Q: Chris, when was the first time you stepped into a boxing ring?
CE: It was at the Peckham ABC just before my father took me to New York to live with my mother, they used me as a human punching bag with no gumshields. They'd take it in turns to take pot shots at yours truly, there was a sense of disbelief because I'd keep fighting back.

Q: Do you remember the first boxing match you ever saw?
CE: I have a certain conscience that tells me it was Muhammad Ali, yours truly does not re-call who he was fighting. The first boxing match that yours truly saw in the flesh was when my older brother Pete beat Barry McGuigan.

Q: Your brother beat Barry McGuigan??
CE: Pete might of been better than I ever could of been but he was too involved in drink and drugs.. and he didn't train hard enough. In a way he kind of had the similar boxing skills I had when I went on to become a boxer some time after, the high hips and moving in and out of range. My other brother Simon was the same, Pete's twin, didn't make the most of what he had, I think he got all the way to the final of the amateur boxing association south coast divisionals in I think it was 81, but then battled alcoholism and was a prize fighter only for money rather than glory, content to be used as a human punching bag to pay for his alcohol.

Q: After moving to New York, did you take up boxing right away?
CE: I sweeped the floors of the gymnasium every day until they finally let me join in, I worked as a cleaner at the gymnasium because I couldn't afford the joining cost.

Q: And what gym was this?
CE: Jerome Boxing Club, Westchester Avenue, South Bronx.

Q: Did any decent boxers train there?
CE: Some of the regular gymnasium members were Alex Ramos and Aaron Davis, also Dennis Milton, Angel Cruz and Dennis Cruz.

Q: Is it true that you once sparred with a young Roy Jones JR.?
CE: Yes.

Q: And what are your recollections of that experience?
CE: I gave the kid a battering on the ropes, I had him trapped and landed punches at all angles. I punched holes in him, I drew blood.

Q: Wow. And he was how old?
CE: Probably around 15, 16 at a push because he had a moustache. The sparring came about because he'd just won the 1984 Junior Olympics and I'd just won the 1984 Golden Gloves in New York City. I remember he was very cocky like me and it was very competitive. We were both around welterweight. He tried fighting back with fast clusters but I think I had him out on his feet.

Q: Would you say that you were a naturally gifted boxer?
CE: I hate it when people say that because it's just not true, assuming is annoying. I was actually very raw material when I started out, as I said I was used as a human punching bag. But in New York in 1982 I managed to quit smoking and drinking, and I trained every single day to perfect my craft. It took me two years of nothing but hard work to become a skilled fighter. It took me many more years of hard work to become a truly skilled fighter.

Q: What fighters did you look up to?
CE: Well one man I looked upto was Dennis Cruz because he had this perfect balance, I mean a good mover. He was a gymnasium fighter, I watched him spar Pernell Whitaker and it was two slick, defensive fighters, abit like when I was sparring Herol Graham some years later. But my style more or less was my own. I was a self-styled pugilist.

Q: When did you first meet Mike Tyson?
CE: At the New York Golden Gloves, I turned up with no coach and he was kind enough to let me warm-up with him. I stayed with him for a few weeks in New Jersey in 1985 when we were both fighting at the Atlantis Casino. A guy who trained me then was Maximo Pierret whoI think knew Kevin Rooney. So I knew Mike personally, before he ever became famous. And he knew me, before I became famous.

Q: Not many people know about the Pre-1988 Eubank the boxer, tell us about him.
CE: I won the New York Golden Gloves at age 17 with no coach and had offers to turn professional from Don King and Bob Arum after winning this tournament, but I told them that boxing was a mugs game and had no plans to make a career out of it. I also won the Spanish Golden Gloves tournament in 1984. I turned professional at age 19 as a light-middleweight and my first five fights were four-rounders in Atlantic City, unanimous decisions in my favour. But for the mid-to-late 80's I was mostly gymnasium fighting or working on technique and working on being relaxed, I wasn't fighting consecutively often until coming towards 1990 and then getting upto the Benn fight. I can tell you now that it takes around three years to truly master one punch. I only turned professional in the first place to pay my mothers telephone bill that I had clocked up. I was more interested in gymnasium fighting to be honest, developing my craftsmanship and then putting it to test in the ring just man against man. I saw it as an art.

Q: How did Ronnie Davies becoming your trainer come about?
CE: I knew John Conteh's brother David from the Jerome and he told me that Ronnie Davies in Brighton is a good guy if I wanted to take up boxing back in England.

Q: When did you decide that you were going to make a career out of boxing?
CE: I boxed as nothing more than a prize fighter wanting some cash to pay some bills right up to the Anthony Logan fight in February 89, yours truly had been sacked from clothes shops due to stealing. Logan had ofcourse caused the highly-rated golden boy Nigel Benn a lot of trouble in his previous fight, almost stopping Benn, but I won every single round against him and didn't even sit down between each round. It was a Benn undercard but I stole the show. I think my particular showman on top of it all gained me a lot of recognition and promotor Barry Hearn signed me, I decided to make a career out of it because yours truly was an attention-seeking, money-grabbing kind of fellow with his own artistic licence. I was an original. But I was also misrepresented in the media thoughout my career and people had a preconception about me that wasn't always true. I don't know, I can't complain, boxing has given me the lifestyle I always dreamed of.. from the days I was living on the streets. If the posing and proselytising suited my personality, it also perplexed opponents and annoyed punters to the point where they made me a multi-millionaire by streaming through the turnstiles in the hope of seeing me defeated. Yes boxing is a trade and a craft but it's also a business.

Q: You won the WBC International middleweight title in 1990 and after 24 wins out of 24 fights in professional boxing you were given a shot at the newly-created WBO title when you took on your fellow countryman and arch-rival Nigel Benn. It's generally regarded as the best ever seen in a British ring and will always be talked about for what a titanic struggle it was. You were only 24 years old at the time and even though you had been recieving a lot of attention outside of the ring and had been putting on impressive displays inside of the ring - nobody knew just how good you really were before that fight Chris.. but it ended up being the first of 24 WBO title bouts for you. Tell us about the terrible injuries you sustained after the imfamous first Benn clash.
CE: He broke my tongue, injured my ribs, my back, bruised muscle tissue, my forehead was a little swollen, and I just could not get up for days because I was in too much pain, and I was urinating blood for a week. Nigel punched harder that I ever imagined anybody could punch, perhaps his punches don't look as hard as they actually feel, but he could whack alright.

Q: Was the hatred between the pair of you that genuine or was it exaggerated?
CE: I don't think the hatred was as intense as it was percieved to be, but we were not too fond of eachother.