SOUND OF SPEEDBALL BEING PUNCHED
When I was a small child, my father
took me to a movie, and the movie was
called Joe Palooka.
I was about six at the time, and
I was very impressed by this movie,
because in it, they trained this
young guy to be a champion boxer.
Coming out of the movie, I can
remember my dad is holding my hand,
and I said to him, one day I'm
going to train a man to be the world
champion boxer.
And I remember my dad stopped and
looked down at me, and he said to me,
well knowing you
Tony, you probably will.
I got this new manager,
and she said to me, what do you want?
I said, I want you to get me a boxer.
I also had this thing about Las
Vegas that I didn't want to get into
things, even relationships, too
deeply, because one day I would have
to go to Las Vegas
and start a new life.
So when Colette rang
me on the phone and said,
I've got your boxer, and
I said, where is it gonna be?
She said, Las Vegas.
I knew we couldn't lose then.
It was all over in my mind, I
was there and we were going to win,
and that was the end of it.
Joe, where you going, pal?
I don't know.
I hate to go back home.
You ain't going back home.
I just signed you
up for another fight.
You'll be a sensation.
Guess who you're gonna fight?
Guess who?
Who?
The champion.
Just listen to the
roars from the Irish crowd.
Welcome to the
lion's den, Chris Eubank.
This is a tough,
battle hardened fighter.
I said at 14 years old that
I would become a world champion and
I'd never boxed before and it shows
you that the universe is listening
to you.
And it doesn't emphasise the
humour, I could have been joking and
it gives you what you ask.
These are desperate moments...
Just one more punch
like that from Eubank.
Collins must stand off
to get through this round.
Eubank strutting his stuff.
This is mind games.
He has now convinced
everybody here that he is the man.
He's the champion.
It's the Chris Eubank show.
I gotta take this away.
The right hand's got Collins!
The right hand's got Collins!
What a cracking contest!
From Brattan, the reigning WBL super
middle-weight champion of the world,
Chris Eubank.
The boxing business, you know, it's
not about great promoters or great
trainers, it's about great fighters,
because great fighters make promoters
great.
They make trainers great.
On their own, we would
disappear into oblivion.
We need talent.
And Eubank was top of the tree when
it comes to selling his own form of
talent.
What are we looking for?
We're looking for entertainment,
that is interesting.
You're doing something where you
have the control to do what, to
engross, you know, the eyes.
You know, how do I
win the hearts, you know?
How do I get people to
sit up on their seats like this?
You know, I can
remember watching fights.
I'm not watching the fight, I'm
watching one guy, every time the
camera comes around and the
guy is just sitting like that.
I want to get that man to move.
I don't want him to just sit there.
I want to get him...
How do I move my audience?
We're at the start of a
fabulous adventure on Sky Sports.
Mauricio Amaral.
Some people say that Eubank must be
insane to try this, eight fights in
a year.
Sam Storey.
He's got a tremendous right
hand, he's got big heart, and he's
different.
Dangerous Dan Schommer.
Very much the star
attraction tonight, Eubank.
Henry Wharton.
He's still the man in charge of this
WBO super middleweight division.
Would you please welcome into the
ring, the boxers of the WBO super
middleweight
championship of the world.
First the
challenger for the title...
For me, Chris Eubank wasn't a boxer.
You know, he wasn't, he wasn't, you
wouldn't say he had a great punch
either.
He just didn't like boxing me
because he knew I was a boxer, not a
fighter.
Belfast loves boxers,
Belfast loves a trier.
Belfast loves people
who give their all in the ring.
Belfast cannot stand somebody who
struts, who is arrogant, and they
love to see somebody like
that go on the seat of their pants.
Ray Close fought him twice.
Thought he beat him the first
time, but didn't get the decision.
He fought him the second time.
You know, didn't
fight as well the second time.
And Ray Close felt
he won it, but I didn't.
So they were
going for a third fight.
There was a deal that would
have netted him 1.6 million pounds,
he would have been made for life.
However, Ray did go for a routine
brain scan in the Royal Victoria
Hospital, and a couple of
days afterwards, Barney Eastwood
travelled up to his house in Bangor,
and he broke the bad news that they
had discovered lesions on his brain.
So in essence, the British Boxing
Board of Control intervened and says
that they were going
to take away his license.
The fight that didn't happen...
That long ago.
Well, gentlemen, thank you
very much for your understanding.
I think Ray is to be congratulated
for turning up today, and let's wish
him best in luck in
whatever he does from here.
You have a devastated Ray Close
having the face of the cameras.
His career was in ruins, it was a
cruel spectacle, an absolutely awful
spectacle to behold.
I remember that press conference,
you know, and it was really sad.
It was, it was tragic
to see Ray Close there.
I was kind of very uncomfortable
watching one man whose career is
ending and another man who's just
been handed the opportunity of a
lifetime.
If it wasn't bad enough that your
career and your livelihood was
shattered by the MRI scan, and
you had to sit there at that press
conference between Barney Eastwood
and Barry Hearn, you know, you'd
nothing to say,
you'd nothing to add.
You just felt
like a bit part player.
And then Close is asked to vacate
the seat so Collins can sit in the
middle of the two mega promoters.
I went through the WBO top 10, I
went through the WBC top 20, or the
IBF top 12, and the WBA top 15.
And then, really, I have to
say, there was only one meaningful
contest that could be made, in such
a way to guarantee value for money
for everyone, and at the same
time, provide a meaningful fight.
They needed a replacement.
And I seem to be the guy who was
replacing everybody throughout my
career, you know.
Getting the fight and
getting there was like a Rocky story.
It was like a movie.
