Chris Eubank Sr has high praise for a British boxing legend who fought alongside him.
Eubank himself is one of Britain’s most celebrated fighters – a warrior who took on all comers, beat Nigel Benn and held the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles between 1990 and 1995 before retiring in 1998 after back-to-back losses to Carl Thompson. The rivalry with Benn has, of course, spilt over into the next generation as his son fights Conor for a second time next month.
Suffering just five losses in 52 bouts, not many men had the beating of Eubank Sr. One who did was Joe Calzaghe, who defeated him by unanimous decision in 1997,
Speaking to Now Boxing, Eubank admitted he holds the Welsh former two-weight world champion in the highest regard.
“Joe Calzaghe is the number one top fighter in the history of the game. He beat Chris Eubank, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones over 36 rounds when we each had one of our best ever performances left in us. He broke my all-time world record of consecutive unbeaten championship fights, and broke my all-time European undefeated streak. He collected all four championship belts at once. He never lost. Joe Calzaghe is the number one boxer, the top fighter, ever.”
As Eubank points out, Calzaghe has an incredible ring record and ruled over the super middleweight division for more than a decade, with 20 defences of his belts before moving up to light heavyweight to take on two Hall of Famers in Hopkins and Jones before retiring.
