He ducked the best out there ,and had too many close calls against journeymen promoted into contenders for spurious titles, a boxer who did not like a fast pace ,he had a great chin, and balls when it mattered ,but the defining fights, with Jones ,and Toney did not transpire. Good not great.
Eubank could fight particularly ugly, allow his work-rate to slump into a crawl and put himself in some silly positions for want of simply boxing rather than playing to the crowd, but when it mattered, he showed a tremendous capacity to gain the day. As unfortunate as Michael Watson was not to leave that ring champion after pushing Eubank to the limit, the resolve of the latter was borderline unbelievable. The fight was all but beat out of him at that point and yet he manages to turn it around with an, albeit freak but nonetheless, heroic lunge. We saw a similar kind of unperturbed animal in the first Benn fight, a man with a truly iron will, good power, and again, when it mattered, solid boxing ability. Clinging onto the paper-weight WBO belt does him no favours historically, and he did not mix it with any of the premier, state-side talent to get really deserve that 'great' badge, but Ted Spoon would dare say Eubank showed more greatness in the ring than did his better accomplished contemporaries.
Hard to say because McCallum the WBA champion was the guy he was after around '89-'90, there was also the possibility of fighting Julian Jackson for the vacant WBC title around that time. But he made it clear that he probably couldn't beat Michael Nunn!
To complete my bumping of boxed ears series i'll look at eubank. Hard for me this, him naz and bruno got me into boxing. But I don't care what his title record reads this man was never really a champion at the weight. He didn't fight toney, nunn, or liles plus his biggest fight against benn at the weight was a draw. No sir this man is very good, but not great. Good work boxed, interesting reading these threads have made
He is a fighter who could and probably should have done more. Its a shame that a couple of big fights never got made.
eubank was a much different fighter after the watson rematch before that fight he had a workrate and power at middleweight , it would have been interesting if he stayed at that weight he is no doubt a british legend he is though a very good fighter borderline great because of the amount of title defences in a small scale of time.
Eubank beats McCallum!!! McCallum fought the same level all the time and Eubank is better than guys like Tiozzo!!!! Michillo!!!!
I think Eubank's lateral movement and attacking from angles would cause McCallum a lot of problems, he'd also take McCallum's jab away and leave Mike trying to time him which would be wrong because Eubank didn't fight in rythm