It's always worth watching when a Eubank is involved but it is Chris Snr, not Jr, who demands the spotlight
Chris Eubank Snr has taken a lot of hate and abuse during his career but he remains as calm and cool as ever
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Your support makes all the difference.There has been a lot hate in the life and times of Chris Eubank since he returned from a necessary exile in New York and started to fight in Britain in the late ‘80s.
Nigel Benn hates him, the British public hated him at one point and men like Mickey Duff, a survivor of fifty years in the filthy boxing business, were always going to hate him. Eubank took a lot of abuse on both sides of the ropes and I have never once seen him lose control.
"I can assure you, you are the lowest of the low, you are scum," screamed Duff in 1994 at a press conference for the Eubank and Henry Wharton fight. "He has made f***ing millions and he doesn't deserve it. He's low-life scum. He exploits the game like a hooker; that is behaving like scum." Duff was fined five grand by the British Boxing Board of Control for the outburst; Eubank beat Wharton on points, he was brilliant in what would be his last world title win.
Now Eubank, who is in his 33rd year in the professional game, looks after his son's entertaining progress through the business, still annoying people, still acting the maverick and still as calm as ever. He has also become an advocate of what he calls the warrior's code.
"A fighter should never quit, he can never quit - it is not what a warrior does," said Eubank. "You have to carry on taking a beating, that is the warrior's code and all boxers have to follow that." Eubank never quit, never turned his head from punches or refused to fight; he took terrible beatings in fights he won and terrible beatings in fights he lost. He told Mike Costello on BBC Five Live that he wanted to "pee" in certain fights because the pain was so unbearable. I know the fights, I saw that shocking pain from a privileged ringside seat and then stood in silence in his dressing room as he looked at bruises, welts and cleared the smeared blood from his face and chest.
"We are not normal, we are not you," Eubank said. "We have the warrior's code and it is your personal decision to fight, to continue in this wonder that is boxing." Eubank had to make a lot of hard decisions in his boxing career and often it seemed like he was fighting on two fronts, having to overcome adversity inside the ring and outrageous, personal and bitter abuse away from it. His life is a lot simpler now, but he still likes to make it as complicated as possible and has fallen out with just about every promoter that has tried to work with him.
This Saturday he will have his own ring entrance when Chris Jr fights the German veteran Arthur Abraham at Wembley in the latest pay-per-view offering from ITV. It is a typically bizarre television dalliance from a terrestrial industry that has absolutely no confidence in the game, its characters and the boxers that get in the ring and fight. Eubank fought on ITV and attracted audiences in excess of 17 million people in fights that stopped a nation.
Eubank Jr will be defending his IBO super-middleweight title, which he won when he stopped a raw novice back in February, against Abraham in a particularly fun fight. Abraham first won a world title in 2005 and has been winning and losing belts ever since; Abraham has been in 23 world title fights in total, has fought 51 times, lost just five and at 37 is not quite ready for his pipe and slippers.
Last Saturday Eubank, the dad, was in Monaco at the draw for something hugely ambitious called the World Boxing Super Series. It is a tournament featuring eight of the top boxers at any given weight in a simple quarters, semis and finals format; the winner of Eubank Jr and Abraham will fight a man called Avni Yildirim, known as The Dentist, in a quarter-final fight in either September or October. British boxers George Groves, Callum Smith and Jamie Cox are also involved in quarter-final fights. It is a brilliant but flawed tournament because there are simply too many diverse forces involved.
Yildirim is from Turkey and is managed by a man called Ahmet Ohner, one of boxing's most eccentric operators, and the thought of him and Eubank Snr working together is hilarious; the WBSS does have some skilled negotiators running the show and they will be needed. Ohner and Eubank Snr can swap hate stories late into the Istanbul night.
On Saturday the old Tina Turner classic ‘Simply the Best’ will fill the venue and out will prance the dad, snarling and nodding and travelling back in time; the son will follow and it's always worth watching when a Eubank is involved, even if it is only a ringwalk.
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