Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2016-03-26, high pace with some nice combinations: Chris Eubank Jr vs Nick Blackwell is close to get four stars!The interim Wba champion Chris Eubank Jr entered this fight with a professional boxing record of 21-1-0 (16 KOs=76%) and he is ranked as the No.9 middleweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez). He suffered his only loss when he faced Billy Joe Saunders in 2014 (=Saunders vs Eubank Jr), after this bout he has won three fights beating Gary O’Sullivan in his last one (=Eubank Jr vs O’Sullivan).
His opponent, Nick Blackwell, has an official record of 19-3-1 (8 knockouts) and he entered as the No.21 in the same weight class. He lost to Max Bursak in 2013 but since then he has collected six victories and one draw; he beat Jack Arnfield in his last bout (=Blackwell vs Arnfield). Eubank vs Blackwell is valid for the BBBofC British middleweight title. Watch the video and rate this fight!
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Date: 2016-03-26
Where: Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom
Division: middleweight (160 lbs, 72.6 kg)
Title: BBBofC British middleweight title
Eubank’s previous fight: Chris Eubank Jr vs Gary O’Sullivan
Blackwell’s previous fight: Nick Blackwell vs Jack Arnfield
Eubank’s next fight: Chris Eubank Jr vs Tom Doran
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Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Murderous beating.
This one was over by the fourth. The only question left was how much more hamburger would be ground out of Blackwell’s face. His corner did him no favors allowing their man to be turned into a Cro-Magnon, far behind on points but ultimately left with what looks like a shattered orbital bone.
Eubank Jr.’s improving. Accuracy is sharper and he’s becoming an artist of the uppercut. He also puts together some of the most exciting sustained flurries in the sport.
His movement and defense look slightly better than against the overmatched O’Sullivan and Chudinov last year, taking fewer shots via some decent rope-a-dope and shoulder roll.
Still: can he finally take the very polished Billy Joe Saunders? I have my doubts, but let’s find out!
You said it all!
Cockiness, eye catching combinations… quite entertaining. Has he improved on a technical point of view? Yes. But his style cannot be that effective against Saunders. Since Eubank Jr fights in bursts… (OH my!… I have to stop commenting)… My sister just read in the paper that Blackwell was sent to the hospital after the fight and he’s now in an induced coma because of a cerebral hemorrhage… that’s bad..
Yes, a tragedy. I only learned of his health after making my post. The whole episode has left me with a bad taste, just as the Magomed disaster did (it was very exciting, too… then very worrying… and finally abominable).
It appears Eubank Sr. warned his son between rounds that Blackwell was in serious danger of being injured. He told him to go to the body as a precaution. That is a rare kind of decency indeed. But the protection of a fighter should never be left to the opponent’s corner!
As a footnote, it’s a wonder Chudinov also didn’t suffer injury after taking up to three times as many head shots as poor Blackwell. In retrospect, Spike O’Sullivan’s team wisely pulled him out (and, predictably, took the usual criticism).
We need to find a way to reliably introduce humane values into our organized violence. Yes, that sounds absurd, but in an absurd world, what else can we do but deal with insanity on its own terms?
I really like your editorial note here. I didn’t know Eubank Sr made that recommandation to his son… that is terrible. Watching the fight, I was concerned by the nose bleeding. With that much blood coming out of his nose I thought it was fractured. Then, the swolling over the left eye caught my eye just before the 10th. It reminded me of Amagasa’s growing mushroom vs Rigondeaux.
On a “philosophical” point of view, what you said is very relevant.. about the introduction of humane values into boxing. The thing here is that Blackwell was concious, still protecting himself and throwing good punches until the stoppage. He was badly wounded on the “outside”, but nothing we haven’t seen before. I’m not an expert, but I wasn’t aware that anything was wrong with him until it became clear he couldn’t hit Eubank Jr standing right in front of him hands down. The doctor then seemed to aknowledge that he couldn’t see with hisleft eye… but then again, nothing we haven’t seen before. So in the end, there was no clear evidence that Blackwell’s brain was melting down… sadly. So, what could be done? Should a referee stop a contest after X uppercuts have landed flush one guy’s face? Impossible. It’s a fighter’s corner responsibility and the fighter himself to take the right decision at the right time. If Eubank Sr saw something neither the referee, the doctors and myself didn’t see… I don’t get it. I don’t know if Blackwell’s cornermen saw anything… but they still believe he had a chance I guess. I don’t know who to blame for such an accident, really. The sport itself? Fate? (not). Maybe it’s just in the way (we) most people around boxing call some fighters “quiter”, “coward” and some others “brave” or “courageous”. Blackwell was a courageous fighter yesterday, today he’s somewhere between life and death…
Great post, Olivier. I am happy to have this discussion with my Canadian boxing friends!
