Eubank and son are becoming boxing’s biggest irritants
ALAN HUBBARD’S PUNCHLINES – 12.6.16
If there is a passing bandwagon you can be certain Chris Eubank snr will have jumped aboard, his son hanging on to his coat-tails.
If there is a boxing party the uninvited Eubanks will be the first gatecrashers, dad sniffing around to see what’s in it for junior.
First we had the near-tragedy when Nick Blackwell ended up in an induced coma after being knocked out by Chris jnr in a British middleweight title fight.
The Eubanks angered the Blackwell family by summoning a media conference against their express wishes in which the pair expressed concern for Nick but took the opportunity to emphasise what a dangerous puncher Chris jnr is becoming – according to his dad.
Subsequently Eubank jnr offered to give Blackwell his Lonsdale Belt –when it was not his to give as he hasn’t won it outright yet.
They should have kept their heads down and left well alone.
Then, when he called up to comment about the death of Muhammad Ali on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Chris snr couldn’t help linking The Greatest to himself and his son’s potential, much to the opprobrium of many fans.
One tweeted this to host Piers Morgan:
“@piersmorgan did chris eubank really just promote his son whilst discussing the greatest!? @GMB,”.
Another then posted: “Whilst eulogising about Ali on @GMB Chris Eubank manages to shoehorn in that his son will be competing at the Olympics #B**
Shorlty afterwards, a different viewer commented: “Chris Eubank is a right t****r. Goes on #GMB to talk about Muhammad Ali and talks about himself. Irritating b**tard.”
His reference to the Olympics also caused anger because when it was confirmed that pros were now eligible to box in the Games Eubank immediately volunteered Chris jnr as GB’s middleweight representative; but he must have known that Liverpool’s Anthony Fowler had already qualified and been selected.
The only reason he was suggesting jocking off Fowler could be to get publicity for his son. Fortunately Team GB would not play punchball with such a noxious notion.
Chris, we’ve loved you, applauded you and laughed at you. You are a card and were a great fighter. But now you are becoming an irritant who is getting up more people’s noses than your left jab ever did those of your opponents.
You briefly changed your name this year to ‘English’ because you said you wanted to be part of this country’s great traditions and heritage.
But your blatant bandwagonning is very un-English. Think about it.
***********************
Amir, you Khan’t be serious
It was significant that the five-ringed Olympic flag was hoisted alongside the Stars and Stripes at Muhammad’s magnificent memorial service in Louisville on Friday.
So what, I wonder, would the sadly departed Ali have had to say about the very idea of professional boxers mixing it in the Olympic ring with those who, despite the attempts of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to persuade us otherwise, are still essentially amateurs.
It is a question which fortuitously was never put to the The Greatest, whose springboard for becoming the universally-revered legend he will remain for eternity was winning an Olympic gold medal back in Rome in 1960.
But I doubt it would be difficult to gauge his reaction from a remark he once made about a proposed title fight he deemed a total mismatch, saying: “It would be like putting a great heavyweight champion in against a skinny kid from the Olympics.”
So why did Britain’s Amir Khan, who like so many of his fistic generation, puts Ali on a pedestal, whose entire multi-million pound pro career has been built on winning Olympic silver as a lone teenager for Britain in Athens, volunteer his own services for the Olympics in Rio for Pakistan?
It won’t happen of course but whatever possessed him to say such a thing? Was he merely trying to ingratiate himself with his hosts, as he made the statement while visiting the nation where his immigrant father was born?
Maybe it was a sense of déjà vu as he had threatened to box for Pakistan before Britain, concerned he might be too young at 17, relented and picked him for Athens 2004.
Imagine the outrage if he was to end up him opposing, and beating, a young British boxer in an Olympic final.
Judging from the hostile tweets, he has already alienated many of his British fans and it could be why his name did not appear – yet again- in the latest Honours List.
Amir, you Khan’t be serious. Think of Ali and what he did to make boxing the honourable sport it is today.
************************************************************
FIGHTING TALK
A Muhammad Ali will never die because he will always be in all our hearts.
Of the hundreds of thousands of tributes to the Greatest these succinct words from Wladimir Klitschko PhD seem to sum it up best.
*****************************************
Ali taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls.
Muhammad’s great buddy, Jewish comedian Billy Crystal, takes a pop at Donald Trump, who was not seen at the champion’s funeral nor contributed to the eulogies.
******************
I don’t think it will happen but if it does it will be the first time he has fought for nothing since he was an amateur and we all know Amir likes a pound note.
Frank Warren doubts King Khan will pull on the Olympic vest for Pakistan.
*****************************
Professional boxing and how you train for a professional boxing contest, 12 rounds, three minutes, and the Olympic cycle where you are fighting maybe four times over 10 days is a totally different sport. I think it’s more smoke and mirrors from Dr Wu. The reality is, from an infrastructure point of view it can’t be done, it can’t be done.
Former Olympic super-heavyweight champion Audley Harrison believes AIBA’s pro-plan for the Olympics is unworkable, and he should know.
******************************************
Sometimes I think I’ve got a screw loose in the head. I wake up in the morning and everything’s fine. In the afternoon I feel like committing suicide.
Is Tyson Fury truly troubled? Or pulling Klitschko’s leg – and ours?
********************************
It wasn’t a boxing match. We were just walking around and looking at each other.
Wladimir Klitschko regrets the lack of action in Dusseldorf but promises mayhem In Manchester.
Coming up tomorrow: The Big Interview with boxing’s ‘Wonder Boy’ Lyon Woodstock
