His vault over the top rope, trademark posturing and unorthodox boxing style had got him noticed in England, here was a 10-0 fighter who was calling one of boxing's hottest prospects, Nigel Benn, nothing more than a "fraud" who relied on bullying opponents. Eubank remembered notoriously protecting other children from bullies in his schooldays.

He vaulted over the top rope for every one of his first 50 fights.

"Adonis Torres told me to leap the ropes on my pro debut, he said it would attract the crowd and judges.

"I leaped the ropes on my pro debut and every fight after and later became famous for it, ofcourse."

In July 1989, 12 months after making Brighton his permanent home, Eubank's boxing career was starting to really take off and he was being tipped as a name to watch.

Sure enough, 16 months later he took on Nigel Benn at the NEC in Birmingham and beat the Dark Destroyer in the ninth round.

The new WBO world middleweight champion then famously proposed to his girlfriend, Karron Stephen-Martin, in front of millions of viewers.

They married the same year and now have four children, Christopher, ten, Sebastian, eight, Emily, five, and Joseph, three.

In 1991, Eubank's fight against Michael Watson left the 26-year-old with severe brain damage from which he has never fully recovered, prompting speculation that the man dubbed 'Simply the Best' would hang up his gloves forever.

But this was not to be and a series of high-profile matches followed, including the long-awaited rematch against Benn, Graciano Rocchigiani in his hostile backyard of Berlin, and fights against Irish challenger Steve Collins who famously spooked Eubank with hypnotist claims and the cruiserweight classics against Thompson last year.

He lost many of them and most commentators now believe Eubank's glittering career in the ring is over.

And anyway, these days Eubank is more interested in Keats and Kipling than combat.

This he demonstrates by reciting a poem to our photographer, Skye Brackpool. Looking benignly across the table, his voice drops an octave and he reels off a few verses from memory.

Then he springs from his seat and says: "There's something I've got to show you."

He runs from the room and returns a few moments later with a video tape. He slots it into the VCR above the microwave and turns on the television set which hangs above our table.

The screen flickers to life and we see Eubank, wearing an expensive-looking tweed jacket, sitting at a table on a chatshow.

Pausing the tape for a moment, he says: "All the questions are negatively based, just watch."

As the tape rolls, Eubank is asked what he does for his native Africa, what he thinks of the current furore over women boxing and so on.

Eubank pauses the tape again and says: "All the questions are negatively based. I wasn't winning and I wanted to leave with everyone laughing and smiling.

"Here," he points to the screen, "I've got about four minutes left of all those questions."

The tape starts again and instead of answering the question put to him, he starts reciting Rudyard Kipling's The Female of the Species.

It is a poem with around a dozen stanzas and each is delivered perfectly, the verse ending just in time for the commercial break.

"It took me about three weeks to learn that one. I had four minutes to fill so I strung it along.

"I had answered the negatively-based questions to begin with and then took the show away from the host.

"Right the way through the poem, for no more than ten seconds did I ever lose eye contact with her.

"I wanted to make people smile and teach them and surprise them.

"Poetry is now my number one study. I won't say that I'm retired but I don't want to fight anymore, I'm far too busy and have a much happier existence because the life-style is so very, very lonely and once you achieve, people don't understand you.

"I will always have the kudos of being a hard man and I'm glad I had the grit to stay there, to give it some welly even if I was getting beaten sometimes.

"I became box office because I was good fun, but you wouldn't wish that type of lifestyle on anyone or anything.

"I don't want to run seven days a week to the Marina and back in the wind, and you know how bad it gets on the seafront.

"It's what you need to become the genuine article, to get to the top level and stay there. But it was so very, very hard, being in that gymnasium every morning."

As well as making him one of the most famous men on the planet, Eubank's boxing career also made him very, very rich.

He was able to indulge his passion for the finer things in life by buying the very best Savile Row clothes and, of course, that monocle.

But his millions could not always buy him popularity.

"When I was winning I expected to be liked, but people don't react like that.

"When you keep on winning, people push you away. When you dress well and have all the trappings of success, people don't like that. People only like you when they can empathise with you.

