Eubank Sr: Floyd a *****, Froch a fraud

The effort it must've took to win that second Watson fight, to stand up at the end of that 11th round and muster up the power to throw THAT shot... the fight was fought at the pace of a lightweight fight and these guys were muscular lightheavies, and THAT uppercut from Hell left one man fighting for his life - it could've easily been the other way round. Eubank was battered. He said he could physically feel his brain rattling around inside his skull all fight - Watson was putting everything into every punch and landing at will!

 

He only fell to one knee against Watson on exhaustion, and was only pushed over by Greg George and Steve Collins, and slipped over on water in the corner against Benn in the first fight.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PydXSPyUvvE[/ame]

9:15-10:55

 

Watson beat former world #1 Don Lee, Tommy Hearns's main sparring partner, as a 22-year-old late substitute. Lee was a tall, rangey southpaw switch-hitter and harder puncher than Hearns or Jackson if you watch his KO reel. Watson didn't just beat Lee, actually, he wiped the floor with him easily and bust him up - he simply couldn't miss him with his right lead.

 

Watson also fought a peak, sharp McCallum despite having 11 months out of the ring, no warm-up fight. And he did well, landing more right leads than McCallum throughout and forcing the Bodysnatcher back on occasion which Toney failed to do. He also blocked a lot of McCallum's shots in the first six rounds and was countering in combinations.

What he did to Benn was sublime, absolutely sublime. A true masterclass!

He walked right through Errol Christie like he was nothing. And Christie probably had the slickest combinations and upper body movement in the division.

 

Try Tony Sibson, who gave Hagler a tough fight. He banged Sibson out slightly easier than Marvin did, and was given a #1 ranking by the WBC.

 

Watson was right at the start of his career when tragedy struck and ended it - the way he performed in the second Eubank fight was better than he ever had, better than he'd ever looked before. He was phenomenal that night. Just constant closing of distance for 11 rounds straight and blistering clusters of combinations, punching his way out of the clinches with clean lands and mastering a short, timed right down the middle where Eubank would dip and lean in range as in the first fight that Watson couldn't figure then.

Watson for 10.9 rounds looked like he was on his way to all-time greatness, he truly did.

 

James Cook mastered Watson when Mike was a novice, but bare in mind that two weeks prior to that Watson had had an all-out six-round slugfest with hard-hitting Carlton ******, a fellow prospect.

Henry Wharton was a dangerous kid with his heavy, quadruple left hooks!

 

He looked a million dollars at times in his early career around '90-'91, literally punching most of his opponents out of the ring.

But he really blew hot and cold a lot. Simply didn't show up against Slugger O'Toole (Fidel Castro Smith), Lou Gent or Benn early (hardly threw a punch at Benn until the last second of the 5th round - a left hook that dropped Nigel heavily). He gave away the Benn fight as far as I'm concerned, he could've, and would've, beaten him had he not frozen; Benn was reduced to ducking below knee height on the ropes for most of the later rounds. Benn still says he was pissing blood after the Henry fight and bruised more than any other fight.

He fought out of his skin against Eubank. But Eubank boxed out of his skin that night, unfortunately for Henry, or 'Hank' as was his nickname.

I don't think he ever reached near the level of performance he found against Eubank again in his career. He lost a step. He took a lot of hard combos from Eubank on his way in. Sure, he smashed out former and future WBC champs, the Italian pair of Galvano and Nardiello, and gave Rob Reid the toughest fight he's had, but he wasn't the same.

For me, Henry Wharton's chances came too late. He was at WBC #1 for a year and a half before Benn took the fight, but the Benn/Wharton fight was originally talked up in mid-91 - and things could've been different had he fought and beat Benn in '91. He could've beaten Cook and Cordoba.