Watson, the most skilled, a beautiful boxer... Benn, the most destructive, exciting and feared. Eubank, the most disliked, the least skilled, in that he often threw loping punches, bowler type overhand rights... in fairness he was probably the strongest mentally and the fittest. Still, he could have, should have, taken on a couple of yanks, which I believe he knew 'might' upset his career possibilities. Watson, overall, was probably the Best!
It depends what you mean by fittest. Watson had the best stamina and highest work rate. He was skilled, in a conventional way. Eubank was the most awkward, both defensively and offensively. Versus Watson, he landed a higher percentage of punches thrown, and did more damage punch for punch landed, whilst Watson threw a lot more. Yes, Benn was just an animal, who, at MW, tried to take his opponents head off with every punch. Whereas Eubank moved up to SMW because he was drained at MW, Benn moved up to get big fights and was small at SMW, where he developed decent defence and boxing skills accordingly.
Watson was very fluid and skilled and strictly on boxing skills was the best boxer of the 3. Eubank had a great chin was very strong at smw and had a good engine, an awkward opponent. Benn was savage at middleweight and just wanted to hurt people when he stepped up in weight he showed he had a lot more versatility than people thought and improved his boxing and defensive skills he also had a great heart hed fight until he couldnt fight anymore, Benn was my favourite of the 3.
Watson was the most textbook and pleasing to watch. He basically did everything well and on paper should have performed the best against the Americans of the three due to his higher skillset IMHO. Benn was a coiled up time bomb - blessed with bone shocking power and good reflexive head movement when he wanted to. I think it does say a lot when a boxer looks like a completely different guy shadow boxing versus what he actually does in a ring. Benn could be got to mentally - too angry, lacked composure when it counted against Eubank. Eubank had an ATG chin, great strength of mind and body and a persona that made him disliked BUT still a crowd draw cos you want to see what happens. Eubank being picked as the face of ITV boxing and then early Sky Sports attention and getting away with stinker after stinker defence, whilst not facing the best Americans made Tina Turner an absolute liar. Yet, as a kid, I loved the ring walks and loved the pseudo philosophical ISH he spouted. Eubank could overreach, throw a horrible jab and sloppy looking overhand right, despite his very good power jab and decent, tighter right hands. Eubank's short uppercut could be a thing of beauty when he threw it well - he was inconsistent with his application and effort. When he was on though, he was a warrior through and through, with cat like reflexes. Obviously Eubank was never the same after the tragedy of Watson and Benn was never the same after the G-Man war. The biggest tragedy is that Watson never got to have that Bruno moment when for a night in time, he's one of the kings of the world. I really wished that came true for Michael but alas. Media and his own actions made the public love to hate Chris, but his showings against Carl really proved to me a lot about the man that he always was. This is a guy that went to America and took his licks in the gym to hone his craft, took his beatings without grumbling, became a world champion and milked it for everything he could ... I can criticise his choice of opponents but never his cahones. My favourite of the three may have been Benn, Michael, the most skilled, weirdly, Chris, the most accomplished overall - small margins, great fighters for the UK scene but outside of Calzaghe, that generation couldn't hang with the Americans and I suspect that Joe would've got destroyed by the prime Roys and Toneys anyways.
It was a great time. My only wish is that they had fought Herol Graham. I cannot say what the result would have been if they had fought Graham, but It would have been interesting to have seen Graham v Benn
I'd liked to have seen Eubank take on some of the bigger fish of the time, step out of the WBO land and face a top name out side of the UK. Obviously he was never gonna ruin that particular gravy train he was on. Benn, I really feel he would have faced anyone. Fighting the G man as he did was a brave step, he was knocking on and McClellan was seen as an absolute monster. I loved seeing Nigel fight, what a beast!! Watson, can help thinking of him without feeling sad. What a tragedy. But the man showed everything in his fight s with Eubank.
What was cool about them was how vastly different the all were. Benn, the fiery, powerful, yet more vulnerable one; Watson, the less flashy, more conventional of the three and the one with perhaps the most skilled; and lastly the enigmatic, inscrutable oddball that was Eubank. They all brought different things to the table, a nice platform for any fan base. Watson was my favorite.
Watson was my favorite of the 3, great times for British boxing very sad aniut what happend to Michael. Exactly 33 years today the tragic fight took place. And tonight watching Joshua v Dobois
