Eubank Sr claims he beat Watson/Collins/Rocky clearly

“Well it has to be Chris Eubank, obviously,” Hearn said in an interview with JOE, when asked who the best fighter he has ever managed was. “We had near 20 world title defences and we came from nothing.

“The recession of the late 80s nearly finished Matchroom. We were losing a lot of money, and then along came Chris Eubank, and then, thanks to Eubank, Sky.

"So God smiled on me as he always does, and I somehow got out of all the problems and produced a company that is now one of the global leaders in sport.” As well as his devastating power and phenomenal capacity to take one huge punch after another, Eubank’s eccentric personality made him a “promoter’s dream”.

And Hearn could not contain his smiles and laughter when he was asked about Eubank’s natural propensity to attract huge crowds and sell tickets. “The great thing about Eubank is, you have to remember, in boxing the fighters sell a lot of tickets and, you know, they get more appealing to promoters the more tickets they sell,” Hearn added.

“But Eubank was having none of that, I said to him ‘how many tickets do you want for your first fight’ and he looked at me with disdain. “He said, ‘I am the fighter, I am the warrior, I don’t sell tickets. You’re the promoter, you sell the tickets’.

“It seemed to make sense, he never sold any tickets, but his image sold out venues. Whether you loved him or hated him, you were never going to ignore a Eubank fight. He was just a wonderful promoter in his own right.”

 

They got off to a terrible start. His first fight for Matchroom, at the York Hall vs gatekeeper Randy Smith, coincided with Liverpool and Arsenal playing for the league title (that Michael Thomas goal) live on TV the same time…

They sold a grand total of 105 tickets and only 89 went through the turnstiles.

 

(Eubank-Smith wasn’t televised due to the Liverpool-Arsenal title decider getting TV rights)

 

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Earlier today. He’s very patient and gentle.

 

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I’m quite sure Close and Wharton were ranked high. Close was European champion and Wharton was WBC mandatory for a long time. Giminez and Essett also fought for the WBC title just before in controversial losses to the Italian guy in Italy