson specifically in their second fight for strength and skill. Suprisingly, the unknown Argentine Eduardo Contreras was Eubank’s pick for strongest jaw.
