Captain Sensible
Well-known member
Can you imagine world title fights at the Amex with 20k+ in the stadium chanting 'Eubank Eubank'!
Would be amazing stuff.
Lovely piece in the mirror today:
Following his father's footsteps: Eubank Jr is a chip off the old block
|
Father was brought up in the Bronx, the prodigal grew up in Brighton.
Despite years of being lectured and hectored not to follow his dad into a brutal sport he famously branded a “mug’s game”, Chris Eubank junior flew in the face of paternal advice.
To learn his craft, the boy was packed off to sweatshops in Las Vegas, working with Floyd Mayweather Sr, Cuba’s Olympic boxing camp and his father’s academy in Angola.
Eubank and son are now an *established boxing dynasty. Four fights into his *professional career, the signs are former world super-middleweight champion Chris Eubank’s lad is a real chip off the old block.
And the block was made of granite.
But in a *business where Eubank senior pummelled Michael Watson in 1991, legal training is essential. *Especially in the laws of the jungle.
Dapper as ever at 45, Eubank the elder warned: “Christopher has shown a real *aptitude for his craft, but it is very hard to become a fighter of any worth without *experiencing hardship.
“I’m baffled where he found the fortitude and irrepressible force of nature he has – I was brought up in the ghetto, he was brought up in Hove.
“From a private education to a lot of love and attention at home, he had all the support systems which, as far as I’m concerned, make you weak as a boxer.
“By sending him off to Vegas and Cuba, I was taking away those systems and he had to learn how to deal with being pushed around and bullied in the gym.
“To make it in this business, you have to be a madman. You have to find a way to cope, and I don’t know where he acquired the jungle instinct.
“As a father, it’s probably inevitable I will go through all kinds of agony at ringside when Christopher is fighting, but this is the lifestyle he has chosen.
“I’ve told him, ‘Don’t complain to me about injuries, hardship or exploitation’ – he’s made his bed, now he’s got to lie in it.
“If he cuts any corners, he will have nowhere to run. To be a champion, and he has serious potential, there will be a price he has to pay.
“Real warriors are pushed to the very edge of existence, where their lives hang in the balance, and Christopher must be prepared to push that far to inspire and win the hearts of the people.”
Eubank’s health warning was not smallprint on the back of a packet of fags. It might as well have been written in plumes of smoke across the sky.
But the young middleweight, hanging on his father’s every word, remains unperturbed.
Since imitation is the sincerest form of *flattery, 22-year-old Eubank junior enters the ring to Tina Turner’s foot-stomping anthem Simply The Best and vaults the top rope with the air of a showman.
Nigel Benn, once the Eubank family’s sworn enemy but now awash with respect for an old rival, observed: “If young Chris is going to do that, he had better perform like his old man. I hope he does well.
“Just look at that physique – like father, like son.”
Eubank junior, whose fifth fight is scheduled for the end of this month, admitted: “From a young age, I was told boxing was not a career option.
“My dad told me there were other ways to make a living in sport without taking punches to the head.
“But eventually, curiosity got the better of me. I needed to find out what the big deal was.
“As an amateur, I trained in some real hard schools of knocks. In Cuba, they would have judges on three sides of the ring just for sparring sessions.
“They train under exactly the same conditions as they fight, and it was a great experience.”
If Britain’s Olympic hope at London 2012, Anthony Ogogo, and Eubank junior turn out to be as good as their camps believe, a new golden age of British middleweights may be just around the corner.
Eubank senior steered his protege away from trying to qualify for the Games, and there were no complaints from the young fighter, who concurred: “There were no guarantees I would have made the Olympic team, and going away to work in the States or Cuba enabled me to escape the pressure of having the surname Eubank.
“I hope to meet Ogogo in a world title fight one day, but if it happens, my mum won’t be there. I wouldn’t want her sitting at ringside when I turn into an animal to get the better of an opponent.
“But the fact that my father was a world champion is in my DNA. I’ve got royal blood coursing through my veins and if the boxing bug is *something I’ve inherited through the family bloodline, I’m proud of my genes.”
