The Force Part Four: Chris Eubank
Michael Watson
The following
months after his defeat to Mike McCallum, Michael Watson sued his manager
Mickey Duff and began to manage his own affairs. Three weeks before the 18th of
November 1990 clash between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank, Watson approached
Barry Hearn and the promoter hastily got him on the undercard against Errol
Christie.
Coventry’s Christie had an illustrious amateur career and was touted as being one of the finest professional boxers the United Kingdom had ever produced, with many believing he would go on to win multiple world championships. He turned professional on live terrestrial television in
November 1982, and his road to glory got underway.
However, his career took a downward spiral after clashing with Mark Kaylor in a British middleweight title eliminator on 5th November 1985. The build-up was marred by the two fighters brawling at a photo shoot to publicise the contest. The fight itself was predicted to be a short, explosive affair, and that looked to be true when Kaylor put Christie down within the
first 30 seconds of the contest starting. Christie recovered to return the favour later in the round.
Christie dumped Kaylor on the canvas again in the third, but the West Ham man recovered and began to take control of the contest. Christie was down again in the eighth and was counted out by referee Harry Gibb, to suffer the second defeat of his career.
By the time he met Watson at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre he had a won-lost-drawn resume of 32-6-1 (26 KOs), compared to Watson’s 22-2-1 (18 KOs), and got nowhere near his title-winning amateur days.
Watson got off to a dream start, putting Christie down within 20 seconds of the opening bell with the first right hand of the contest. Christie rose, only to take a knee in a neutral corner before getting up at referee John Coyle’s count of nine. Watson charged in looking for a quick finish, as Christie did well to hear the bell.
In the meantime, Watson finally made the first defence of his Commonwealth crown on 23rd January 1991 against Australian Craig Trotter at Brentford Leisure Centre. Trotter had a 16-3 (10 KOs) record and was a former Australian middleweight champion, but at the end of the fifth round, the brave challenger’s corner ended the contest with Trotter having a suspected broken jaw after taking some heavy punches from the champion.
Duff and Watson went to The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand on February 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 25th, with the boxer’s lawyer, Henri Brandman, trying to prove Watson’s British Boxing Board of Control’s contract with Duff was unenforceable on the basis that it was a restraint of trade. Brandman also tried to prove that a promoter who also acts as a manager
negotiates with themselves, and that, in Watson’s view, was not correct.
On 15th March, the judge sided with Watson, believing that the BBBofC contract should have given Watson the right to negotiate. The case set a precedent and exists in the Law Reports for the year as a leading authority on whether an agreement is unenforceable as declared restraint of trade. The Board had to amend their contracts after the hearing, adding a clause that gave all boxers the right to negotiate.
Watson was now free of Duff’s control, and the self-managed boxer continued with his career, knocking out Anthony Brown on 1st May at York Hall, Bethnal Green. Watson then set his sights on facing Chris Eubank, and his WBO title chance was officially announced later in May at the Grosvenor Hotel, along with a media frenzy he had not endured since his encounter with Nigel Benn two years previously.
Eubank-Watson was set to take place at Kensington’s Earls Court Exhibition Hall on 22nd June 1991 and with the instant interest in the bout, it was given the title By Public Demand by Matchroom’s pressman, Andy Ayling, with Hearn expecting an 11,000-sellout capacity crowd.
Chris Eubank, the defending WBO middleweight champion the people loved to hate, turned to boxing in the Bronx, New York. After a short amateur career, he decided to join the professional ranks in October 1985, winning his first five contests in Atlantic City over the four-round duration.
Eubank returned to Britain and resumed his career, stopping Darren Parker in the opening round on 15th February 1988. In his fourteenth contest, the undefeated Eubank teamed up with Matchroom’s Barry Hearn and a long and successful partnership blossomed.