You raise so many interesting pragmatic and cultural points. I agree there’s no easy answer: what should we do, how do we know when enough is enough, who should protect our brave fighters, and what can deter disasters?
As you say, we couldn’t know definitively how badly Blackwell was hurt. Eubank Sr. at least strongly suspected it. He is a former champion with his own nightmare, the Watson tragedy, to guide him today. Boxing could ask his advice on how to do better. He’s brilliant and a very entertaining egomaniac, there’d be no shutting him up!
And not just him. Boxing should convene a panel of its former and current fighters and let them talk publicly about what is fair and humane. They know, I reckon, better than anyone where to draw the line. This sounds like a job for Jim Lampley, actually.
As for me, I want to see two simple business changes. And strictly in the USA, as this is the only boxing system I know (a little) about.
Crucially and absurdly, our promoter pays the ref’s salary. There’s huge pressure on him to please his boss if he wants to keep working. We must change that relationship or replace it with a new, conflict-free one. It isn’t hard to imagine public refs, refs selected at random and paid out of a common fund, or many other arrangements. That’s the first big change.
Second, put some steel in our regulations! Over here (where, as Bob Dylan says, “money doesn’t talk…it swears”) boxing regs are silly. Take New York. The health inspector gets $100 per fight. (http://tinyurl.com/j9zhxmg.) You get what you pay for… On the night Magomed Abdusalamov was nearly killed, nobody even knew the directions to the hospital. His people got him in a taxi with his brain swelling, while desperately asking the taxi driver where to go.
The devil is in the details. In New York, the law requires promoters to buy emergency health insurance for each fighter: stupidly, only a $50,000 policy. (http://tinyurl.com/zf5h6b5.) But the cost of staying overnight in hospital is $4,000 and up, even before treatment. (http://tinyurl.com/mer3s3d). Brain surgery can easily cost six figures. (http://tinyurl.com/gpetz43). I know from sad experience: my father had it after suffering what turned out to be a lethal fall. He was an amateur boxer in his youth, btw, and I learned my love of the sport from him.
So. We have to make it inevitable and inescapably in their interest for promoters to take this seriously. Right now, they just hope and pray tragedy doesn’t happen, and then gush shock and pieties later. We should make them bear its huge financial risk. According to his wife, $1.7m was the cost of Abdusalamov’s medical bills through 2015. (http://tinyurl.com/jseecrr.) No promoter wants to have to pay such bills, and everybody with that sword hanging over his head would work hard to prevent it falling.
Wow! Very interesting and touching comment. I’m sorry for your father. I don’t know if boxing had anything to do with it… but he sure transmitted his passion for it.
I didn’t know about the specifics regarding the refs and also the insurance (thanks for educating me!). But one thing you did not mention – and I’m sure it’s probably obvious to you – is the regulation in many states across the USA by which “only the referee can stop a fight”. To me, that would be the first big change to apply. Doctors should be allowed to stop a fight anytime, anywhere. I don’t know much about the legislations, but I’m pretty sure the AMA and the states medical boards are much more realiable than the refs, coaches or analysts are all in terms of judging when a fight should end according to specific medical symptoms, but also doctors must comply to a strict code. So in the case they would take a very bad decision regarding a fighter’s health that could have dramatic outcomes, they could lose their medical licence for example.
Thanks to you, I went to read the laws about that in Quebec (talking to you is always a true learning experience!). So here, the state is in charge to choose a doctor for a boxing event. This doctor can stop a fighter immediately for medical reasons. They can also ask of any fighter a urine test! Fun fact: a person mandated by the state can also seize the purse of one fighter for the violation of a rule and this money will be distributed to a local non-profit sport organism. So think twice before rabbit punching or throwing a low blow! But seriously, I believe the state pays the doctor, so it makes the whole thing more “neutral”. I’m not saying that it prevents from any bribery, but sill…
I also read that in Quebec, judges and referees are paid $139,50 for an event (!!!), except for a championship fight. Since the state pays, we can assume they should be more impartial. But then again, if that was the case, why would Marlon Wright save a local fighter like Bute (in his first fight against Andrade in 2010 I think it was)?
