By Neil Dunne: The Great British era of the Super Middleweights was headlined by the rivalry between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. It will always be looked back on as the Benn / Eubank rivalry despite other fighters, such as Michael Watson and Steve Collins, playing a part in the overall story.
Nigel Benn’s brash boasts of KO’s were backed up in the ring by an aggressive style. When he fought Britain took notice as his fights offered a violent feast of power punches and fast paced action. He rose to fame with knockout after knockout before going on to win a WBO World Middleweight Title despite an early defeat against Michael Watson.
Chris Eubank was an all-together different fighter. Composure is one word you could use to describe his style. Even when under pressure the composure was there, never firing back with wild attacks and he didn’t ever seem to panic. He still possessed the knockout punch and the refined skills but as his career progressed it was clear that a chin of stone was one of his prise assets. His persona outside the ring could be describe as was one of extreme confidence although it was seen as arrogance by most and it is what turned the general public against him.
In most situations Nigel Benn could have been a boxing villain but in this rivalry, starting long before their first fight in 1990, Benn was the hero. The hatred for Eubank was so strong that most people tuned into his fights just to see him humiliated. It didn’t matter that Nigel Benn was aggressive and cocky with an arrogance of his own because he was the man whom the country was relying on the give Eubank a beating.
Naseem Hamed was a phenomenal fighter. He was a featherweight with an unusual style based on reflexes, holding his hands low and his chin high. But if you asked any fight fan to describe Naz in the ring the overwhelming majority would mention his power first. With a love for boxing memories can be distorted when looking back on careers that have excited and are missed. My memories of Naz are that more often than not he would win by KO and when he did his victim was usually out cold long before they hit the canvas.
Now Naz didn’t have main a rival like Eubank did. He cleared up domestically and then ruled the roost in the states for a while and at one time was described by Manny Stewart as the best featherweight that had ever lived. But like Eubank his overconfident and extremely arrogant personality turned fans away, and like with Eubank a lot of people tuned in to see him lose rather than gain any more success.
There have been boxing villains since. More recently James Degale has come onto the scene and was involved in the most eagerly anticipated British title fight in my memory. The attention that his fight with George Groves generated was particularly impressive considering both men had only had a handful of professional fights. Was this fight so much in the spot light due to George’s calm, light hearted and likeable nature? Or was it because the majority of boxing fans despised James Degale and wanted to see him lose? I would say I normally side with the villain, I wanted Eubank to beat Benn and for me there was no bigger event than a Naz fight, but on this one even I sided with Groves.
David Haye, a stable mate of Groves, has just lost his WBA heavyweight title to Wladimir Klitschko. In the build-up to the fight Wladimir was seen as the gentleman and David the villain with many fans from his own country only interested because they wanted to see Haye knocked out. Haye was so much the villain that even several weeks after the fight boxing experts and writers are still digging at him trying to discredit his career and shame his personality in their own little way.
Yet was the Haye v Klitschko fight such a big event out-side of the Klitschko regions because Klitschko is such an exciting fighter? Would Klitschko ever have captured the public’s imagination in the way he has had it not been for this rivalry with Haye?
For the first time in several years there was a heavyweight title fight worth talking about and, as short lived as it was, some excitement injected into the otherwise stale showcase division. So let us take our hats off to Chris Eubank, Naseem Hamed, James Degale and David Haye because boxing wouldn’t be boxing without the evil boxing villain.