Stephen loved it.
He loved the boxing.
Honest to God, he
was just -- he loved it.
He never used to go out, you know,
the way the lads do go out dancing
and going here, there --
boxing was his, was his passion.
I had my first
fight when I was eight.
So basically a
club in the city centre.
I remember the kids that were there
against me from the neighbourhood,
and I was there, I felt like on
my own going into the lion's den,
everything about it appealed to me.
I knew there and then
this is what I was gonna do.
I wanted him to get a trade, oh he
loved the boxing, and that was it.
But he didn't make it his life.
In the beginning, he got an
apprenticeship as electrician.
He was happy boxing, and he
was happy training, and it was no
bother.
There was no big deal about it.
We didn't think he was going to be a
world title or anything like that,
but he was very good.
My father had just passed away
recently, and I thought to myself,
I can make my own decisions
now and do what I want to do.
So I gave up my job, a very good job,
which my dad probably wouldn't have
let me give up if he was around.
And I said, now's the time to make
the change and go to the States and
become a professional boxer.
Marvin Hagler was the middleweight
champion of the world at the time.
I watched Marvin
Hagler, I loved his style.
I wanted to learn
to fight like he fought.
I believed his style would suit
me, so I decided that I'm gonna, you
know, pack my bags and go over to the
United States and train with Marvin
Hagler.
So I settled in Boston,
Massachusetts, got a little
apartment, got a job.
One evening, I drove
to Brockton, Massachusetts.
I was introduced to Goody Petronelli,
and I said, I'm gonna take over from
Marvin.
Anybody else you say that to
them, they think you're a lunatic.
But he went, that's great, and
welcome into our gym, I'm delighted
to have you here,
so he believed in me.
Goody Petronelli was a very positive
person, and he's a very clever, wise
man, and he gave me confidence.
You know, it was a
great start in my career.
Hadn't seen him in two years.
And when I walked into the
Petronelli's gym, you know, as I
say, they were training
some of the best fighters.
They were giving him the education.
And I looked at my brother
Stephen, and I was in awe,
I actually was like,
is that my brother?
He looked to me like
somebody I'd watch on TV.
I was a sports writer for
the Sunday Tribune at the time.
I'd covered his career when he was
in America, there were probably five
reporters covering boxing for the
Irish newspapers at the time, and
it's not like today, where
you're sort of kept remote from the
fighters or from any
sportsperson that you're covering.
So we got to know
each other quite well.
When I went to cover the fight in
New Jersey, I was staying with some
friends in New York, just sleeping
on the floor, and kind of two days
before the fight, Steve rang to say,
I've got you a deal in the hotel,
which was the
Meadowlands Hilton in New Jersey.
And I was broke, I was a freelance
journalist at the time, so it was a
really decent thing to do,
especially that's, you know,
so close to the fight.
So we, you know, we'd
become good friends at that stage.
I had the mindset
that this can happen.
All I ever needed
was two weeks notice.
You know, if someone came to me and
said, you know, in a week, two weeks
time, there's an opening there, you
know, for Collins, if he wants to
take it, I was always ready.
I got a phone call to say that
Michael Watson had broken his nose in
preparation for a
fight against Mike McCallum.
They needed someone to stand
in as substitute, will I take it?
And of course,
I jumped at the opportunity.
The chance to fight for the world
title against a great fighter was
something that every
young fighter dreamed of.
This is Animo Terrace in Cabra, where
my father grew up and where I grew
up, as far as I'm concerned, this is
where the next middleweight champion
of the world is coming from, which I
believe is going to be me, Stephen
Collins.
On February the 4th, this place is
going to be a lit up with lights, and
there's going to be flags and
bunting out, and everybody's going to
celebrate my victory.
I'm sorry about that
Michael McCallum, that's it.
At the time, Steve,
I think was like a novice.
Mike McCallum, I think was 33,
34 fights, you know, probably 30
knockouts.
Everybody thought it
was a huge jump, a huge step.
I reckon I learned more in the one
fight with him than I probably had in
my five previous fights.
He put together combinations.
I felt like standing back
and saying, show us that again.
That was just, you
know, he took me to school.
The Mike McCallum
fight was really interesting.
I mean, Steve lost a unanimous
decision, but that was the fight
that really put him into the,
what they call the "who needs him"
category.
You know, there's no real sort of
commercial advantage in fighting
them, like you won't make millions
from them, because they're not
personalities, and at the same time,
there's a chance that you might lose
to them.
In Britain, you had Nigel Benn,
Chris Eubank, Michael Watson, on
prime time television
every Saturday night, practically.
But Steve was in America,
not making a huge amount of money.
Nigel Benn rewrote British
middleweight boxing in America,
because this guy came over
and smashed and beat up the best
middleweights they had in
America and took all the titles.
And went back to London, Chris
Eubank then, who beat Nigel Benn.
He became the big name, and I
was, I was just left out on my own,
so I had to move from America and
return back to Europe and start all
over again and try and break into the
scene over here, which I knew was
going to be hard, but it
was a lot harder than I expected.
When I approached managers and
promoters in the UK, they had no
hesitation signing me up, so they
could prevent me or let me fight
their fighters, I was under their
control, so they now owned the danger
man.
So it was always
going to be hard for me.
I was with Barry Hearn in the early
90s, and I was number one contender
for the middleweight title,
WBO middleweight, and the current
champion was a guy called Chris
Pyatt, but we were both managed and
promoted by the same company, and he
was never going to fight me because
his manager was my manager, and it
wasn't allowed to happen until one
day Chris Pyatt jumped
ship and went to Frank Warren.
