Refusing to talk 'malarkey type political stuff' regarding the current career options of his son Chris Jr, managed by Sr himself, we delved into Chris Sr's young boxing life in New York City as well as opinions on a potential Mayweather-Khan fight and who hit harder out of Benn and Calzaghe! Enjoy! Chris on his early development in the South Bronx in the 1980s I had a tremendous grounding in New York City from 16 to 21. I was surrounded by greatness; Floyd Patterson and Wilfred Benitez would bring their fighters to our gym for club fights, and Wilfredo Gomez would come down to spar with our star pupil Dennis Cruz. It was a bizarre occurance, being a royally spoken Englishman in the heart of the Bronx, who had never laced the gloves. Over those five years I went through seven different trainers, including Luis Camacho and Lenny DeJesus, both who had worked with Duran, and two of the best fighters in history never to win a world title in Mr Ludwig Lightburn and Mr Patrick Ford; those who didn't quite make it themselves but were of the highest order technically often make the best trainers because they have that extra desire for their fighters to achieve what for whatever reason they did not and can kind of live it through them. Floyd Mayweather Sr is a great example, and Herol Graham is the best up and coming trainer in the game. Mr Lightburn - who aficianadic historians of gloved combat will know - had one of the best jabs there was, and I wanted to replicate good, stiff, slick jabbing work like he did, and even better his; an almost impossible task. His jab was poetic on film and that was the side of the game I appreciated. I believe there is YouTube footage of Mr Lightburn. Pernell Whitaker at one time was the only fighter I would go out of my way to watch. Then Floyd Mayweather came along in the late 90s, although I would follow Tyson, Lennox and Naseem for personal interest because they were my friends. The sparring I got from world number one amateur, Kevin Bryant, and Marvin Hagler's main sparring partner, Johnny Walker Banks, taught me so much because I was punched all over the ring. They would come to our gym specifically to spar with me because nobody else in the country could stand up to them and come back, whenever Hagler was out of training camp or Bryant was out of army camp. Chris' thoughts on fellow Brit Amir 'King' Khan I've always been a big Amir Khan fan and I would love for him to get the Floyd fight signed and sealed. To get them both in the ring together, with Floyd's presense in the American sports and American music markets, and Amir's presense in the United Kingdom, Asian and UAE general populations, would make for the biggest fight since Tyson and Lennox in my view. Amir I admire so much because he got the money, the millions, to turn over professionally following his amateur fame at the Olympics, and yet remained and remains the hungriest of characters, despite the wealth and fame. Audley Harrison was destroyed by it. The parellels between myself and Amir are that I myself once fought one of the great amateur fighters of all-time in Mark Breland in the 1984 Empire State Games when I was age 17 and lost a decision. I didn't get any kind of fame and recognition like Amir did, but if I did, I really don't know if I would ever of won a world championship and did what I went on to do. Probably not. So Amir I can't but admire for his hunger in the face of fame and wealth. He'll be winning on points over Mayweather if he uses jabs and feints, like Thomas Hearns was over Sugar Ray Leonard, and it's then a matter of whether Floyd can dig deep and prove himself a great fighter by overcoming adversity to get a knockout or draw. Chris' thoughts on Nigel Benn's punching power! I knew Nigel Benn was an unbelievable puncher because I watched him fight on a monthly basis for four or five years going into our 1990 fight, mostly winning by spectacular knockout in a round or so, right up to the highest level over Iran Barkley in Las Vegas. But I had stood up to the right hands of the greatest punching amateur in Breland, and Jose Quinones every day in 1986-87, who knocked out Doug DeWitt with one shot. Not to mention Barkley's main sparring partner, Richard Burton. I wasn't expecting Benn to hit much harder, if at all, but he nearly punched me into the next century at the point of connection, at every point of connection in fact! Immensely gifted punching ability, with much faster hands than Joe Calzaghe in terms of single shots, although Calzaghe had flashier flurrying than Benn. The difference between Benn and Calzaghe in their punch and power was this: Benn was just forward motion with natural leverage whereas Joe pulled his arm back and threw more awkwardly. Nigel hit harder with straight-ahead power, but when Calzaghe banged you sharply you didn't see the shot coming because of the angle.
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