So Chris Eubank Sr. Ducked TWO great fighters...

[Combat Talk Radio]

On "The Gloves Are Off", Chris Eubank basically admitted he ducked Roy Jones Jr. at a time Jones was red hot.

Then there's this on Twitter. I always wondered why this had never happened. I wonder whether the same offer was made to Nigel Benn. This would have been a straight bomber of a fight.

[NEETzsche]

the dates don't add up. hearns was fighting above 168 lbs before eubank won his first title there

[alexguiness]

Eubank never really tested himself in the US.

While he beat Benn, Benn did travel a lot more which is a real test in pro boxing.

[soul_survivor]

I saw the episode where he said he didn't want the Jones fight but it came at the same time when Jones said the only guy on the table that would cause him problems was Eubank. So i twas just a bit of mutual respect there I think.

But this Hearn thing is weird. Hearn wasn't ever in the same weight class as Eubank when both guys were names, i.e. the early to mid 90s. By 95 Hearn was a cruiser but Eubank was just moving above SMW.

[soul_survivor]

Eubank never really tested himself in the US.

While he beat Benn, Benn did travel a lot more which is a real test in pro boxing.

That's somewhat true but Eubank beat a lot of good fighters from mw to smw and they were willing to come to england to face Benn, so really he didn't have to go to the US.

[Tedkidlewis]

Eubank plays the game of being very graceful and respectful to other fighters but the truth is, before the second Watson fight, he was pretty much unstoppable and even after he proved to be one of the toughest men I've ever seen in a boxing ring.

[Combat Talk Radio]

Interesting responses.

I wonder if the proposed fight was before Hearns/Leonard 2 when Hearns was fighting SMW. That would have put the fight before Eubank/Dos Santos (my favorite Eubank fight, BTW), before Eubank was a big name?

[Ham Porter]

Hearns was already moving up to 175 by the time Eubank attained any relevancy. He's likely just being respectful & his words are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Ambrose Mendy (Benn's manager) claims they were offered the fight with Leonard after he beat Barkley, but that Benn was set on fighting Eubank & wanted to deal with him first.

[coghaugen]

Bob Arum offered Eubank a Tommy Hearns fight post-Benn/Eubank 1 in 1990. Hearns may of come back down to middle, or Eubank up to super-middle.

Arum didn't want to put Eubank in with Nunn because he felt their styles would clash and make for a stinker. Eubank actually WANTED Nunn, believe it or not. Arum wanted Eubank in with Duran and McCallum if not Hearns and so Eubank chose not to sign the contract with Arum. He felt it would disrespect Duran and he felt McCallum brought no money and a lot of kidney pain. So he turned down Arum's Hearns offer and also his two-fight counter-offer.

Eubank set his sights on a unifying fight with Herol Graham if he beat Julian Jackson, with Steve Collins, Tony Collins and Chris Pyatt also mentioned for potential fights, before a finale with Nunn and an early retirement.

None of that happened, of course.

[SalimShady1212]

The number of great/tough fights he had, I think I'll give him a pass.