Barry Hearn came straight to me
and said, that fight's gonna happen.
This fight against Chris Pyatt,
he was offered it, he took it.
He beat Chris Pyatt, and still there
weren't, you know, there were no
million dollar fights
being offered to him afterwards.
So he did, I think he did have a
sense at that point of his career
that he was a journeyman,
despite being a world champion.
He hadn't made a lot of money.
I remember he was trying to build a
house at the time in Dublin, and,
you know, was actively talking about
how he needed purses to build this
house.
He'd had two world title fights,
and he was still living in a rented
house in Swords.
He phoned me sometime in the summer
of 1994 and he'd had this idea that
he wanted to write a book, and he
asked me, would I help him with it?
He had a couple of fights arranged.
He was going to fight an American
called Lonnie Beasley, and the fight
was supposed to happen in Hong Kong.
And these are the early chapters
of the book, and they're all about
Steve's preparation for the fight.
So I spent quite a
lot of time with him.
And then, you know, 24 hours,
48 hours before the fight we're
suddenly told the fight's off.
Steve's fight then was rescheduled
for Boston, seven weeks later.
As the fight got closer, there was a
kind of nervousness about Steve, and
it turned out that one of the
Petronelli brothers with whom he had
a historical contractual dispute,
was going to court to try to seize
his purse from the fight, and
suddenly there's this doubt about
whether the fight would go ahead.
The day before the weigh in,
I just, I lost all my strength.
I couldn't get out of bed.
I just became very lethargic, and
they had to call for a doctor, and
the doctor said, under no
circumstances was he gonna allow this
fight to go ahead.
At that time then I just thought,
you know, my boxing career was over.
I returned home
after that, on a real downer.
I was despairing, I thought there's
no book here, you know, because
there's no story, like you can't
write a boxing book in which there's
no boxing.
This is a year in a boxer's life,
and you're just talking about press
conferences and contracts
and illness and medical certs.
He rang me in January.
It was a Friday night in January,
and he said, how's the book going?
And I said, well, I don't, I just
don't think there is a book at the
moment.
And he said, right, well, how's
about this for a book, I'm fighting
Chris Eubank.
The whole idea behind the tour is
to take Eubank all over the country,
United Kingdom, Europe, wherever.
And it made sense because of
obviously Steve, to do the fight in
Ireland, but where?
This is where it's all happening,
behind us here the magnificent Green
Glens complex, Millstreet, County
Cork, the venue for the Eurovision
Song Contest 1993.
Welcome friends to
Memories of Millstreet.
You know, it was a time when things
were very down in Ireland, and the
European community was a big thing,
and everybody was talking about the
money that was coming.
And I, from reading the papers, came
to the conclusion that all the money
that was coming into
Ireland was going to Dublin.
And I said, hey guys, why can't we
get some of that out into the rural
Ireland?
One night, we were sitting around
the fire, watching television from
Sweden, and I took a little, small
brown envelope off the mantelpiece,
and I wrote, now that the Irish have
won the Eurovision, I presume it
will be in Ireland next
year, and I have this place.
And I said, if you consider it,
you will have it free of charge.
I didn't hear from them for
ages, but eventually they did come.
And when they looked at it, they,
according to their own language that
was said, they were gobsmacked.
And then they started planning to
how it could happen, take it out of
Dublin and bring it out in the
country, 20 miles from the nearest
traffic light on that side,
and 20 miles from the other side.
# There lives a great man
here among us,
# Green Glens
is a sight you must see
# He has done many
great things for Millstreet
# You all know the famous Noel C.
# Oh Millstreet will always remember
# Those bright, happy days
spent with you,
# Admiring your beauty and splendour
# And the few people so true.
There's a lot of television
programmes, and there was two
journalists brought on that Marian
Finucane Show, they called it the
arsehole of Ireland
and all that kind of thing.
And where the hell is Millstreet?
Who is Millstreet
and how did this happen?
Is it Millstreet in Cork city,
or is it Millstreet somewhere?
# It was our great moment of pride
# Oh Millstreet
we'll always remember...
This is an opportunity now to
create something new, not just for
Millstreet alone or the Millstreet
parish, but for all rural Ireland.
The Collins, Eubank thing came
up then, and as soon as I saw that
Barry Hearn was the promoter, I
found out his number and did it just
direct.
Barry Hearn was back and forth to me
when the Eubank fight was announced.
And he came back and
he was talking about venues.
They never heard of Millstreet.
And I said, well, Millstreet is where
the Eurovision song contest was held.
It's a great venue.
They said to me, we had to switch
off the fax machine, because Noel
Duggan just sent us fax after fax and
information about the venue, what he
could do, what he could provide, the
whole support system he had there,
everything about it.
Well, I remember Noel telling me
it's just around the corner from
Cork airport, it was an hour
and a half drive from Cork airport!
It wasn't around the corner.
But it didn't really matter,
because he was a thoroughly engaging
personality at the
time, went like that.
I think they sat back and thought
they had some old guy here who didn't
know what was going on and they
were the big "I ams", but, you know,
I think to this day, they're
still reeling from Noel C. Duggan.
I think he educated them like a way
they'd never been educated before.
And I just loved it.
I loved -- I knew what they were
getting into when they went over to
him, I thought, do you know what,
they don't know who they're dealing
with here.
This man's amazing.
I remember him saying to me when
I showed him around, but Noel, he
said, where are the chimney pots?
Where are the chimney pots?
And I didn't know what he meant
by, where are the chimney pots.
And he meant, where are the crowd?
Where do the crowds come from?
You know, surely they don't all live
around here, like, then I took him
home when we were finished here and
he was silent, but I could see that
he was enthused.
