Would Chris Eubank Go Through Joe Calzaghe's Resume Undefeated?

This is a crazy long post but I'm sick of hearing this crap over and over again.

Even though we both know you already know this, Berry, Mr. Christopher Livingstone Eubank was not weight drained for the fight. He turned up in excellent shape, much fresher and reinvigorated than he did for the Collins rematch, where he looked as flat as a pancake after having too many fights in quick succession, and he put in a very good performance in what was an excellent fight.

You only have to watch the fight to realize he was in very good shape. Joe was all over him like a soup sandwich from the get-go, setting a ridiculous pace and fighting with great intensity, offering Eubank very little in the way of respite. Joe left him with no choice other than to fight back or he would've been overwhelmed. Weight drained fighters cannot fight at that kind of tempo, against an opponent who sets a pace like no other, especially ones about whom it was common knowledge suffered from stamina problems and liked to fight at their own pace and take breathers each round, and who hated fighting against southpaws.

Joe caused Eubank the most trouble during the first round when he was at his freshest. His hand speed, intensity, ridiculous work rate, and two-fisted power was causing him all sorts of problems in the early going. You could see the worried look of concern etched across his face for Christ's sake. lol.

Joe was extremely green going into that fight and had only been past five rounds a couple of occasions and never past eight, whereas Eubank had been the full 12 round distance 16 times. And Joe had never fought, let alone beaten, anybody above domestic class nor ever been in a gruelling fight before as a pro. He'd won all of his fights comfortably up until then. He'd even breezed through all his bouts in the ABAs on route to winning his second and third titles at LM and MW the previous two years prior to turning pro with ease too, stopping all but one of his opponents. He threw everything bar the kitchen sink at Eubank trying to get him out of there after knocking him down in the first round and he was absolutely ****ed after four or five rounds, hence why he still to this day says it was his hardest fight.

And by the way, and of course you never hear anyone mention this lol, Calzaghe actually messed up the weight up for that fight. He usually enters the ring about 180lbs on fight night but he was so nervous about fighting on such a big stage for the first time that he lost his appetite and couldn't get the weight back on, which was hardly helped by the fact that they kept delaying the time of the fight, which meant that he ended up doing almost an hour's worth of pad work with his father during the warm up (I have the entire 'Full Monty' Sky broadcast on my HD and it all stacks up with what he said as well). He only weighed 172lbs by the time he got in the ring and was exhausted before the fight had even reached the half way point. Look at his face in that video I posted after the weigh in, it looks almost identical to how it did on fight night, clearly more drawn than usual.

Here's a video where he talks about it and how exhausted he felt during the fight.

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Eubank sure's displaying all the tell tale signs of a fighter whose struggled like crazy to get down to the weight here, eh? lol. That's shortly after the weigh in by the way. During the pre-fight analysis the Sky team said Eubank had looked ''extremely relaxed and serene'' all throughout the week leading up to the fight, the week he was supposedly, according to the haters, finding it so difficult to get down to the weight. And Calzaghe (who is a big lad - walked around at 14st then) actually looked like he had plenty of weight to shift himself at one of the pre-fight press conferences. I remember it well. He looked very thick set on the picture they'd taken from it on the cover of Boxing News.

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Check out some of the things the commentary team were saying during the fight.

''Well if Eubank is tight at the weight you could've fooled me''

''You certainly could. He's fought at such a pace and took such heavy punches''

''And that's a tribute to how hard he's worked for this''

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''Eubank is making Calzaghe work for every one of these rounds. He's showing great courage and great work rate''

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''This is twice as good as most Eubank fights''

''What a fight this is turning out to be''


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''You give Eubank enormous credit here because he's tried to match Calzaghe's fire with plenty of his own and, you know, against many, many people this level of performance would've been enough for a big win for him tonight''

''Eubank's fighting a good fight, there's still a lot left''


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And in Eubank's own words:

''What were your memories of Calzaghe, having fought him for your old title, the vacant WBO super-middleweight belt in '97, that started his reign?

"Calzaghe was very skilled and had quick hands. He kept his fence up behind his right leg and always punched in the clinches. When his fence was down, his punches landed from out of sight.

"Taking the a fight on a few days' notice wasn't a problem *Actually it was 11 days notice* - I had done it against powerhouses like Simon Collins and Anthony Logan, guys who had looked dangerous in recent fights. Losing 20 lbs. in a week wasn't a problem - I had lost that in a few days and won world title fights.''

Now we know why Steve Collins don't want to fight him. Good fighter!''

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See my post, I mean essay lol, Eubank was in very good shape for Joe.

Agreed.

You're pretty knowledgeable mate.

Atberry often trolls. I don't mind him at all. He makes me laugh. And he is very knowledgeable and offers good insight when in serious mode. :good

 

lol

 

:good

 

lol