That fight was so close. I always lean towards Benn because I was a big fan and I hated Eubank. It was more of a boxing match unlike the first brutal encounter. Both exchanged flurried at the end of rounds trying to get the judges attention. They were both told they needed the last round to win and it was a classic.
Much less of a boxing match than the first one, which was mostly outside feinting. This one was mostly inside mauling. Benn clearly swept three of the first four rounds as Eubank struggled to time Benn's rolls, ducks, weaves and slips, and Eubank clearly won the three middle rounds as well as he did the third round, while the 8th, 9th and 10th were almost impossible to split, the 11th was clearly Eubank's and the 12th clearly Benn's. Eubank's left hand was very sharp in the second half of the 8th and first half of the 9th, but Benn's right uppercuts to the body were really ripping and he landed the punch of the fight in the 10th - a more picture-perfect left hook leap than Frazier's KD of Ali (Eubank's chin was ridiculous). It's hard to split those mid-to-late rounds.
I'll probably go with draw after careful examination. 1-Benn 2-Benn 3-Eubank 4-Benn 5-Eubank 6-Eubank (10/8, Benn fouls) 7-Eubank 8-10/10 9-Benn 10-Benn 11-Eubank 12-Benn
I went to the fight, and in a nosebleed seat scored it 10/2 Benn. On watching it on TV a few days later I had it 7/5 Benn, it was very close and a draw seems fair to me too.
Interestingly, Showtime's Dr Ferdie P and Bobby Czyz had Eubank clearly winning. Czyz's scorecard read; 1-Eubank 2-Eubank 3-Eubank 4-Benn 5-Benn 6-Benn (Benn -1, 9-9) 7-Eubank 8-Eubank 9-Eubank 10-Even 11-Eubank 12-Benn Pacheco accused Ronnie Davies of costing Eubank the fight by telling him he had stop Benn in the last round. There was definitely a feel that this was supposed to be some kind of American coronation for Eubank. They were bigging him up big time, whereas British boxing always put Eubank down.
I scored it for Benn but the margin was n't enough for it to be labelled a robbery like quite a few have it. A lot of the rounds were closely contested. Nigel took it on workrate,imo.
Eubank outworked Benn in this fight; Eubank was the one coming forward, Eubank was the one throwing more than one.
Even Eubank admits he thought Benn one the rematch. “Five hundred million people watched that fight,” Eubank told ITV4’s Sports Life Stories. You could say that there was still a psychological game going on. I had him where I wanted him. That’s what I thought. Benn was on his game for that second fight, he was on his game. I could not pin him down, I was hitting everything but him. The oxygen, but not him. Even though he hit me low and lost a point, he still did enough to win the fight. And a fighter knows.”
Eubank doesn't admit that. He says Benn did enough to win the fight which he did. Eubank also did enough to win the fight...
"I could not pin him down, I was hitting everything but him" Yeah...really sounds like he believed he won the fight himself!