(No sound.) Round One Benn-10 Eubank-9 Both men testing out their reflexes early. Very tense work. Eubank tried to potshot from the outside but it wasn't as effective as his inside work. Benn landed a few solid shots to the body and is the more active man inside. Round Two Benn-9 Eubank-10 Eubank scored from the outside with some sharpshooting. He used his jab and also scored to the body. Both men landing good left hooks. Nigel slow to pull the trigger but doing well at ducking, slipping and weaving. Round Three Benn-9 Eubank-10 A counter left hook wobbles Benn momentarily, and Eubank continues to shoot some well-timed jabs. A short hard right hand and some nice uppercuts on top of that win Eubank a scrappy round, although Benn starts doing a decent job at slipping the right hand and countering to the body. Round Four Benn- 10 Eubank- 9 Benn beginning to find his range with his right hand and body shots beginning to have some effect. Eubank's mid-round, mid-range flurry something minor. Round Five Benn- 9 Eubank- 10 Eubank gets in lots of nice left hooks. Benn had kicked it off wild but was turned against the ropes. Eubank had Benn on his heels a little with some crisp combination punching. A right-left combo on the chin might have hurt Benn. For the remainder of the round, Chris counters well with uppercuts and right hands. Round Six Benn- 9 (8, one point deducted for low blows) Eubank- 10 Eubank lands a lot in this round. Inside punches force Benn back. Nigel gets in a small handful of head shots towards the end of the round. Round Seven Benn- 9 Eubank- 10 Eubank lands in two's and some single uppercuts, and gets out or holds. Clever. Quiet round for Benn though, plodding forward. Both men appear very tired. Round Eight Benn- 10 Eubank- 9 Benn's ripping the body with hard uppercuts and mixing in right hands to the head. Eubank showing inaccurate shoeshiner flurries and a lot of holding inside. Round Nine Benn-10 Eubank- 9 Eubank gets his jab working to clearly better the first part, but Benn really sinks in the body shots in the second part and has more activity inside. Benn's the one landing solid shots. Round Ten Benn- 10 Eubank- 9 A beautiful leaping left hook hurts Eubank and a follow-up barrage has him stumbling a little. He comes back with a short uppercut on the inside, but no damage done. Every time he gets something done, he's getting hit right back with something heavier. Benn's round for sure. Round Elevan Benn- 9 Eubank- 10 Eubank tightened up his punches and started to use his jab again. His best round in awhile. Round Twelve Benn- 10 Eubank- 10 Benn starts on fire and nearly had Chris out early, but soon tired for a desperate looking Eubank to work his backside off and outwork Nigel to edge a share. Final Score Benn- 113 Eubank- 115 Analysis Benn's slippery upper body and head movement is very impressive and effective. Eubank's inside game throughout is very, very good, and plenty of flashy flurries. A tough, tactical affair but far too much grabbing and holding on by both men. Often sloppy and scrappy but flickers of excellence. It's hard to gauge what they could've done against the likes of M.Nunn and J.Toney. Benn's low style out of a bob and weave and fast right hands would've been difficult for them; but he couldn't fight them from the outside and would walk onto too many shots against Nunn and be countered by too many body shots and short rights against Toney. Eubank on the other hand could fight cat-like on the outside as well as get in and brawl with uppercuts and hooks and holds as proven in the Benn II fight. Neither M.Nunn or J.Toney had evasive defensive techniques that are low in position like Benn's, where Eubank (and later G.McClellan) struggled. Along with his concrete chin and lateral movement, and sneaky dangerous right; you have to say he'd of had a better shout than Benn against the lb4lb best.
Thinking back to this fight, when I watched it live at the time. I had it exactly like you, one point for Eubank. Although, some rounds are very close and can be scored for Benn instead.
Looks like I tallied it up wrong, forgot to take the point off for Benn. 115-113 for Eubank, (didn't Harry Gibbs have that?)
I never listen to commentary in the first place unless I'm forced to listen to a fight on radio. My initial statement still stands.
I haven't seen it since the time, but I definitely thought the draw was the right result. Benn screamed blue murder about it, and since he was the popular guy so did a fair bit of the media, but I thought it was about right. It's not a patch on fight 1, both guys played it smarter and cagier and that made it much less thrilling, but it's still a decent one.