I’ll keep reading on this subject because I find it very interesting! Thanks again.
Sorry I read both you guy’s stuff in very diagonal, I should come back to read it more in-depth. I didn’t know the refs and judges were getting that few money in Quebec, My explanation for them leaning toward the local fighter is that they want to be invited back by the local promoters. So sorry for your dad Arjay. :(
Thanks, Matt.
Thank you for your kind words, Olivier.
You are right — the power to stop the fight should be expanded! I think that is essential. I am impressed, also, by what you say about the state’s role under Quebec law. As you point out, it isn’t fool-proof (eg, bribery), but it sure sounds better than most US equivalents where the ref is the proverbial “company man.”
There was a nice piece of writing about the Eubank Jr.-Blackwell fight (by Paul Lam: http://www.boxingnews24.com/2016/03/chris-eubank-jr-nick-blackwell-bittersweet-science/). In noting that Eubank Jr. doesn’t have one-punch-KO power, the writer observes that instead, like his father, he does a kind of cumulative damage that is even deadlier.
This raises a point for any hypothetical reform. What if there was a punch count maximum? While that might sound artificial (I admit it has problems), one side benefit could be encouraging fighters to throw more blows and thus adding more excitement for us. This maximum wouldn’t be the same for all fighters. It could easily be an adjustable figure determined through a formula based on stats: KO ratio, average punch output, etc.
Anyway, I’d better stop, or I’ll be advocating chess-boxing next, lol.
Very interesting read, Arjay. In Britain it was indeed the Eubank-Watson tragedy that changed everything – and brought about ringside medical support (including a compulsary consultant anaesthetist) that changed boxer safety the world over (led by the very neurosurgeon who treated Watson, fight fan Dr Peter Hamlyn – and the admirable Frank Warren).
Indeed, the esteemed Dr Ferdie Pacheco once opined how poor Gerald McCllelan probably lives today (albeit in a tragic twilight world) for the very reason he was fighting abroad in London – rather than in Paris, Tokyo or (even) the US.
It’s a far different world over here in relation to health insurance and non-existant medical bills, granted. Yet there can be no doubt the compulsary attendance of a consultant (specialist) anaesthetist – backed by a special medical team tailored towards the needs of a stricken fighter – has been responsible for saving the lives of many professional fighters across this past 25 years (and allowing them to recover to much of what they were previously).
I agree with your excellent point on making referee’s independant of the promoter, for – as with judges (from a non-health point of view).
There can be absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the pressure for a referee to please his paymaster must be enormous (shades of Dana White and the UFC – a promoter/co-owner who has dropped referees for making life and death decisions he doesn’t personally agree with regarding stopping fights too early and too late. Scary).
Yet it’s that first-rate immediate ringside aftercare – followed by specialist first rate care throughout that fighters recovery (cost no issue) – that should come first and foremost ahead of every other financial concern in our sport (such incidents are relatively rare – thank goodness. Hence I believe all leading promoters SHOULD cover such costs in the absence of a national healthcare system).
Great that you had such an incredible father-son relationship with your late, boxing-loving father, Arjay. Something I missed out on (my ‘dad’ was/is a total waste of space) – but would dearly have loved. Kudos friend.
Sterling analysis, Barley, and fascinating reading. Also, thanks for your kind words.
Btw, I hope you saw my post the other day proposing you collect and publish your boxing writing. I will be first in line for the book.
Thanks, Arjay. The respect is certainly mutual – for that was indeed a fine response to Olivier I was commenting on. And apologies for not replying to your generous words regarding my seeking to publish my writing (I look at most recent posts first – and sometimes don’t scroll back far enough). Indeed, I wouldn’t be averse to producing the odd piece for the RingTV.Com website – if Dougie would have me. Lol. Kudos, Arjay.
I always do my comments immediately after watching the fight and before reading the ones already posted by you guys to avoid being influenced in one way or another.
Therefore, and after reading yours, I fully justify now that Eubank Sr. was in the ring advising his son not to hit to the head if he really did that. I was thinking myself that Nick didn’t look too bad until the stoppage where I fully saw the terrible damage produced in his left eye, I believe now that his corner didn’t protected him as required and is very sad that he is in so bad shape after this fight. Honestly, I like this sport but is too brutal and in the future many of these brave fighters would be experiencing depression and other problems due to the concussions received. Hopefully Nick do well this time.