"When you are the only person driving around Britain in a truck or Aston Martin, how can people empathise with that?

"The higher one soars the less people can see who can't fly.

"If I'm soaring, the man in the street doesn't care and doesn't understand and that's why I don't want to win again."

Eubank makes no apologies for the fact that he is a dreadful show-off - indeed, he even commissioned a painting showing him with several scantily-clad models on a catwalk.

The audience is composed of faces from the world of showbusiness, with all eyes focused on the centre of attention.

"I just wanted a picture with every major star in the world in it. The picture is called 'Show-Offs' because that's what everyone in the picture is."

Indeed, who else would spend £45,000 to become Lord of the Manor of Brighton or suggest the West Pier might be a suitable place for his home.

The publicity-hungry Eubank can often be seen driving around Brighton in the rig of a huge American juggernaut, cheerfully hooting its horn while carefully negotiating The Lanes.

"The reason I bought the truck in the first place was because when I first saw it, I thought, 'Wow, look at that'.

"It was so beautiful, I thought if other people could see it then they would have the same reaction.

"Can you imagine how much courage it takes to get out of the truck and go into, say, Cullens, and buy a bottle of milk?

"It's like going out dressed to the nines, you have to have a great deal of courage to do that. People say, 'Isn't it odd, he's wearing a monocle'. It takes a lot of courage.

"But it's just about entertaining people and I'm bold enough to do it. Whether it's conditioned or inherent, I'm a showman and I don't want anyone to be like me.

"I've always been extra, but not in a bad way. It's the last kid in a family who gets no attention.

Fixing me in his gaze, he adds: "I'm sure you had a perception of me before you walked into this room, but it's so far from what I am.

"When I go into houses or walk somewhere and people meet me they just see a completely different person to what they expected.

"I'm just a normal guy who likes to get busy and into things. I'm no different to what I was at eight years old.

"I'm an odd character because I speak the way I do and can be very English in the old school sense. It's odd for a man of my description but I like to hear people chuckle when I speak.

"I will watch TV and look at the mannerisms so it's a matter of imperson-ating and if I can make people laugh then that's a good thing."

And this cheery ability to raise eyebrows shows no sign of abating.

For example, when I happen to casually mention that our photographer has just returned from a holiday in Ibiza, he smiles knowingly and, with his trademark lisp, says to her: "I thee, then you're a little thore."

It is Eubank's ability to surprise, both in and out of the ring, which has made him loved and loathed in equal proportion.

He is unsure what the next ten years will hold for him but is content with the successful career in the media he has established.

There is also the chance that one day he will step into the political arena - he was present at this year's Labour conference in Bournemouth and recently met a Government minister to discuss how sport could help young people.

Neither does Eubank rule out the possibility of standing for the post of directly-elected mayor of Brighton and Hove, a position which is being discussed in the town hall.

"I am an independent man so becoming an MP wouldn't really be me and I think I can be more effective as a role model who teaches by example.

"But the post of mayor is not something I would say no to, but I think there are probably people who can apply themselves to it better than I."

We decide to round-off the interview with a journey into central Brighton for a coffee.

For most people, such a trip might involve cramming into a Ford Fiesta and driving inconspicuously into The Lanes.

But subtlety is not one of Chris Eubank's favourite words, and we climb into the rig of his truck and, perched ten feet above the ground, start rolling down Western Road.

Predictably people stop and stare and when they wave, Eubank salutes them with his horn and waves back.

Turning into Ship Street, he says: "I use the truck to highlight all the charity projects I'm into. The joy it gives, I get it from the way people look at it in the street sometimes.

"It's so over the top it borders on the preposterous. But over the years it has become part of the furniture."

Slowing down to let a car pass, another person waves from somewhere down below and they get a blast on the horn in return. "All good fun," mutters our driver.

The truck comes to a halt in Meeting House Lane, Eubank cranks the gears into reverse, parks, and we pop into a cafe for an espresso. Heads turn, jaws drop and faces gawp.

And that makes Chris Eubank a very happy man indeed.