Will you come indoors and have a
bowl of soup with me and the family?
And I thought, what
a nice, what a nice fella.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 -- I should have
counted these fingers, shouldn't I?
But he was smart
and he was energetic.
He was a live wire
and frankly, we needed him.
Before he left, he shook
hands, he said, we'll do it.
That's a big headline.
It says a bowl of soup brings
multi millions to a small town.
Having done the Eurovision and the
big international shows and some
concerts, very big concerts, I knew
that we could manage the handles,
you know.
I'd say the only worry that we had
was that Collins would get k*lled.
Press conferences were pretty
mundane affairs, maybe somebody
would say a few things and spark
off a little bit of a row, and the
journalists would
give them a bit of copy.
But there might be only one sort of
quote, and everybody has that same
quote.
But on this
occasion, it was remarkable.
Eubank arrived more or less on time,
which was very unusual with him.
I was on my own, but I had my own
little game plan, and that was to
undermine him, take
him out of his comfort zone.
And the first, the first
thing to do was his style.
He was a good dresser, and he was
known for it, he was, I mean, best
dressed man in
Britain, I think, twice.
So this is all part of him, so I want
to match him, but in the Irish style.
So I got the countryman, Irish
attire, the jacket, the cap, the
whole lot.
And then I contacted a
very well known Wolfhound breeding
family, and I asked,
could I borrow their Wolfhound?
Which they kindly let me borrow.
They obviously met me around
the corner, gave it to me, because
this dog was a beautiful dog, and
they weren't just gonna hand me a
Wolfhound, you know.
They met me around the corner and
then I'd bought this old mark II Jag
an old green Jaguar, which was a
perfect car, I says right, this is
it.
I remember Steve arriving
dressed like Darby O'Gill.
I mean, it was extraordinary, you
know, to see him in the flat cap,
the three piece suit,
like thorn proof suit.
I think he had a shillelagh
and this Irish Wolfhound.
I don't know where he got the Irish
Wolf -- it wasn't his, like, you
know, but he had an Irish Wolfhound,
and he got out of this green Jaguar.
And I couldn't believe it when I saw
him coming, like, I didn't recognise
him at first, you know.
And he walks into the hotel, I knew
something was going on, like, you
know, whatever this
was, it was part of a plan.
You know, no one
got underneath my skin.
You know, I was
always kind of objective.
But he did a very good job.
You see, he turned up,
remember I'm champion of the world.
So he turns up 45 minutes late.
He comes dressed
as an Irish countryman.
He then proceeds
to speak only in Irish.
Excellent tactics.
T mle filte
roimh go lir anseo inni.
ar an l mr seo in mo shaol.
Agus deirim libh anois, go mbeidh and
bua agam ar Cristir Mac Eubanc...
(Laughter)
...an mh Mrta,
go raibh mle maith agat.
Steve was very clever, and he
would think of ways to get under an
opponent's skin
before, before a fight,
but I had no idea what
hell was about to be unleashed.
It started to go off the
rails when he said, I deserve this.
And Chris said, talk to
me about deserve, what is deserve?
There are starving children
in Africa, do they deserve that?
Then he says to me, he said
something to me, which, which, which
caught me.
He said to me,
everyone, everyone admires you.
You know, the
quintessential English gentleman.
That's fantastic,
that's great, he says.
I'm listening,
where's he going with this?
We're talking about boxing,
right, if you want to bring Africa
into it right, you are an African,
Anglo-African, or African descent,
right?
Why do you deny your African heritage
and try to impersonate or behave like
in Englishman, when you're not?
He's asking a question,
hey, well, what about this?
You're not really an
Englishman, you're an African.
Chris got really, really angry.
Usually, he's so mentally tough, or
was in those days that, you know, he
wouldn't be cowed
by something like that.
You know, he would shake it off, or
he would be the aggressor in those,
you know, kind of
intellectual back and forths, but
he was really, really shaken.
And I remember the Lord Mayor went
up to him afterwards and said, Would
you like a tour around the city?
And Chris said, f*ck this city!
At the top of his voice.
He really, really had lost it.
No, you crossed the
line that works, this is w*r.
I wanted to fight Chris Eubank
because I didn't really like him,
I found him kind of disrespectful.
I just felt I wanted to teach
him something, you know, teach him
manners.
I'm there to take your title.
I'm there to end your career.
I mean, you're loving this, you're
loving this whole, this whole show,
your lifestyle, you love this.
I'm taking it -- I'm here, I'm
going to take this away from you.
I'm taking this from you, and I'm
going to live this lifestyle now,
and it's over for you.
I wasn't the big name, I wasn't
the golden goose, and it didn't make
sense or business
for me to win this fight.
So I believed then that my opponent
for this match wasn't just Chris
Eubank, it was
the whole organisation.
My trainer was Freddie King.
Who was part of
the Matchroom Company.
He had a stable of fighters, and one
of his fighters was Herbie Hyde, and
he had a big
title fight in Las Vegas.
So I'm on my own, I've no coach,
and I'm fighting Chris Eubank.
And I just thought, you know,
it's, it's obvious, I'm not that
concerned, I now
have to look after myself.
So I booked my own flights out
to Vegas to be with my trainer and
coach.
But when I got out there, he
wasn't there, so I was like a gypsy.
I had to find a gym.
I had to find a guy to
coach me, who wasn't my coach.
This is preparation for
the Chris Eubank title fight?!
So I knew, I knew
what the script was.
I do recall being out there having
this room booked in the MGM hotel.
I booked myself a room in the MGM
hotel, and I'm trying to make weight
for this fight, even though it was
super middleweight, not middleweight,
I still had to cut
weight to make weight.
