Michael Watson

Good fighter but overrated.

 

Don Lee
(as a 22 year old late substitute!)

Nigel Benn
(can arguably rate above ToneyvBarkey & CalzaghevLacy in hindsight)

Mike McCallum (despite 11 months of ring rust)

Chris Eubank II (despite tragic 11th round can arguably rate performance to that point above JonesvToney; Eubank being ‘weight strong’)


The way he tamed Lee and Benn was special. Both had long highlight reels of kayos with either hand.

He was actually betting favourite v McCallum, but his timing was way off and he was countered to the body (though blocked a lot and still got in a lot of right hands). He learned a lot from it.

The way he dominated Eubank in their tragic second fight was Immense. Endless possibilities in front of him before one punch changed his life (still 25-26).

He looked quite wooden and awkward but was a very good mechanic.

I like his perfectly timed overarm right to drop Stackhouse early.

Very underrated.

 

Always matched very very tough by Mickey Duff after turning over in 1984. Such was their confidence in him after gym reports v Kirkland Laing, Dennis Andries and John Mugabi and having been a respected amateur (beat John Beckles in 30secs on his 19th birthday in the London ABA final when Beckles was only really losing to Russians and Cubans the weight above!).

He’d lost to a southpaw in the 1984 ABA semi (after being an Olympic hopeful) so did nothing but southpaw sparring for months before turning pro.

Won a few NABC titles behind a stiff jab.

 

Watched Benn-Watson again and yes Benn’s impressive but how calm is Watson under an onslaught like that!

Study the 2nd round of the fight closely, and, offensively, you see an almost flawless exhibition of boxing from Watson. He is literally punch-fking-perfect - along with Benn's fists swirling round his guard, we see Watson hit him with every shot in the book in this round.
(This was still only the 2nd round!)
Not just jabs, though plenty of them; lead straight right hands, lead right uppercuts and baby Barrera-style left hook/uppercuts, uppercut-jab 1-2's, lead right-left hook 1-2's, digging body shots, the absolute works... in his quite methodical way Watson hits him with the kitchen sink. Benn lands maybe twice cleanly in the whole round.

 

Fantastic fighter, actually very underrated, when he took Benns 0 it was a brilliant performance, Benn was electric back then, threw the kitchen sink at him and Watson was so clever defensively, gradually picking Benn to pieces and stopping him as he tired.

The 2nd Eubank fight was epic, such a shame it coincided with Watson's permanent injury, the 11th round one of the best in boxing history imo, Watson on the verge of taking Eubanks 0, knocking him down only for a exhausted eubank to somehow get up and immediately knock Watson down with a savage uppercut, was an incredible fight.

 

Eubanks uppercut was one of the luckiest punches I've seen in boxing. It just caught Watson completely by surprise and it was the last thing Eubank had left. Just a really unlucky sequence. People talk about Eubank, Benn, Collins. Watson proved he was better than those guys.

 

Nothing lucky about a perfect punch at the end of the penultimate round of a fight fought at an electric pace, getting up to plan and execute that and placing between a literal glove-sized gap in Watson’s near-perfect guard. You couldn’t write it it was so great.

 

Was exposed by McCallum at a high level, did better v Eubank specifically in the rematch v Eubank and beat Benn who was a dangerous KO artist at 160.

 

Eubank was losing the fight comprehensively and had lost the first fight in most peoples eyes. Watson proved he was the better fighter. He beat Eubank down, drops him and at that point bookies would have had him around 1/50 at most. Eubank, due to his lifelong dedication to boxing and elite mentality was able to conjure up one last hayemaker. It was a complete throw of the dice by Eubank there and Watson was just too complacent and thought he had the fight won. I mean it was a great shot but very low percentage. If they fought 100 times that outcome probably doesn't happen any other time. Watson comes in and either finishes Eubank or batters him for a decision. I'm sure that once he recovered, Watson couldn't believe he allowed himself to get caught like that.

 

It was both lucky and great, the resilience of Eubank was absolutely phenomenal throughout his entire career, even past peak against the likes of Calzaghe and Carl Thompson.

 

As others have already said, his second fight with eubank is for history. Despite losing the fight he gave eubank a hell of a boxing master class.

 

No he didnt. Collins as a novice gave McCallum a better fight than prime Watson and was robbed against the fake Italian Kalambay.

 

It was the picture perfect punch. As far from a haymaker as can be.

Odds would’ve been closer to 1/500000.

‘What ifs’ aren’t real.

 

We never saw Watson’s prime. But had the McCallum fight occurred when it was set to (Nov 89) it may of been a different fight. Ray Webb famously broke Michael’s nose with the last punch of his last round of sparring. McCallum then had that perfect tune-up (v Collins) to stay busy, and Duff decided Watson had to just go for broke and frequently lead off instead of waiting for counters; very silly. They weren’t allowed a tune-up or they’d of lost the mandatory spot. It was still a very gruelling battle between the pair of them, Michael and Mike, cracking stuff at a packed Albert Hall dome