Q: Hi Chris. I have to ask- Have you ever seriously considered coming out of retirement since 1998? And ever been close to coming back?

Eubank: I was having dinner with Thomas Hearns, Emanuel Steward, Dennis Andries, Naseem Hamed and George Foreman in April 1999. Emanuel Steward wanted me to fight Thomas Hearns and I seriously considered it, at the time. I backed out because I didn't want to hurt Thomas Hearns, a living legend. That's not being arrogant or anything, because around that time I feel that I would of still been very competitive.

But after travelling to Las Vegas - the fighting capital of the world - in 2001 for Naseem's fight with Barrera, I actually got a buzz. I have to say that the whole trip was amazing. It seemed almost everybody on the plane on the way over there was an English boxing fan. I spent six hours of a nine hour flight speaking to fans about boxing – and all but one were Naseem fans and were coming over to support him. Everywhere I went in Las Vegas I met boxing people. Everybody from boxing was there - Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather. I knew I hadn't had the chance to fight in Las Vegas because Roy Jones wouldn't give me a title shot out of the blue, and that's fair enough. The Nunn and Toney fights didn't come off when I was Champion. But then it suddenly dawned on me - in 2001 - that I could come back and give Roy Jones something to fight for if I managed to defeat Dariusz Michalczewski or Joe Calzaghe. I'd already fought in Wales and Germany in my career, I responded to a hostile crowd in my career. Another option was to try to defeat Johnny Nelson in Sheffield and then maybe get a fight with Toney in Las Vegas. But on the eve of Naseem's fight with Barrera, I was having dinner with Lennox Lewis and George Foreman and the guys advised me to not come back. I saw sense.