And I remember coming from my room
every day with my training gear to go
to the gym and I used to walk through
the food hall to get out, I had to
walk through smelling this food every
day and I was starving, and I was on
my way to the gym to slog hard,
work hard, and the heat was, it was
unbelievable, it was Vegas, and I
hadn't got -- I had no money, and I
borrowed a bicycle off
one of the coaches out there.
He loaned me his daughter's
little yellow racing bike.
So I pick up a little bike from
around the side, I used to hide it
around the back of
the hotel, the MGM hotel.
My little training bag on my
shoulder, and I get on this little
bike and I was cycling through
the traffic on the big motorways
through Vegas to get to the Top Rank
gym, and I had my workout, and then
I'd get on my little bike
and I'd cycle back, you know.
It just wasn't, it wasn't
the way things should happen,
it's not how someone
should prepare for a world title.
But it just told me what was really
going on, and it made me even more
determined to succeed, and it made me
really want this more to prove that
I'm not just going to beat this
fighter, I'm going to beat the whole
system.
I was working as always, exclusively
in my own mind, and that's how you
win.
You don't think about your opponent,
you think about what you are going
to do and who you are.
There is a psychological battle
going on and winning that can be the
fight.
I look at what people thought of me
at the time, and I remember always
trying to explain I'm just a man.
I always thought
myself to be a grasshopper.
That's the way in
which I stay champion.
I always doubted myself, so I
never took my foot off the pedal.
I trained meticulously.
I had the right mindset.
I trained and managed him to start
with, we used to train in a gym on
about eight boxers, ten
boxers, when was it, '87, 1987.
And I come in the gym, and he was
training there with his brothers,
and I went, kid's
good, beautifully balanced.
And that's where I met him.
He moved really smoothly,
fast hands, he could hit.
Yeah, he had everything about him.
But you could say,
that kid's gonna be good.
He was winning, beating everyone
up, and I couldn't get him fights
because he was that
good, and all avoiding him.
So I had a meeting with Barry
Hearn, and we went on from there.
And we met at the Grosvenor
House Hotel in Sheffield.
I sat there waiting, suited and
booted as you'd expect, and in
wandered this charismatic
personality with a certain style.
And he went, my name is
Christopher Livingston Eubank.
I'm an athlete, and I know my worth.
That was the first
sentence he ever said.
I thought, oh, you
got me, mate, you got me.
My father worked at Ford Dagenhams,
90 pounds a week, bringing up four
children.
The system crushes people.
It crushed my people, you
know, sl*ve trade, the Windrush
generation, my parents coming into
the United Kingdom in the 1950s,
me being second generation.
And somehow, through the grace
that my mother put in me, somehow
I didn't let all that prejudice,
jealousy, you know, hate, racism,
I didn't let anything sit on me.
I want to be better prepared than him
and take away this mindset he has,
which is very powerful, strong
mindset, and he is in control.
I've upset him, but I need to
take control of the whole scenario.
I needed to come
back with the mind games.
I needed help to understand his
mind games and strengthen and prepare
my mind game.
Dr. Tony Quinn has a doctorate
in clinical hypnotherapy and
counselling, Master of Science
degree in psychotherapy and neuro
linguistic programming, how the
mind is programmed for success or
failure.
Tony Quinn had a health shop
business in Dublin, and he used to
sell these hypnotism tapes, and he
would help people stop smoking or
help people to
transform their lives.
And then he had this business
where he would do seminars.
He would talk to them
about changing their lives.
He looked like Jesus
Christ, you know, he had a goatee.
He had this huge perm and a little
bit of an aura about him as well.
You know, you never saw
him, he was kind of reclusive.
You saw his shops everywhere,
but you didn't see him often.
It's okay I'm here.
He got in touch with me through my
manager, and we arranged, at the
time to meet in the MGM in Vegas.
And I knew nothing about boxing, by
the way, I never saw a real boxing
match in my life, till
I was involved with Steve.
So I said to him,
What can I do for you, Steve?
And he said, anything you can.
I'm sitting there listening to the
guy, and I'm thinking, how long is
this fight away?
And I think it was about five weeks.
And I'm thinking, Oh my God.
Then I said, who's your trainer?
And he said, I don't
have a trainer at all.
And I said, stupidly, I
thought all boxers had trainers.
So Steve said to me, well, Tony,
I guess you're going to be the
trainer.
And I go, whoa.
I never even saw
a boxing match, Steve.
I was at a loss as to how I was
going to train him straight away.
And then I said something really
stupid that he thought was really
stupid.
I said, is there any
boxing gyms in Las Vegas?
So Steve says to me, it's the
home of boxing, of course there are!
So I said, tomorrow, let's go
down now and we'll pick out three
opponents, and we'll
see how you do against them.
And frankly, he did so badly, I
said, you know, Steve, I think I'd
do better than that myself.
And he was so annoyed, he was
practically telling me to go home at
that point, where I'm saying, Jesus,
Steve, we don't have time for this.
We've only got five weeks.
We need to get on with it.
Okay, this is combination number
two, and that's a driving straight
left to the head, stepping in.
Then we have a straight right to
solar plexus, left hook to head,
right hook to head.
Tell me when you're okay Mary
and then start rolling a little.
Yeah, it's rolling now.
Action.
Tony Quinn was a master of
martial arts, and I love Bruce Lee.
You know, I love Bruce Lee.
And he's talking Bruce
Lee and the one inch punch.
And he said, I'll
teach you the one inch punch.
So we used to practice the
one inch punch over and over again.
