Does anyone have any info on what Eubanks did as an amateur ? i heard that he turned pro at 19 with no sign of any Aba or commonwealth titles, but then i looked at his record here http://www.scandinavian-boxing-rankings.dk/international-records/chris-eubank.htm & says his first five fights were in atlantic city ??
Theres a documentary about Eubank where they show training clips from his camp on Bodmin Moor .. he had a good little camp on Bodmin Moor ..
What's it called (the docu)?
OK, ive looked up some of these guys,
Eubanks trainer- http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=018292
Eubanks hero- http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=003863
Hardly inspirational stuff lol.
Chris said this about Cruz-
"Those fighters I admired. Those fighters were Dennis Cruz, who you would not have heard of. He was a gym fighter, he had perfect balance."
OK, ive looked up some of these guys,
Eubanks trainer- http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=018292
Eubanks hero- http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=003863
Hardly inspirational stuff lol.
who were Eubanks boxing idols ?
Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, Kid Chocolate, Dennis Cruz. If there was one boxer that Eubank modelled himself on it was Dennis Cruz, Eubank used to watch him spar at the gym then would try to do the same moves as Cruz had done. Eubank says that Cruz had perfect balance on his feet.
But Eubank's style was more or less his own.
It's threads like these that keep knocking discussion about CURRENT boxing off the first page. All these Eubank threads constitute SPAM here, and should be posted in the BOXING HISTORY forum where they're SUPPOSED to be posted.
I think you've maybe contributed to more posts about Eubank than JuyJuy even, and the more you show it gets to you I reckon the more he'll spam about Christopher Livingstone .. I dont mind the odd thread about a former boxer every couple of months but if its wrecking the forum as you say (I dont know, Im not here often enough) then just ignore him ..
What drummed up the Benn fight was the ludicrously dangerous, hands down gesturing to the referee when he fought that Milo was taking too much punishment, and then the absolute genious camera positioning after the stunning 20 second KO of Dos Santos that basically said to Benn "check this out .. this is what I do .." as the referee was trying to revive poor old Reginaldo
What drummed up the Benn fight was the ludicrously dangerous, hands down gesturing to the referee when he fought that Milo was taking too much punishment, and then the absolute genious camera positioning after the stunning 20 second KO of Dos Santos that basically said to Benn "check this out .. this is what I do .." as the referee was trying to revive poor old Reginaldo
i think Essett, Giminez & Holmes should of been stopped inside six rounds by Eubanks standards
But those fights were completely onesided,against Essett and Giminez I thought Eubank beat them ridiculously easily and these guys have fought for world titles a few times and done much better,Eubank just dominated these guys by stepping into his jab and grinding them down(and had plenty of time for all his posing too). Eubank had what was more of a hard,punishing jab rather than a range finder,he didnt even need to use a measuring stick because he could land lead rights at any time. Eubanks jab and body movement was slick with it landing to head or body,and he could hit you from range with it and grinded you down,so his jab was an offensive weapon and it was difficult to get to Eubank enough.
i think Essett, Giminez & Holmes should of been stopped inside six rounds by Eubanks standards
But those fights were completely onesided,against Essett and Giminez I thought Eubank beat them ridiculously easily and these guys have fought for world titles a few times and done much better,Eubank just dominated these guys by stepping into his jab and grinding them down(and had plenty of time for all his posing too). Eubank had what was more of a hard,punishing jab rather than a range finder,he didnt even need to use a measuring stick because he landed lead rights whenever he wanted. Eubanks jab was slick to body or head,and he could hit you from range with it and grinded you down,so his jab was an offensive weapon and it was difficult to get to Eubank enough.
I think the pre-Watson Eubank could of beaten anybody, purely because he was such an excellent puncher and a very sharp finisher. His speciality was being very accurate when he had a man in trouble, being able to finish an opponent when he had him hurt. Eubank usually looked absolutely horrible whenever he had to go looking for an opponent, but when he had a man hurt he looked absolutely brilliant coming forward (but awful coming forward if his opponent wasn't in trouble). But like you say, he really struggled to have any focussed aggression after the Michael Watson incident and his heart wasn't in the game after that.
Eubank had a string of fights where he slickly stopped opponents cruelly when he had them hurt (apart from Johnny Melfah, which was a spectacular knockout), and you can't say that Eubank was only stopping bums because he stepped up and stopped Benn and Watson!
i think Eubank at his best was Corti, Milo, Benn, Stretch. he lost all his finishing instinct after the Watson tragedy, i think Essett, Giminez & Holmes should of been stopped inside six rounds by Eubanks standards. u can forgive him for poor performances against Sugar Boy Malinga & 'The Punching Postman' Tony Thornton because Sugar Boy came as the next fight after the Watson tragedy and Eubank didnt look as if he wanted to be in the ring that night(Watson on the mind still), & Ronnie(Davies) actualy said before the Thornton fight "Chris is finding it very difficult to get motivated to fight somebody who works as a postman as a day to day job, so dont expect anything special because we couldnt get him motivated for this fight". he had two v.good wins in 94 though against Rocky and Wharton. he held WBO world titles at two diff weights, 15 title defences at 168 and some say he should of added the WBC version at old trafford. Not bad seeing as he was only in it for the money!
Eubank lived in the South Bronx from the age of 16 til the age of 20,Kevin Rooneys former sparring partner Maximo Pierret got Eubank started at the Jerome boxing club,but Eubank was learned the peekaboo style to bob and weave and no matter how hard he tried he just could not get into this. Eubank lost his first five amateur fights in 82-83,but then he started working with Patrick Ford at Gleasons Gym and it was Ford who learned Eubank how to fight at a distance (Ford was a 5'10" featherweight),after learning to fight as a tall fighter instead of a short fighter Eubank won 19 of his next 21 amateur fights in 1984 including Empire state games silver medalist,NYC golden gloves semifinalist(pulled out injured),US golden gloves semifinalist,and Spanish golden glove champs Winner. Eubank fought at 139-147 in the amateurs.
Eubank only decided to make a career out of boxing when he clocked up a $250 phone bill that his mother couldnt afford. He quit boxing in 1986 to concentrate on his graduation,then had one more fight to help pay for the flight back to England in 87. He started training boxing again in Brighton to keep fit,but Ronnie Davies thought he was very good and was always pestering him to have pro fights. Eubank had a very good friend who was into martial arts (Walter Johnson,member of the Eubank camp from 88 to 98) and he learned Eubank alot about weight distribution and helped him develop his style(robotic style). Eubank didnt take boxing seriously until being suprised at how easily he defeated Anthony Logan and all the attention he got from putting on showmanship in that fight,Barry Hearn signed him that night and the rest is history.
Good fucking K for you!
And Eubank says in his autobiography that Mike Tyson used to come to Gleason's to spar with some of the heavyweights there (when Tyson and Eubank were 16 or 17) and Eubank was sparring with Kevin Rooney a lot. Eubank and Pierret (and Ford?) stayed at the same hotel as Tyson and Rooney for a few weeks when Tyson and Eubank were both fighting at the Atlantis Casino.
Eubank was the only boxing person to visit Tyson in prison, they hadn't seen eachother for 10 years.
Here's Chris with Mike in 2000 (before or after Tyson beat up Francis or Savarese)
http://img99.exs.cx/img99/4364/eubanktyson0ja.jpg