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CHRIS EUBANK - THE CAREER -
STEVEN BUNCE
Everybody Loves Chris... now.
First a few facts about the boxer: He was brave, fearless, annoying to
watch, frustrating at times, complex and he had more world title fights
that any other British boxer in history.
Chris Eubank was and remains British boxing's most enigmatic performer.
Trust me, performer is the right word.
A few weeks ago somebody asked me for sport's most underestimated
competitor and it took me less than a second to name Eubank. It's possible
that if a million other people were asked to name the most overrated
person in sport, that they would come up with the same name: Eubank.
The first time I remember watching Eubank fight was in a dirty old hall in
Basildon, Essex. He had not long moved back to Britain after a few years
in America. He arrived at the Romford base of his promoter and immediately
the buzz about the crank from Peckham, who had lived in New York, started
to circulate. It was 1989 and boxing was a very different beast. It was,
to keep it simple, pre-Eubank.
On that night at the Festival Hall the paying public watched Eubank stop a
particularly tough American called Ron Malek. It took five rounds and the
crowd was captivated. They had booed him at one point, cheered for Malek
at another point but they had stood as one at the end and applauded Eubank
out of the ring.
Later than night I realised that I had seen him several times but in
Basildon, in my opinion, he took the first bold steps to becoming the
Chris Eubank that would dominate the sport in Britain for most of a
decade. In Basildon he became the showman and, to paraphrase the immortal
King of Commentary, Reg Gutteridge, the ego landed.
Just 13 months later Eubank was in the opposite corner in Birmingham for
the first of 24 world title fights. He was unbeaten in 24 fights but he
was the underdog against Nigel Benn that night. ringside opinion was not
really divided: Eubank, you see, was not considered much of anything and
Benn was an old-school brawler.
It was 1990 and it was the fight that set the tone for British boxing's
greatest decade. Eubank won an epic and brutal struggle and he was to
become the sport's number one attraction - loved and loathed in equal
measure for most of the Nineties.
At the time nobody in the boxing business realised just how pivotal the
nine rounds in Birmingham would be. The sport changed forever that night
and it left behind many of its ancient traditions. Eubank was a talker,
there were million-pound deals, he acted like he was running the business
and the people wanted him more and more. He had turned the sport upside
down and altered the way a good fighter and his manager/promoter do
business.
Eubank was the star and with enormous audiences on ITV and the arrival of
SKY he had the perfect platforms to become bigger than boxing. We tend to
forget that Eubank showed professional boxers how to become the proper
'pain in the arse' they now are to the men that run the modern sport of
boxing. If you like, he gave them a voice and taught them that they were
not slaves to TV companies, managers or promoters. He was, I know because
promoters have told me, a total nightmare to do business with. Eubank was
the show.
Title fights quickly followed the win over Benn in Birmingham. There was
controversy, a bit of comedy and some tragedy in the first 10 months. He
was seldom out of the papers or off the TV Screen. No British fighter had
ever received the same amount of exposure.
The second fight with Michael Watson raised Eubank's profile to a unique
level. In less than a year he had gone from an unknown pugilist to
arguably the most recognised sportsman in Britain. However, the attention,
in the months after the end of the second Watson fight, was unwanted and
in some instances unnecessarily cruel.
He fought on, kept winning and in 1993 over 42,000 people watched his
drawn second fight with Benn. It remains a record attendance, a night that
people will never forget at a time when the sport in Britain was more
popular that ever.
The decade was truly fabulous but forget Naseem Hamed and Lennox Lewis,
Frank Bruno and Benn because Eubank was the biggest star at the time.
Eubank last fought in July 1998. He was stopped on his feet with one eye
closed in a savage rematch with Carl Thompson. He was not happy. He left
the ring with a record of 45 wins, five defeats and two draws. Those are
the statistics but what he really achieved iniside the ropes of Britains
boxing rings is far harder to calculate.
Nobody before and nobody since has come close to having the same impact
over the same amount of years.
He was British boxing for about a decade.
Steve Bunce
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