I used to practice it all the time
for Eubank, and I planned this whole,
this was a combination that Freddie
King told me, which was a jab to the
head, bring his hands up, bend
the knees and drive the straight hand
through the chest.
So I wanted to make that straight
hand not just a straight hand,
I wanted to make it a one inch
punch, so we practiced over and over.
When you have all of your mind
going, your mind will generate this
palpable power, like a force.
It's a bit like what
you'd see in Star Wars.
So now you're hitting a person
with this extra force, and then you
become kind of superhuman.
And that's where
I was going with Steve.
I frankly wanted him to be the only
boxer ever in history to be able to
punch with this chi.
I mean, that's just a useful word
for it, but think of it as life
force.
Now, will I start?
Combination number 12.
This is to be delivered when the
opponent is up against the ropes
with two hands up,
protecting his head.
Step in with forearm
block to opponents gloves,
followed by a driving right to the
body with the knuckles facing the
ground, immediately
followed by right uppercut to chin.
So we did no aerobics whatsoever, no
running, no road work, no skipping,
nothing resembling aerobics.
And the reason being this, you see,
for example, Chris Eubank ran for an
hour a day.
So I'm thinking, is he
training to be a runner or a boxer?
In boxing, you need to be able to
fight for three minutes all out.
And then, as far as I
remember, you rested for a minute.
So why on Earth are you
trying to run for an hour?
That doesn't make sense to me.
So all I did was train Steve to make
maximum effort for three minutes at
a time.
That's all I did.
It was easy.
Second one felt better.
Steve's demeanour, you could just
see there was something different
about him.
It was, it was, his
focus was totally different.
I could see it because I'd spent so
many times with Steve before each
fight, and there was something,
you just knew, you just knew he was
ready.
Do it again.
That one is good too, if you do
it like that, put your two hands
together, push together hard
and pulling down on your abs.
When he came back he
was just a different person.
He had this kind
of brashness about him.
He was always confident,
but this was something different.
He'd completely rebranded himself,
you know, the previous year, as the
Celtic Warrior.
And I think, I think
that was all a marketing thing.
But when he went away, he kind of
grew into that, that persona, and
then the stories, you know, I
remember Steve told me on the phone
one night that, you know,
Tony Quinn had trained him,
had mentally conditioned him, that
when he heard Chris Eubank's voice,
he would hear Donald Duck.
And I mean, I thought this stuff was
just nonsense, like I thought it
was madness.
I mean, Steve was a great boxer,
he didn't need any of this stuff.
But then, I suppose, the sort of
sinister twist to this was that he
started saying that Tony Quinn
had trained him not to feel pain.
MARCHING BAND MUSIC
Well, we did go
to some strange places.
Bruno fought at Shepton
Mallet in an agricultural tent.
We had fights at the
Scottish Showgrounds in Edinburgh.
It wasn't entirely off the radar,
but rural Ireland for most people,
was new.
There's just a magic and something
about Millstreet, you arrive there
and you smell the air, you smell the
countryside, the grass, everything
about it, there was a
smell, an atmosphere down there.
When I arrived there, I just
said, like, I'm the Celtic Warrior
and I'm coming home.
I have an opportunity here to be a
superhero, to go to my opponent's
backyard, when I'm champion,
on St Patrick's Day weekend.
Oh, look at me!
SIRENS
Oh huge excitement in Millstreet.
There was huge excitement in Ireland
generally, because this was Steve
Collins, and since Barry McGuigan
there'd really been no major world
level professional
boxer from Ireland.
It was a technical nightmare, I have
to say, as well, because there were
no permanent facilities to broadcast
a boxing event in an environment
like that.
It was actually very challenging.
Ladies and gentlemen, can I ask you
please to welcome into the ring for
the official weigh-in, the reigning
WBO middleweight champion of the
world and challenger for this
title from Dublin, Steve Collins.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
There's never a weigh-in
without a story, and the things that
happen at weigh-ins are generally
just to try to build the gate, to
sell those last few tickets, to
ensure a big walk up audience on the
night.
So there's always
boxers threatening to pull out.
Barney Eastwood was famous for it.
You know, all of McGuigan's
fights, you know, there was always
a row over the gloves,
over the nationality of the judges.
You get used to these things.
This was something
completely different.
Ladies and gentlemen, we call first
to the scales, the challenger, Steve
Collins.
CHEERING
Ladies and gentlemen, Steve Collins
came in at 11 stone, 13 and three
quarters of a pound.
I just hopped up my tracksuit, they
called the weight out, 168 pound.
And Chris Eubank comes out,
he strips off to his underwear, and
he's showing his muscles, and his
physique and so on, and I thought,
he's never going to change, you know.
Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Eubank
has scaled 11 stone, 13 and three
quarters of a pound,
the same as Steve Collins.
In the ring I'm fierce.
I have the correct
attitude for the job.
I look correct.
I'm not supposed
to look like a waiter.
I'm not supposed to look like
a, you know, a property developer.
I'm supposed to look like a warrior.
We had a brief
press conference there,
and, you know, talking to Chris and
talking to me, and I said, and by the
way, I said, I've prepared for
this fight in a way that I've never
prepared for a fight before.
I've got my mindset and I'm ready
now for anything he throws at me,
physically, mentally, I've never
been so well prepared in my life.
As a matter of fact, I introduced
the guy who helped me prepare.
The issue has been raised that
sometimes the mind tells the body
when to stop, and people are worried
that he may go on through the pain
threshold, and it could cause Steve
some damage, and people are worried
about that.
Well, I think in something like
boxing, the mind plays a big part in
it.