Arjay I just saw the comment from Olivier and feel very sorry to heard about how your father passed away. No nice for us we saw them dying but it is the natural occurrence in life first them then us. My father had a heart attach just in front of me and despite of the fact i was doing him CPR and mouth to mouth respiration (I was trained for) for more than /2 h (who knows may be less, i tried with desperation) I couldn’t save him, the doctor arrived to late since we leave at that time in an area far from hospitals. This impacted me very bad and it took a long time for me to recovery which never was in full. You know what i mean.
You like me have the passion from boxing transmitted from your father. When my father was alive we enjoyed a lot of fights we saw together always via TV, I mean like most of the fights from M. Ali and the greatest of time so i can understand you very well
Thank you, Tango, and I appreciated reading your story. Very moving. Yes, that is how it is: them first, and later ourselves. We carry on and guard what we can of the past inside us. As the poet says, “Ton souvenir en moi luit comme un ostensoir!”
We also watched Ali at home when I was growing up. Sometimes, just radio, and of course while exchanging excited looks as we tried to imagine the fight. Good times!
Well said Arjay. I didn’t know you speak so good French. Don’t forget to watch Nicolino fiight please..
I will watch it!
My French is terrible today, but when I was young and chasing French girls it was better. :-)
Lol. I shall never forget one Florence Alix in the summer of 86 (she was 16 to my 19). Halcyon days.
Watched it — now I know why Locche was called The Untouchable!
Those left hooks, delivered in those small gloves, must have felt like an excavation in progress. He hit Fuji enough times to leave a hole in the man’s side.
Grueling and thankless task for the Japanese fighter: to take ten for every one he landed, and to miss and miss, even with Locche seemingly standing right in front of him. The beaten man was left a gangly marionette at the end, more rubber than flesh…
A very special performance by the Argentine great. He had Mayweather-like ESP, didn’t he? And yet he did not have to move as much as Floyd to achieve the same effect. Locche’s feet are often planted. He is there and yet not there.
117-4-14. He didn’t mess around. :-)
Thank you for sharing this, Tango, a real treat.
A wonderful fighter indeed.
Arjay, Thank you for watching Locche’s fight and your kind and funny comments about it. I guess you enjoyed it. I’m very glad because he is my Argentine favorite boxer due to the excellent and unique technics he was able to display. He was notorious for his lack of power, in spite of, his professional and amateur records are outstanding even though he fought with the best of his category at that time. Since you mentioned Floyd, I have attached here an article I consider very interesting because it compares both boxers regarding performance and techniques. I guess if you find the time to read it probably would be very interesting to you too.
http://www.thesweetscience.com/columnists/joe-rein/2159-nicolino-locche-the-best-140-pound-technician-in-history
Enjoyable article by Greg Smith. I never would have guessed Locche was a chain smoker, or that he had no power. Those hooks against Fuki looked serious enough to me. But if Smith is to be believed, Locche’s art was purely defensive. Do you agree?
Let me know if you have any other Locche fights to recommend. I’m going to track down the Cervantes title defense from 1971.
I’m glad you know Locche now. I introduced him to Matt also and he also enjoyed very much. From Locche people appreciated very much his defense since it was incredible however to win so many fights you need to connect your punches to convince the judges. He was also very accurate doing that but with no power therefore he usually put many in order to erode his adversaries. Unfortunately, there are not many records of his other fights because he was a south American boxer that fought a little outside Argentina. Cervantes is available but don’t remember if is his first or second fight with him.
Yes he was a chain smoker that sometimes also smoked in the ring during the resting time between the rounds :-)
Dam announcer put me too sleep so slow that I forgot what I was watching for a min
Affter this fight i can go Sleep deep…agains Canelo this 2 guys have no chanze. Chau fellas..continue making unnecessary comments.
If you ever get in a coma I’ll go make unnecessary comments about you.
Very nice fight with vibrant action and an excellent stoppage to protect the fighter. Nick is an aggressive warrior, with a very good jab and a fantastic iron chin. However, technically was no competition for Eubank who is fast, quite precise and has and excellent uppercut. However, I really dislike him since is far too arrogant for my taste and doesn’t show at all any respect for his adversaries. Exactly like his father was but no surprise because what you can expect when such behavior run in the family. I bet his mother has the same attitude.
Is his father his coach? What the hell was he doing in the ring during the resting time. Please rid of of such a clown. Eubank Jr. should be fighting with the North-american boxers to taste defeat a little be often since till now he is going for the easy way winning over low level competition.
exitante combate.