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New Eubank Quotes (mentions Calzaghe, Froch, Jones Jr, Benn)
Featured week-long in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle...
There were two Chris Eubanks. I knew the correct way to behave. In normal life I was, and am, well-mannered and considerate. However, when I entered the ring I wore another mask.
The strutting and posturing actually camouflaged fear. As an intelligent man you must feel fear when two warriors are about to go to war. It keeps the adrenalin pumping and that produces a performance.
There are two ways to handle being afraid. You can either freeze and show a total lack of courage or you can become defiant. I became defiant.
I produced for the public and won the respect of my opponents.
Only we who have faced danger across a ring know how to respect others like ourselves.
It was a fight I couldn't win. Sure, we were at loggerheads before the fight. We were two warriors going to war.
There was so much misconception and negativity surrounding the bout. Here were two alpha males seeking supremacy over one another. We were battling for the physiological edge, for control.
Not many people on this planet have experienced that sort of feeling. The burning desire to win with strength but within the rules.
I went down in the 11th. That was supposed to be it, but I got up. That was a victory of sorts because integrity wins the respect of your peers.
What happened to Michael was awful. It affected me deeply. I lost my finishing instinct - my killer instinct if you like - because I didn't want a repeat. If I could knock someone out cleanly fair enough, but I wouldn't force a KO.
I told King as we had drawn he couldn't hold me to any contract and I was free to sign for whom I liked.
He was fuming. He said I knew what he meant by win or lose and I agreed I did, but he couldn't do a thing about it. I didn't want to do business with King, so I signed for Barry Hearn.
I was one of the few fighters to get one over on King. I reckon that draw turned into a win for me!
As far as who was the best between Benn, Watson and Steve Collins - they each brought different qualities.
Benn was particularly explosive and had bad intensions with every punch he threw, and Steve had unbelievable resolve and was very effective.
Watson was a fighter who was thinking half-a-dozen moves and punches in advance behind brilliantly guarded defence.
What they had in common was that they were probably the three strongest fighters in the world - I know because I hit each of them with certain punches in certain rounds of certain fights with what I would consider to be perfect punches. Hooks with a pivot, rights with all my weight behind. And they remained vertical.
They were very, very, very strong fighters of mind, body and soul.
My rivalry with Benn was terrific for boxing and terrific for the public.
The sport needs great rivals and we provided it.
I reckon the wins over Benn and Watson were the best of my career, though I had wars with Calzaghe, two with Steve Collins, and in my first fight with Carl Thompson.
For pure boxing, the best performances were the first Watson fight and second fight with Carl Thompson.
Calzaghe had a sterling career and was a credit to boxing. He was backward at coming forward, but he was a gentleman.
A great fighter who did all asked of him. To remain unbeaten was unbelievable - only Rocky Marciano had done that.
Look at the times he was put down on the canvas and what he had to get up to do most of the times. That marked him down as a great fighter for me.
Steve Collins relinquished his world title, complaining of one or two things, and I took the bout at a few days' notice.
Joe had quick hands and he hit hard, but I took him to points.
As for what would have happened if I had been at the top of my game is an unfair question because nobody knows and I wouldn't try to decry Calzaghe.
We were both genuine world champions.
There is a great difference between being famous and being television famous.
It's essential that a fighter has public awareness, but that is not the case with our best right now.
I expertly used ITV to enhance my public image of the man they love to hate and rake it in at the box office.
But you can only do that with free TV and not on the likes of Sky.
I was watched every fight by between 10m and 16m people. Half of them liked me and the other half didn't, but no-one ignored me.
I would strongly advocate that ITV go out and sign up the big fights. I would be willing to work in any way to help that happen.
Carl Froch has no British adversary like I had Nigel Benn.
Those sort of head-to-heads are golden in the eyes of the public. They stimulate huge interest.
Roy Jones should've retired after the Calzaghe fight, going out on his shield. That was the time for him to walk away.
Now, every further defeat is damaging his reputation and losing him respect.
My boxer inspirations were Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson for setting the bar so high.
But in truth, Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley inspired me most in sport. No one helped me and because I realised no one was going to help, I took from these two examples all they stood for. Bob Marley for his words of pure inspiration and joyful spirit, no matter how hard things were, and Mandela for his stance against an oppressor.
My friend Felipe, who was a three time Golden Gloves champion at the time, trained with me in the Bronx in New York.
He got shotgunned to death. The drugs life is a bad life.
When I first came onto the scene in 1990, people commented I had such an unorthodox style.
I had been working on my style for years and it wasn't to be different, it was to beat the Americans.
The quartet of Americans I fought in succession were boxers I used to watch on television when I was a youngster.
The least offensive of the Berlin crowd's taunts in the preliminaries were chants of 'Kill the black man'.
Fearing a riot and abandonment of the fight, Barry Hearn, whose insurance money only kicked in once the boxers actually entered the ring, was astounded to see me strolling round and round the apron outside the ring.
'What the hell are you doing?' he hissed. 'I'm simply soaking up the hate, Barry, it's wonderful,' I said.
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