here's what he had to say
Chris Eubank
Dodging a fighter is a cardinal sin in boxing and is something i can never be accused of, unlike one such character who came onto the scene during my era. Roy Jones, James Toney and Michael Nunn for example, i did not dodge.
Lets use Roy Jones as an example. When people asked me why i wouldn't fight him, I would say to them, 'Never mind the title or my job, a fight like that could take 5 or 6 years off my life.' I was well aware of that. He was Pound for Pound, arguably the best foghter on the planet; in regards to his style, his devastating punching ability, the whole repitoire, he had it.
The rule is that if you are champiuon of the world for one body, you cannot be the No.1 contender for another belt. Unless someone was officially the recognised No.1 contender, I had no preofessional obligation to face them. With Roy Jones, he was fortunetly (and i use that word with the utmost respect) never the number 1 contender. Had he been. I would not have dodged. I would have taken the fight. Would have i won the fight. Highly unlikely. What would of been for sure was that he would have come away from the fight and got hurt, and i would have been hurt probably far more than he was. It would of been a war. Techincally we would of been well-matched, so our pure grit would of started to come into play. I believe we both had powerful wills, so the fight would up running on pure instinct. That can be a exceptional violent occurence. Interestingly i was told that Roy Jones was rumoured to have said that the only fighter he had reservations about facing was me. I don't remember any of my critics saying much about that.
So, the ultimate measure of a fighter is not dodging. If you do, you lose your standing, your respect, your honour. Don't dodge the No.1 contender.
He also talks about being a big fish and a small pond and what he thought about it, he also talks about fighters like Herol Graham, Mike Mucculam and if he was afraid of them.
This is from his autobiography
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