Would be amazing stuff.
Lovely piece in the mirror today:
Following his father's footsteps: Eubank Jr is a chip off the old block
|
Father was brought up in the Bronx, the prodigal grew up in Brighton.
Despite years of being lectured and hectored not to follow his dad into a brutal sport he famously branded a “mug’s game”, Chris Eubank junior flew in the face of paternal advice.
To learn his craft, the boy was packed off to sweatshops in Las Vegas, working with Floyd Mayweather Sr, Cuba’s Olympic boxing camp and his father’s academy in Angola.
Eubank and son are now an *established boxing dynasty. Four fights into his *professional career, the signs are former world super-middleweight champion Chris Eubank’s lad is a real chip off the old block.
And the block was made of granite.
But in a *business where Eubank senior pummelled Michael Watson in 1991, legal training is essential. *Especially in the laws of the jungle.
Dapper as ever at 45, Eubank the elder warned: “Christopher has shown a real *aptitude for his craft, but it is very hard to become a fighter of any worth without *experiencing hardship.
“I’m baffled where he found the fortitude and irrepressible force of nature he has – I was brought up in the ghetto, he was brought up in Hove.
“From a private education to a lot of love and attention at home, he had all the support systems which, as far as I’m concerned, make you weak as a boxer.
“By sending him off to Vegas and Cuba, I was taking away those systems and he had to learn how to deal with being pushed around and bullied in the gym.
“To make it in this business, you have to be a madman. You have to find a way to cope, and I don’t know where he acquired the jungle instinct.
“As a father, it’s probably inevitable I will go through all kinds of agony at ringside when Christopher is fighting, but this is the lifestyle he has chosen.
“I’ve told him, ‘Don’t complain to me about injuries, hardship or exploitation’ – he’s made his bed, now he’s got to lie in it.
“If he cuts any corners, he will have nowhere to run. To be a champion, and he has serious potential, there will be a price he has to pay.
“Real warriors are pushed to the very edge of existence, where their lives hang in the balance, and Christopher must be prepared to push that far to inspire and win the hearts of the people.”
Eubank’s health warning was not smallprint on the back of a packet of fags. It might as well have been written in plumes of smoke across the sky.
But the young middleweight, hanging on his father’s every word, remains unperturbed.
Since imitation is the sincerest form of *flattery, 22-year-old Eubank junior enters the ring to Tina Turner’s foot-stomping anthem Simply The Best and vaults the top rope with the air of a showman.
Nigel Benn, once the Eubank family’s sworn enemy but now awash with respect for an old rival, observed: “If young Chris is going to do that, he had better perform like his old man. I hope he does well.
“Just look at that physique – like father, like son.”
Eubank junior, whose fifth fight is scheduled for the end of this month, admitted: “From a young age, I was told boxing was not a career option.
“My dad told me there were other ways to make a living in sport without taking punches to the head.
“But eventually, curiosity got the better of me. I needed to find out what the big deal was.
“As an amateur, I trained in some real hard schools of knocks. In Cuba, they would have judges on three sides of the ring just for sparring sessions.
“They train under exactly the same conditions as they fight, and it was a great experience.”
If Britain’s Olympic hope at London 2012, Anthony Ogogo, and Eubank junior turn out to be as good as their camps believe, a new golden age of British middleweights may be just around the corner.
Eubank senior steered his protege away from trying to qualify for the Games, and there were no complaints from the young fighter, who concurred: “There were no guarantees I would have made the Olympic team, and going away to work in the States or Cuba enabled me to escape the pressure of having the surname Eubank.
“I hope to meet Ogogo in a world title fight one day, but if it happens, my mum won’t be there. I wouldn’t want her sitting at ringside when I turn into an animal to get the better of an opponent.
“But the fact that my father was a world champion is in my DNA. I’ve got royal blood coursing through my veins and if the boxing bug is *something I’ve inherited through the family bloodline, I’m proud of my genes.”
