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Fight Fixing?

Discussion in 'British Boxing Forum' started by atberry, Aug 19, 2011.

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atberry Boxing Junkie banned Full Member

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Candid Chris lifts lid on fight fixing

CHRISTOPHER Eubank, poet, peacock, pugilist, protagonist; speaks candidly about being London's best shoplifter at 15, the boxing 'politrick', and big-shot London fight promoters trying to sign him over fish and chips.

After escaping from the last in a long line of lock-up boarding schools, Christopher found himself without a place to live and needing to pinch suits to survive. In little time, however, his savvy led him to thousands of pounds and regular roofs over his head.

"I'd get up in the morning, buy my newspaper, catch the number 12 bus from the Elephant & Castle; then within an hour my empty shopping bags would be filled with the finest clothes Oxford Street had to offer.

"I'd set up my stool on Peckham Market and sell them on at 25%.

"These clothes had 250% mark-up value, but I made sure they had 400% mark-up because my heart was good. I rarely wore the same suit three or four times, always Italian designer to go with my crocodile shoes and my Burberry jacket.

"I caught taxis everywhere, walked with my chest held high and spoke the Queen's English. As far as I was concerned, I was Robin Hood."

It was only when the young Eubank's crime sprees progressed from thieving in open stores during the day to thieving from closed stores at night that the boy from Peckham's future as prison fodder seemed assured.

But then his mother Ena sent the plane fare to New York and with that flight, Christopher's life took an unexpected turn.

He was shamed into giving up smoking and drinking and decided to get body and soul in shape by going to church and joining a cheap neighbourhood gym.

A classic example of the hungry boxer syndrome, he worked as caretaker to pay his way and learnt his skill on the hoof.

He went to the gym every night after school and started boxing some months later when a Bronx fighter nicknamed 'The Horse' asked him to spar with him. Christopher was too embarassed to say no.

He didn't hit the guy in the first round, but in the second round started hitting him back. He was told he punched like a girl.

But in time he learnt the "beauty" of the boxer's skill.

"I watched, I listened, I learnt, then I repeated, reviewed and revised. Every minute detail of every move or punch was practised thousands and thousands and thousands of times."

It took him two years to learn how to throw the right hand.

Christopher had few friends and devoted his time to training. His first amateur fight lasted 30 seconds - the referee stopped the contest and declared Christopher the loser. But, driven to succeed, he won the next eight fights and never looked back.

As a penniless professional pugilist in the late Eighties, he did the round of British fight promoters.

"One said to me: 'I'm not a Sugar Daddy. I'm not buying you a flat or giving you a wage. You're going to have to go out and work and do it the hard way.'

"I was seeking a manager to work on my behalf, but over our fish and chips I had to listen to him tell me how great he was and go through all the champions he'd 'made'. I felt like bringing my boots up."

Another couldn't even be bothered to see him.

"One made me come up to London every day for two weeks, I dodged the train fare from Brighton each time, and he somehow couldn't find the time to see me.

"One day in his office, I had waited for ages so went out quickly to get an orange juice, came back and his secretary told me he had just dashed off!

"It was just a case of one-upmanship, though, which failed."

Britain's top young fighters at the time were London middleweights Nigel Benn and Michael Watson. Eubank, in February 1988, suggested he'd 'play with and maim' the pair of them, "and I did."

The titanic struggles he had with Benn and Watson for world middle and super-middleweight championships in the early Nineties caught British boxing at it's zenith, with audiences in excess of 10 million and pages of Monday morning coverage in the tabloid press.

Eubank, not just with his fights against Watson and Benn, had many close and controversial points decisions both for and against in his well-documented career. Controversially, he lifts the lid on fight fixing, saying issues are "immensely complicated" behind the scenes.

"Suffice to say the best man does not always win ... Am I saying some fights are fixed? Absolutely."

What's in store for Christopher's future?

"Prison. I want to be mentioned in the breath below Mandela."
Click to expand...

Let's be straight-shooting, are some fights fixed? Have some fights been fixed? What do you think??

atberry, Aug 19, 2011

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cheekyvid Detroit, I shall return. Full Member

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of course some are, yes

cheekyvid, Aug 19, 2011

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LP_1985 JMM beat Pac-Man 3 Times Full Member

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yes 100%

LP_1985, Aug 19, 2011

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Mandanda SkillspayBills Full Member

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Yep there is and always will be in one way or another. Betting and wrong people involved in the sport sadly and it's never gonna change it's just something you have to be prepared for sadly.

Not the only sport with it and won't be last.

Mandanda, Aug 19, 2011

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cheekyvid Detroit, I shall return. Full Member

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so many wankers, crooks and dodge folk in boxing. i dont think i'd like to be a fighter for all the scumbags with their fingers in the pie

cheekyvid, Aug 19, 2011

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WalletInspector Obsessed with Boxing banned

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This content is protected

WalletInspector, Aug 19, 2011

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GazOC Guest Star for Team Taff Full Member

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Of course. Not as many people seem think these days though.

GazOC, Aug 19, 2011

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Rutzini Bob n Weave Full Member

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There's also a bit of indirect fixing going on I reckon. Pressure on the refs n judges and all that.
Perhaps a promotor might give a ref the nod to pull a guy (say for example he is from Poland) out of a world title fight (say at the O2) without consulting a doctor thus protecting the champ (say he's welsh) from taking any more plumb shots to his mooey and avoiding the risk of having the shortest reign since King Louis XIX.

Rutzini, Aug 19, 2011

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KingCobra IBF World Champion Full Member

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Rutzini said: ↑

There's also a bit of indirect fixing going on I reckon. Pressure on the refs n judges and all that.
Perhaps a promotor might give a ref the nod to pull a guy (say for example he is from Poland) out of a world title fight (say at the O2) without consulting a doctor thus protecting the champ (say he's welsh) from taking any more plumb shots to his mooey and avoiding the risk of having the shortest reign since King Louis XIX.
Click to expand...

Purely hypothetical of course?

KingCobra, Aug 19, 2011

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Rutzini Bob n Weave Full Member

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KingCobra said: ↑

Purely hypothetical of course?
Click to expand...

Oh of course - that scenario was purely fictitious - I mean as if that would ever happen!

Rutzini, Aug 19, 2011

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TBooze Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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LaMotta/Fox

Lulu Perez TKO2 Willie Pep

Escalera/Everett

Are definite fixes

I suspect Ramirez/WhitakerI and Coggi/GonzalesI were also fixed.

TBooze, Aug 19, 2011

#11

Longcount boxing Full Member

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I don't think so.

Longcount, Aug 19, 2011

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MagicMan91 The Main Event Mafia Full Member

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Depends on your exact definition of fix imo. "Fix" as in judges and ref are swayed & pressurised towards a certain outcome? Rather often. Fixed as in one guy knows and decided to "dive" yeah sometimes. Fixed as in both guys are in on it, very rarely

IMO

MagicMan91, Aug 19, 2011

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brown bomber 2010 Poster of the Year Full Member

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There is no chance that guided results happen in this sport one should say

brown bomber, Aug 19, 2011

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happydrinks directfraction.storenvy.com Full Member

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Haye - Barrett always looked suspicious to me

happydrinks, Aug 19, 2011

#15

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