I mean, a lot of people in
situations where they're very
excited may actually feel no pain
anyway, many boxers, I don't think,
feel pain till afterwards.
Now it's true, he will feel
less pain than he normally would.
I mean, that is definitely true.
He'll also find that
he's able to move much easier.
For instance, one of the things we
do is that I've slowed down, so when
he sees the punches coming at him,
they look about three times slower
than normal, and we've done this
in the training sessions, and it's
worked very well.
We've also made the target three
times bigger, so it's much easier
for him to be
aware of what's happening.
But of course, I've told him at the
same time, and this is instilled in
him, that he will be
very aware of all dangers.
In fact, he'd be much more aware
than normal of any danger there may
be to him.
What a load of rubbish!
The only person didn't think it was
a load of rubbish was Chris Eubank.
He thought it was black magic.
I'll never forget, I mean, we
did the weigh-in, we did the press.
Collins came out with
his c*ck and ball story,
but he looked believable.
The only person in the room
that believed him was Chris Eubank.
Went back to the room,
Eubank said to me, I'm going home.
The 43 fights I've had in the past,
I've always known what I was dealing
with.
I don't know what I'm dealing with
tonight, I'm fighting someone who's
mechanically orientated,
and that is just an unknown area.
It's not fair that I should
be put into the situation.
I suppose it was a particularly
sensitive time for Eubank, because
this was just three weeks after the
Nigel Benn, Gerald McClellan fight.
Gerald McClellan had been
left in a coma after the fight.
You know, he was left permanently
blind, with restricted mobility, the
kind of brutality of boxing was at
the forefront of everybody's minds,
but more so for Chris Eubank,
because he'd been through a similar
experience himself four
years earlier with Michael Watson.
Eubank's got snagged
on the right again and again.
Eubanks is staggering.
Watching for the first 10
rounds, Eubank getting a severe
hiding from Watson, Watson was
clearly in front and drops Eubank in
the 11th round, and like it looked
like the fight was coming to an end
in Watson's favour, and all of a
sudden, he pulls out that uppercut!
10 seconds left to go...
And Watson's down!
Watson's down.
The bell's gonna save him.
He went back to the corner, my great
friend, Jimmy Tibbs, worked on him,
and he talked to me, he said,
Look, I said to him, are you okay?
Are you compos mentis?
And I could see that
he was compos mentis.
He was answering the questions.
And then he went back out,
but his legs hadn't recovered.
And Eubank just jumped on him.
It's all over.
He has stopped it.
People hit me for a living.
I hit people for a living.
There's nothing personal
when I strike you, it's a point.
You know that should give me credit,
shouldn't discredit me that I hit
people for a living.
Because I'm looking at it
objectively, I score a point.
There is no malice.
So here comes the WBO super
middleweight champion, Chris Eubank,
fresh from his win.
It is the main man.
I don't regret anything in my
career, other than what happened to
Michael Watson.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please, we must clear the ring.
Michael Watson
has got to leave the ring.
Will you please now clear the ring
and let's have a bit of order and
a bit of sanity, please.
That was a very sad night, and I
remember walking out the gates of
the club thinking, yeah, this
night will never be forgotten, and
not for good, but for bad.
Michael Watson had been in a coma
for a month after and was left with
these life changing injuries from
brain damage sustained at the hands
of Chris Eubank.
So you could totally understand
why this suddenly worried him.
I think he felt genuine fear then.
I understand getting into a ring
with a man who was trained to be
the best he can be.
Under hypnosis, basically,
he will be more, mentally.
I mean, and if you talk to anyone
in the business, you'll get to
understand that it's 85%
mental because it's only endurance.
Yeah, he didn't like that.
He didn't want to
go ahead with the fight.
I said, listen, once you whack
him or he hits you, mate, all that
hypnotism goes out the
window, mate, that's all gone.
I said, Chris, you know, ask
yourself a rational question, can
you hypnotize a chin?
The answer is no.
But anyway, Ronnie Davis, Chris
Eubank's trainer and me, sat up till
one o'clock in the morning
convincing him to take the fight.
There's nothing I can do
about it, I'm in that corner.
If I walk away from the fight now,
they say, Well, you're a coward.
Well, they say that, you
know, you have no more credibility.
I shouldn't do this.
I shouldn't be in that
ring tonight, this is wrong.
This is unfair.
That's legal
cheating, that's not right.
It was scary, and when you'd see in
the paper about the air ambulances,
and how long it took the air
ambulances to go from here to the
wherever, if there was a bad
accident in the ring, you had all
those kind of worries all right.
It was different to the Eurovision.
The Eurovision was a gentle thing.
The other thing was w*r.
And a very good evening to you
from the Green Glens Arena here in
Millstreet in the deep
rural south west of Ireland.
There is a
fantastic atmosphere here.
It's already a famous venue in Irish
terms, a Eurovision Song Contest
victory here a couple of years ago,
but the roof will truly lift off if
sporting history is made here for
Ireland and if Steve Collins can
become the WBO world
super middleweight champion.
It's all in front of us, and here
to share the atmosphere, one of the
finest fighters ever produced
in these shores, Barry McGuigan,
we'll hear from Barry
in just a moment or two.
It was the hottest ticket in town.
They were sold out in seconds.
And lucky enough, I had a couple of
thousand tickets in a little old
rucksack there that
were pretty valuable.
So at the time, my brother,
Patrick Peters, we'd the Wilton pub
in Bishopstown in Cork, he
thought it'd be good idea to sell
some tickets from the pubs.
I said, sure, look,
that could be interesting.
So I got him down 250 and he came
in early, I think, one morning, and
there was, I think,
three or 4,000 people.
