On importance of persistence 'I fought so many fighters with more talent than me, and I always came out on top because I was persistent. A perfect example was Ricky Hatton beating Tszyu. Based on their histories, he was lucky to be even in the same ring, was Ricky. He persisted, persisted, persisted and the man who was expected to win was forced to stop. Perfect.' 'Nigel Benn had far better natural punching ability than me, and Michael Watson had far better natural come-forward balance, than me. Dan Sherry had faster feet than me, Gary Stretch had faster hands than me, Lindell Holmes doubled his hooks better than me and Henry Wharton trebled his hooks better than I could. Dan Schommer estimated distance and range better than me, and I considered myself the master of this. 'It was fighters with much less boxing ability than me like Collins, Calzaghe and Thompson that I lost to, and the reason I lost to them is because they were persistent.' 'Carl Froch is a great example. He lacks finesse and niceties about his boxing, of course, but he's this awkward, rangey, solid-chinned, solid-handed come-forward fighter who takes punches to get his own ones in and just gets the job done, mostly. It works like this: If you persist and don't quit, you're on to a winner.' On standard of opposition 'I think Carl fought a lot of big names in succession or something, though there are those who would say that they were all either over the hill or under the hill, or coming up in weight or coming down in weight, and how the only ones who count were Lucian Bute and Andre Ward. 'Bute had never been on the big stage before, he was the champion travelling to Carl's home garden and Froch did a job on him, which was a fight which showed if you will any way psychologically freeze you can get seriously hurt in there, and I'm glad actually that young Edward Hearn jumped in there and the referee called it off when he did.' 'Neither me nor Nigel fought the Andre Wards of our day. But we fought so many of the next best in line and always won hands down, impressively. Thomas Hearns and Michael Nunn had the best long-range boxing ability in boxing history, and Doug DeWitt and Graciano Rocchigiani went punch-for-punch with them, just with less snap and flash. James Toney was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and Tony Thornton went punch-for-punch with him, just with less snap and flash. 'The standard of our opposition was immense.' On Michael Watson rematch 'It's in the top 10 or 12 fights in history, and a case could be made for it being number one because nowhere will you see a fight at that level - with top speed, top strength and top skill shown from both competitors - where one gets the upper hand over the other after three or four highly competitive rounds, and stays on him for the next seven or eight rounds straight through, completely dominating and battering him in every minute of each round, only for the beaten foe - dropped and humiliated and completely spent - to come out victorious.' On rivalry with Benn and Watson 'I don't think we will ever see it again where you have three men of the same age from the same city and from the same continental descent, fighting at the top level at the same time with these Greek God-like physiques like we displayed; bringing the anticipation and excitement and deliverance of what we gave the record-breaking audiences, as it was for the Nigel Benn, Michael Watson and Chris Eubank boxing rivalry.' On why he and Roy Jones Jr never fought 'The reason I was wary about facing Roy Jones when I was still king is because boxing is the jab to me. That's the game, for me. You get your opponent into punching range with the jab. So I would take that away from my opponents with my catching or slipping ability, reflexed into me through regular hard sparring. 'Frighteningly, Roy Jones didn't even need to use his jab, and was the one fighter who had the speed to counter my jab with a right hand over. So I would have to of drawn him into a toe-to-toe slugfest to beat him, hoping to out-last him. 'When I came back after the Collins losses, he didn't want to fight me because he saw me as too much of a risk.'
Chris for all his bravado and craziness is really good here. Also he knows who was great and who wasnt. I love Calzaghe , but it is true his ability really wasnt up there with Benn and Watson.
