Griffith to make Eubank look like a plodding one-dimensional fighter ...... but three Puerto Rican judges give Eubank a unanimous decision :nut
Griffith the old pro and master mechanic figures out the riddle of the eccentric Brit and wins a comfortable decision, much like he beat Gypsy Joe Harris.
Eubank is far bigger and much stronger, combine that with his good jab, speed and counter punching and the fact he was very good at chasing come from behind KO's late in fights, you have to make him the clear favourite here despite the fact I think Griffith to be the much better schooled of the 2
i love eubank and as was pointed out in another thread, he works best as a counterpuncher. he can't fight well off the front foot, relying on his reflexes and underrated power. as lennox lewis pointed out in that infamous training vid, his fundamentals were only so so griffiths was like robinson, but 2 steps below. good at everything and in his prime, very few weaknesses at middle, as pp stated, eubank would have a big size advantage and a decent advantage in punching power. griffith jab, activity and ring intelligence would avoid most of eubanks traps and tricks and pile up a ton of points. even in his most famous and best win, benn 1, he went through far too many periods of inactivity and pacificity to take the win from griffith
i agree. physical strength (due to those HUGE shoulders) is in griffiths advantage but actual size and punching power i lean towards eubank at 160
Yep. I lean to Griffith here, you pointed it out well. Eubank just isn´t great and not in the same class and the size difference and his power ain´t big enough to make up for that.
Like anyone else who had a big punching power advantage over Griffith...it really didn't matter. No one was going to park Griffith...he was so adept at dealing with punchers...yes he would go down occasionally, b ut he always got up and he had such a great chin..very underrated..great recuperative powers...and on the other hand, he had the obvious strength advantage over Eubank. Griffith w15 Eubank.
:goodwell put and totally agree. griffith had a ****ing brilliant chin (regardless of the carter loss) and he NEVER seemed to back down from a fighter, only from the possibly he'd hurt another (but we're not talking about the super passive griffith)
eubanks sklills are underestimated.He's no 90-100% rigidly textbook boxer and has things he doesn't do well for sure, like follow up and turn over the Hook. But the fighting on the front foot, pressuring weakness was as much a mental/comfort zone thing i'd say. Something which many natural counterpunchers are bothered with to varying degrees.He's more Marquez, Toney or Morales in that respect, rather than someone like Maurice Hope who actually dragged his trailing leg along when he had to adopt the aggressor. The lunging overhand right was an odd mental quirk as well, as he was certainly capable of delivering proper right hands down the pipe, or a more appropriate looping variation.It look more like a deliberate choice of punch to me, something you would think he would have figured out was rarely ever effective after a few years. I think what gives me a soft spot for Eubank is he really did understand every kind of defensive positioning, which stood out as the 90s started to produce fighters more of the squared up, modern amatuer infuenced technical style, and many whos strengths lay in other areas rather than subtle space perception, positioning etc.Was also good and durable enough to know when he could afford to take a few glancing shots to set traps. He's got more of a style and flaws which you might expect from a very good but not quite great Panamanian or cuban contender from the 60s or 70s, which seemed defiantly out of place at times. I'd expect with both at their best Griffith would just be more consistent, rounded and active in taking a 3 point'ish decision.A less than at best Eubank would obviously be beaten by a wider margin.Both men would fare well defensively against the other's patient approach so i would expect it to be close and mainly contested at ring-centre.