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Michael Watson (Islington ABC) lost in the Junior ABA final of 1981, against Garry Sanderson at 71kg, it was the first fight he ever lost and it was due to over-confidence. Before that, he'd always been in complete control and his right hand could end most fights. He was always seen as a very smooth operator and controlled counter-hitter, and so was chosen to represent Western Europe in a dual meet against Detroit just weeks after his first defeat - it was his first-ever senior bout and he was stopped by hard-hitting Don Lee to suffer back-to-back defeats. Watson bounced back to win the 1982 London ABA's at 71kg (beating Rod Douglas), before losing out to Errol Christie at the English ABA's. He had been working as Kirkland Laing's sparring partner for years. In 1983, he got to the semi-finals of the Canada Cup at 71kg where he beat Dan Sherry and Shawn O'Sullivan but lost out to Rod Douglas (O'Sullivan was robbed against Frank Tate in the Olympic final the following year, that was after Douglas was robbed against O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals of those Olympics). He also won the 1983 London ABA's at 75kg before pulling out halfway through his fight with Johnny Melfah at the English ABA's (Melfah won the ABA's that year, but Watson was beating him).
Mike Watson fought Mike Nunn at the 1984 Canada Cup at 75kg, losing out 3-2 but not before almost knocking out Nunn on a number of occasions with his right hand in round three.
By the time 1984 was on the scene, Watson was seen as Britain's best hope for a medal at the Olympics. But, he suffered a shock defeat in the semi-finals of the 1984 ABA's when he lost to Scotland's Russell Barker due to a lot of over-confidence and Watson's place on the Olympic team was taken by Liverpool's Brian Schumacher who easily beat Barker in the final (Schumacher had German parents and Watson had beaten him atleast twice previously). However, Watson did travel to Los Angeles with the Great Britain Olympic team as a reserve.
In Watson's seventh professional fight he came up against reigning European amateur champion Carlton Warren, if Warren beat Watson he was promised a shot at Herol Graham as early as his fifth pro fight! Warren and Watson went toe-to-toe, as if the loser was going to fade into oblivion, with Watson coming out on top in a battle of skill. Amazingly, coins were thrown into the ring after Watson's arm was raised and they came non-stop, it was a token of appreciation for Watson's skills (it was called nobbins in the boxing game and had been around since the earliest days of boxing but rarely happened), boxing history was made that night because it's the last time it ever happened in a boxing ring.
Watson's defeat to future British champion James Cook couldn't of come up at a better time, it was an educational points loss where he was out-hussled and out-worked rather than out-boxed or out-classed. There was talk of fights with Dennis Andries or Tony Sibson, because Watson was struggling to make middleweight and this was taking away the delivery he used to have in his right hand. But he remained a middleweight.
By the time 1988 was on the scene, the smooth-boxing Watson was getting frustrated at Mickey Duff's inability to land him fights with top 15 opposition, or a domestic dust-up with Herol Graham. But, out of the blue Duff delivered a match-up with top 10 ranked Dangerous Don Lee. Lee was the most feared and avoided middleweight of the early-to-mid 80's, but was not quite the dangerman he was by the time Duff got him for Watson. A young Gerald McClellan was in London, working as Lee's sparring partner. Watson stood with Lee for five rounds, coming out on top in a battle of skill to avenge his amateur defeat. That victory set-up a 10-round IBF elimination fight with Michael Olajide at Caesar's Palace, as chief support for the Frank Tate-Michael Nunn fight. Michael Watson had arrived, or so he thought. Olajide pulled out of the fight at the last-minute, and Watson disappointingly had to settle for fighting late-replacement Israel Cole.
May 21, 1989. Nobody will ever forget that evening. Nigel Benn, bragging power-puncher and former East End Army hero who was 22-0 with 22 KO's and guaranteed a multi-million Las Vegas showdown with Michael Nunn if he knocked out Watson, was supposed to blast Watson out of the ring. 'The Dark Destroyer' was supposed to conquer the world, supposed to be invincible. A huge British fans favourite, was Nige. In Watson's first fight on terrestrial ITV (his fights had been shown on BBC on Saturday afternoons), and his first fight screened world-wide (including live across America on free TV), he put on a trademark counter-punching clinic to shock the world in a classic rope-a-dope in a tent in Finsbury Park. He suprised everyone with a peek-a-boo style, courage and toughness in seemingly exposing Benn as a free-swinging pug! Watson was an uncomplicated man of reserved disposition and old-fashioned in comparison to Benn, he took no notice of Benn's flashy ring entrance and gave him a boxing lesson that night.
The Benn victory, for the Commonwealth title, set-up a World title clash with Jamaican legend Mike 'The Body Snatcher' McCallum. However, the fight was postponed twice and when it did finally take place Watson had been out of the ring for almost an entire year and was going into the fight with a bout of the flu. Also, Watson had new trainers for this fight and was taught a more aggressive approach to try to pressure the older pro McCallum as if they thought his legs may go in the later rounds. That wasn't Watson's style, Watson's best attribute was counter-punching. Had he counter-punched McCallum instead of attack him, and had the fight not been postponed, Watson probably would of won. But instead, McCallum relentlessly chopped away at the on-coming, high-guarded Watson with trademark body shots and got him out of there late.
"People ask me if I took Michael too lightly and I tell them they are mad. I knew how good he was and I knew just how good I would have to be to beat him," said McCallum, when reflecting on his career in 1998.
It's ironic that Nigel Benn won his World title shot in the very month that Watson lost his World title shot.
Watson fought Errol Christie on the Benn-Eubank undercard and was disgusted when given just a measely £5,000 for his work, whereas Benn and Eubank picked up £500,000 each that night. Watson easily beat Christie that night, avenging his amateur defeat.
Enter Chris Eubank, June 1991 at Earl's Court, another shot at the World Middleweight title. A crowd of over 12,000 packed the historic hall and witnessed a classic encounter. The fight was close, but most ringside observers believed that Michael had done enough and the 14 million viewers watching it live on ITV were also convinced that Michael had won. In the days that followed the nation's leading newspapers ran polls that asked their readers for their opinions on the decision. The verdict was unanimous: The People's Champion was declared the winner. The story of the fight dominated the backpages of the newspapers for days.
A few weeks after the controversial fight a re-match was announced. The date was September 21, 1991: It would turn out to be Michael's last fight and the first night of the rest of his life.
At the end of the day, Michael Watson out-boxed both Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank but didn't get near the same ammount of attention.
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