Chris Eubank Sr has been asked to name the greatest fighter of all time.
It’s a question often posed in boxing and many opt for Muhammad Ali – not just for what Ali did in the ring as a fleet-footed slick heavyweight with a big heart that made him so widely loved, but because he he was also a vocal civil rights activist and conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. When he refused to be drafted, he was outcast from the sport and stripped of his titles for several years.
Eubank has been an advocate for nobility in the sport in the ropes and out throughout his career and in retirement, and many would feel Ali would be a natural pick for him. In the end, he does consider societal factors when answering the question, but opted to look further back in the history books.
Speaking on his own YouTube channel, Eubank went for the ‘Galveston Giant’, Jack Johnson, as the greatest of all time.
“There are numerous, Jack Johnson has to be said to be the greatest of all time, okay, and that’s because he was fighting in time where you had an insanity at play all the time, which was this racism, this slavery.
“There wasn’t even a heavyweight world championship that a Black man could fight for, he could fight for the coloured heavyweight championship of the world. They couldn’t fight for the world championship. Jack Johnson came through what none of the other fighters after him has been able to duplicate. These people opened the door for you so you can do what you did.”
Johnson was the first Black heavyweight world champion and his famous fight in 1910 with James J. Jeffries is known as the “fight of the century”. In all, he had 94 fights, won 68 and transcended the sport as one of the most influential figures boxing has ever known.
Eubank recently made a return to the spotlight by being in his son’s corner for a grudge match against Conor Benn – a rivalry Chris Sr and Nigel Benn started in the nineties.
