Chris Eubank was, as we know, a genuine star in the UK back in the 1990s. “Simply The Best” held world titles at middleweight and super-middleweight, and he is today looked at as one of the best British fighters of the past 30 years or so. But Eubank never faced two American greats, indeed, all time greats, that he could have faced.
The 1990s was a great decade for the 168 pound division, this a weight class that gave us Eubank, Nigel Benn, Joe Calzaghe, and, in the US, Roy Jones Junior and James Toney. Eubank spoke with Sky Sports a while back, and he was honest enough to admit that he was “intelligent not to unify titles with” Jones and Toney.
Eubank – who was famously called out by a glowering Toney, this on live TV just before Eubank fought Benn in their second fight – admits both Jones and Toney were “too dangerous.”
“Roy is perfect – let me tell you why,” Eubank said. “He has two things: brains and speed. I only had brains. Roy beat James Toney who, privately for me, is one of the greatest super-middleweights of all time. Toney was a technical boxer but Roy has brains and speed. Roy played with him and I bow to Toney’s skill-set. These are two men I was intelligent not to unify titles with. They were too dangerous. I would have fought Roy if he was No1 contender – I would have had to, because my integrity would not have allowed me to dodge him. But I was WBO champion and he was IBF. I didn’t have to.”
What an interesting fight it may well have been if the Eubank of, say, 1993, fought Jones. As it would have been quite fascinating seeing how Eubank and his granite chin would have coped with “Lights Out” around that time. I can distinctly remember one big US boxing magazine of the day predicting a Jones Vs. Eubank fight, with the pick being, get this……a first-round KO win for Jones! That struck me as a wholly ridiculous pick, seeing how tough Eubank really was. Eubank, who finished at 45-5-2(23) was only ever stopped one time, this by cruiserweight Carl Thompson near the end of his career.
Jones may well have beaten Eubank, but no way would he have taken him out in a veritable flash. As for Toney, as great as he was, he could be lazy and under-motivated in some of his fights. Might Eubank’s style have given Toney real problems?
We will never know how Eubank would have done with either great, but as 58 year old Eubank is candid enough to admit, both Jones and Toney are two superb fighters he is not disappointed not to have faced.