Chris Eubank Sr on slipping through the net (incredible read)

Eubank details his 26-fight amateur career that took place in New York City:

I caused a huge upset in about 1983 when I bested the Jamaican Richard Burton at the Spanish Golden Gloves. He had 35 fights, 35 wins and 35 knockouts or something along those lines. I got my jab working, got my feet working, got my reflexes working and won a decision when I was supposed to be lamb to the slaughter.

The standard of opposition I fought in New York was something else. Mark Breland was a five-time Golden Gloves champion, Dennis Milton was a four-time Golden Gloves champion, Rey Rivera was a three-time Golden Gloves champion and Damien Eddie a two-time Golden Gloves champion. This was at a time when there was a packed gymnasium on every street corner.

I lost to Breland in his last ever fight, beat Milton in his last ever fight and split fights with the others, and all the fights were close decisions either way.

Other fights I lost were to a guy a weight or two bigger than me called Richard Brent in my first ever fight, and in the Golden Gloves semi-final at Madison Square Gardens in front of 19,000 and beamed live across the United States on network television, now I was only 18 at the Madison Square Gardens and so it caused anxiety and a sloppy performance.

Other good guys I recall beating were Jesse Lanton, who went on to do well against Steve Collins in the pros, and Ricky Thomas from Upstate, who went on to do well against James Toney in the pro game.


Eubank details his early professional career in the eighties:

In the professionals, I wasn't fed losers or lambs. Timmy Brown and Eric Holland were Pennsylvania Golden Gloves champions and (Mike) Bagwell was New Jersey Golden Gloves champion. (James) Canty, the guy I tried to impress Bob Arum against, had fought orthodox - or right-handed - in the tape we had of him against a guy called Lopez in a fight he looked like he won, and this Lopez was by this time rated #1 in North America. Canty came out and fought southpaw against me, which caused anxiety and threw me off. He was also announced as undefeated, which confused me because the tape we had was of him losing the decision.

You have to go through these experiences to grow. And you must be fighting fighters who are desperately trying to win, poo or bust, not just those for whom it's another day at the office. It was such a furnace on the East Coast of the States in the eighties around middleweight, so competitive. It gave me that mindset and edge I needed to compete with Rod Douglas, Nigel Benn and Michael Watson when I came to London. When there's a conveyor belt like there was back then on both sides of the ocean, with so many rivals of such similar age, size, strength, descent, will, talent and drive, it forces you to be the best you can be just to survive, and just brings you on.

And it takes courage to compete in a dangerous battlefield. It takes courage and cajones to tell a stranger if they have sleep in their eye, or a bogie, or to let wind when the room is silent, but it takes even more cajones to put yourself in the firing line against the most dangerous unarmed men on the planet.


Eubank on not giving up or quitting:

Faith is the most beautiful thing - patience is a virtue and persistence is omnipotent. You must master them both, patience and persistence. In boxing terms, the borderline unknockoutables Herol Graham, Winston Burnett, Franky Moro, Randy Smith, Eduardo Contreras and Michael Watson in our second fight helped hone and instil and educate these abilities within me, and that allowed me to make £15,000,000 from the art form I had already mastered over many years of frustration. The best education is experience.


Eubank on being as cool as ice in the ring:

It's prudence to take your time to get back to the corner and take your time to sit down, not wasting energy by rushing. You can suck more O2 in through your nostrils when you're still and calm, and swallow more H2O when your breathing rythm is steadier. Chill. Relax. If you have trained correctly and have experience, and studied the opposition, know your own skillset and have integrity, you have absolutely no reason to remotely panic.


Eubank on enduring suffering until respected:

Benn threw the hardest punches I've ever seen, (Joe) Calzaghe threw the fastest combinations I've ever seen, (Henry) Wharton showed the most persistence I've ever seen, (Steve) Collins in our second fight showed the most resolve I've ever seen, and Michael in our second fight had a bit of all of it along with strength and stamina that was bordering on the supernatural.

I came through the lot, all of it, along with a world championship 12 round contest five or six times a year for five or six years, coming down from 14 stone to 12 stone each time, along with sparring on average 50 or 60 rounds a week at full contact for seven years before I ever became world champion, and came through all of this and then stood up to a 15 stone man in Carl Thompson for 21 rounds, still on my feet, with one eye; that's what it took for me to actually get respect.

That's marvellous because I never gave anybody a reason to even dislike me, let alone detest me. A generation of a nation hissing and spitting and cussing, as they would; none had met me for a coffee and a chat.