In March 1990, Eubank won the WBC International middleweight title with an eighth-round stoppage over Argentina’s Hugo Antonio Corti. Eubank defended the title twice, decisioning another Argentinian, Eduardo Domingo Contreras a month later, and on 5th September he stopped Kid Milo in eight rounds. His challenge to WBO middleweight champion Nigel Benn was already
signed and sealed, but this did not stop Eubank from fighting Reginaldo dos Santos on 22nd September, famously knocking him out in the contest's opening seconds.
The new champion was fortunate to hold onto his belt after a tenth-round back-headed butt against Dan Sherry in February 1991. Eubank narrowly escaped with a split decision verdict and went on to stop Gary Stretch in the sixth round two months later, paving the way to meet Watson, in what would be the champion’s toughest test since beating Benn.
Watson brought in trainer Jimmy Tibbs to help him prepare, which upset his long-term trainer, Eric Secombe. Tibbs was brought in as Watson did not want a repeat of what happened against Mike McCallum and Watson believed a loss to Eubank would mean he had no future in the sport.
The final press conference was held at the Cafe Royal on Reagent Street, ten days before the fight. The weigh-in was held at 9:30 on the morning of the contest, with both boxers scaling 160 pounds (72.57 Kg).
Watson entered the Earls Court to the loudest crowd he had ever met so far in his career. Eubank’s customary Simply the Best by Tina Turner graced his ring walk. The champion looked calm and as soon as he vaulted into the ring, the challenger tried to get into his face, as referee Frank
Cappuccino ordered him back to his corner.
With the 11,000-crowd baying for Eubank’s blood, the champion simply stayed stock-still in his corner, before moving off around the ring with the challenger in an uncertain pursuit. Watson was too eager in the opening round and missed with a lot of his punches.
Watson began to calm down in the second round and in the third caught Eubank with a cracking right hand, though the champion showed no adverse effects from the punch. Eubank responded in the fourth and fifth rounds, winning them unanimously on the judges’ cards.
The challenger had his strongest round in the sixth, forcing Eubank back and jolting him with another right. Again, Eubank’s granite chin stood up to the impact and he simply shook his head at Watson.
Watson pulled a round back in the seventh on two of the judges’ cards but in the eighth he appeared to be letting the initiative slip away, allowing Eubank to drive him to the ropes. Although the champion eased off and strolled around the ring with his arms at his sides, he managed to whip in the occasional body punch, which was enough to bag him another unanimous round.
The champion’s punches were becoming wide and thrown wild in the ninth, and his legs were looking unsteady. Still, he found the power to land an over-the-top right that kept the challenger at bay. Watson returned to his corner and told Eric Seacombe that he was enjoying himself, with his trainer reminding him not to relax too much. However, the three judges saw things differently from Watson, as they scored the round unanimously in Eubank’s favour.
Eubank looked ragged in round ten, and Watson’s nose was slightly bleeding, as he chased him around the ring. A left hook to the body had the champion in discomfort and he was forced backwards to the ropes to cover up. The challenger turned southpaw and attacked with the vigour that was lacking in the earlier rounds. Eubank survived the attack and raised a hand to the crowd as the bell sounded. Although Watson had his best round of the fight, the Puerto Rican official scored it in favour of Eubank.
The champion started to look tired and a bit desperate in the penultimate round and the Watson supporters let out a mighty roar when Eubank touched down, only for referee Frank Cappuccino to rule it a slip. Though the challenger continued to throw punches, Eubank found it within himself to throw shots back.
The final three minutes were also hard-fought and at the bell, the notion from most observers in attendance and watching on television believed Watson had done enough to inflict the first defeat on Eubank’s record.
After what appeared to be an eternity, Master of Ceremonies Alan Hughes finally was given the cards and announced the judges’ scores: Carlos Conlon had Eubank winning by 116-113, with the crowd jeering in total disagreement. More dissatisfaction came from the crowd when they were informed that John Rupert had the fight level at 114 apiece and the 115-113 from Art
Lurie meant that Eubank kept his title with a majority decision.
Both fighters gave emphatic opinions on why they deserved to win, though most people agreed with Michael Watson when he said: “I thought I gave him a boxing lesson. What more can I do? The crowd know who won it.”
All the best fight fans
Lea
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