Michael Watson?

I love that bunch of fights between Watson, Benn and Eubank. Such good, exciting wars they were. Watson was the best of the three technically I think, and strong as an ox too. It goes to show how exceptional McCallum was to dominate and stop a fighter like that, but Watson was competitive with the very best other than that.

 

I thought Watson did well against McCallum, getting in lots of right hands while using a style he had never used before and trying to shake off 11 months of ring rust.

He counter-punched Benn to Benn's first defeat in a masterclass, classic rope-a-dope, peek-a-boo schooling. And against Eubank in their second fight, he closed the range down exceptionally well and worked in-close with body and head shots from every angle in blistering clusters and clever, short chopping rights - 10x the fighter he was against McCallum. He also steam-rolled Errol Christie and Ricky Stackhouse down in 30 seconds apiece, and constantly timed and placed the right hand impeccabily against former world #1 Don Lee when he was just 22, busting the extremely dangerous Lee up.

Watson was about 25 when his career was cut short and an ever-improving fighter!

 

He had this brilliant, earmuff-type defense and a dangerous overarm right punch that caused almost all of his KO's/KD's/TKO's, amateur and pro. He also liked to counter in clusters rather than singles. Very smooth, nice fighter to watch. Quite stiff and awkward at times, but clear talent and a frightening physique for middleweight.

 

I would agree with all that, but the comments about the McCallum fight.

Watson was expected to beat the old man, but was humiliated. Dominated from the start, Watson simply never got going.

 

I disagree. McCallum wasn't comfortable and has said so since, describing it as a gruesome, brutal fight in fact! Maybe it didn't appear that way on TV at the time when we all expected Watson to win. But looking back in hindsight, a 24 year old kid with ring rust and the wrong tactics against an all-time super-master at his (in hindsight) absolute peak and with perfect prep (raw Steve Collins, workout... Albert Hall title-win 11mnth prior), he did good - blocking a lot of body shots with his elbows and a lot of left hand head work and hooks with his gloves, and both men scored a lot of right hands.

McCallum just had that experience to step off, stay unstationary while unperipheral, and that incredible natural fluidity - Watson was told to just keep going forward looking for right hands...not his natural game and a bit too basic and insulting regarding the opponent on hand. He did force McCallum back, though, which nobody else really managed! One judge even had it scored 6-4 based on this.

 

Michael had perhaps the toughest opposition coming up the ranks of any British fighter in history. He made his debut against a fighter with a winning record and immediately started fighting 30-fight veterans when he was 19/20 years old! His 2nd pro fight was an eight-rounder and he was a non-Olympian.

He then had an all-out six-round war with a fellow unbeaten prospect, which was poor matchmaking by Duff and Lawless, because he fought the useful James Cook just 13 days later and suffered his first loss - his face and body still marked up a bit from the war he had less than two weeks prior (Cook would go on to become the European champ). There was more poor matchmaking from Duff and Lawless as Watson was pitted against the wild left hooker Simon Collins and the youngsters stood toe-to-toe in a brutal few minutes on the Bruno-Witherspoon undercard, with Watson's overarm right taking Collins out when he himself had just looked stunned.

When he fought Cliff Gilpin after two years as a pro, I expected him to lose - Gilpin had given Kirkland Laing and Lloyd Honeyghan all they could possibly handle! But battle-hardened Mike turned in a wonderful offensive performance as he chased Gilpin around the ring and scored at every opportunity (which were few and far between).

And when he fought Don Lee at 22 as a late sub for Herol Graham, again I expected him to lose. Lee was a tall, rangey switch-hitting southpaw who had beaten up and taken out no lesser man than Tony Sibson and was reported to have knocked Tommy Hearns clean out a few times in Kronk. Watson dominated, a real coming-of-age fight.

I picked him against Benn.

As an amateur he rose to the occasion against the powerhouse John Beckles, who had only ever lost to the best Russians and Cubans. Watson, the underdog, beat Beckles in 30 seconds with his overarm right shot. He loved that underdog position against a world-class hitter. Beckles, Lee... I knew Benn was too raw for the experienced Mike, who had thousands of rounds of sparring with Kirkland Laing and Dennis Andries under his belt when he was still a teenager - at that point Benn didn't even spar at all! Ever!

It was easy money to bet on Watson over Benn in '89, and big odds to boot.atsch

 

4 1 taim i agri wiz TBooze end disagri (not 4d 1st taim) wiz atberry

 

Great attention to detail. breaking down the fights and his career. Watson was my favourite british fighter, was a real class act and true inspiration to boxing and life in general

"THE FORCE"

 

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wehZNh_Cq-k[/url] (5:00-6:00) --

 

love the fighting back documentary and the more recent one from sky is very good. with lot of good footage of fights, training etc.

Book is a brilliant read.

 

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Nf3gUKaj4[/url]

 

Nice post!

 

His book is brilliant.

Although it seems sadistic, Benn couldn't pull the trigger after the second Watson fight...

 

did you mean Eubank couldnt pull the trigger after the watson fight.

nigel lost most of his killer instinct after the problems with mcclellan which happened 3 years later.