It was mental, the queue outside,
so I had to get some fella on a
motorbike try to get down with
five or 700 tickets pretty quick.
Steve, I know you very well, and
I've never seen you as intense as I
have over the past few days.
What do you think is gonna happen?
I'm gonna win.
New champ.
Can I ask you to welcome into the
arena the reigning WBO middleweight
champion of the world and challenger
for the title, from Dublin, Steve
Collins.
LOUD ROAR
I was outside the dressing room,
and when Freddie King says to me,
Mick, make sure no one sticks their
-- pokes their finger in his eye or
slaps him or tries to upset him.
Straight away, the big brother
kicked in, and that's all, I just
focused on him, and my job was to
make sure that he got up and didn't
trip or anything, and got
him in, sat him on his stool.
I remember all the guards there.
That's one of my
outstanding memories.
The Garda did the
official security for the event.
So it's full of guards.
You know, it felt like
something really, really serious was
happening, because you'd never see a
thousand guards under one roof like
that.
There was a huge number of Dublin
criminals at the fight as well.
Most of them I recognised from the
papers, you know, they all went
to the fight, just criminals and
guards rubbing shoulders under the
same roof.
I mean, it was like a Roman arena.
It was unbelievable.
I've never, in all -- I worked with
my brother for seven years doing
corner man, I've been at lots
of shows, and I've never, ever
experienced the intensity.
I had the privilege of leaving him
in, and he didn't even know that I
left him into the
ring, he was so focused.
LOUD CHEERING
It was nearly a tougher fight
to get into the ring with the
people, the way they were in, you
know, and once we got into the ring,
I think one of the
cameras slightly picked up.
I had a very sizable bet
with Barney, you know, I wasn't --
might be earning a lot of money at
the time, but I had my life savings
on him anyway.
Before I sat down, I got them to put
the Walkman on, with the earphones
in, to listen to the
music, to cut out Chris Eubank.
And I put the hood -- I mean, I
even designed my rope, so I could put
the hood up and not look at him, you
know, and I put the hood up, I sat
down, I listened to my
music, and I switched off.
And then, you know, it all began.
MUSIC PLAYS
"MARS, THE BRINGER OF w*r"
In the dressing room, he
used to put his blinkers on.
And he'd be focused, no one could
speak, and he would take that into
the ring.
And he was so strong minded,
nothing, nothing phased him.
If anything happened, you know,
they could have dropped a b*mb in
the next room and
it wouldn't have worried him.
He would have just carried on.
He goes, Don't worry
about it Davis, it'll be okay.
Because that's what he's like.
I said, let me do the worrying, I
done the worrying, as long as he won
the fight, I didn't mind.
MUSIC PLAYS
The music began, Tina Turner, Simply
The Best, which is one of the best
entrance songs you could have.
When that started,
the whole place erupted.
Everybody starts
singing, Simply The Best.
And he's coming down,
the lights are all on him.
Everybody's watching him, it's
all about him, it's Chris Eubank,
it's his show,
it's him, he's the champ.
The guy sitting in the
corner, he's just a part.
MUSIC PLAYS "SIMPLY
THE BEST" BY TINA TURNER
SINGING, CHEERING AND SHOUTING
By the time we all got together, it
was like a party, you know, we were
all singing along, great form,
having a few drinks and what have
you.
I'll never forget it, we
were all standing on the seats.
And when they were coming out, and
the gas part was we were all happy.
And when Eubanks was
coming out, we were all singing.
Do you understand?
# simply the best.
And I was saying to meself,
why are we singing this to him?
SIMPLY THE BEST CONTINUES TO PLAY
LOUD CHEERING AND SHOUTING
I'm walking into a cauldron
of people who are against me.
And I'm walking towards the danger.
Look at me.
It's wonderful, it's wonderful,
it's for me, can you not see?
You know, you know, if you're a
fighter, you're not existing, you're
not playing it safe.
How many people can say that?
How many people can say that they
were in real and present danger, and
they were not running, they weren't
looking to actually escape it?
They were moving towards
it, they were combating it.
Oh, what?
Oh mate!
Oh...
That's beautiful,
sorry, that's beautiful.
CROWD CHANT "STEVO, STEVO"
The more people hissed and spat at
him and screamed at him and said the
most a*usive things to him, he would
just touch his gloves and walk in and
he'd wink at them, and he'd nod the
head and he'd put the chin up like
this.
It was just great.
I used to sit there
ringside going, look at these guys,
and they're going, we hate you.
And he'd go, too bad.
CROWD CHANT "STEVO, STEVO"
The image he saw when he came to the
ring, was he saw me not even paying
attention to him.
This, all this effort he put in was
a waste and that, to me, was like a
body blow.
I remember the ropes moving and the
spring on the ropes, and he hit the
canvas, I could
hear him hit the canvas.
And I just went,
right, this is it now.
Stick to your plan.
This is working, you know.
And you know, obviously I couldn't
see, I was aware, and I knew he'd be
looking at me, and I just
totally switched off, and I waited.
CROWD CHANT "STEVO, STEVO"
It wasn't until they announced me
that I even acknowledged anybody.
But they announced me, then I'd
get up and I came out of my trance.
I took off my robe, and I walked
straight to the centre of the ring to
front him, you know.
And when I fronted him, it wasn't
till I looked back on video that
something happened that never
happened before, and I must have
obviously scared him and I
scared his corner man, because
his corner man, Ronnie Davis,
who usually stands behind, like most
corner men do, behind the fighters,
stood between the two of us and put
his arm out.
I actually believe and think he was
afraid I was gonna attack him before
the fight even started.
So I had them all rattled.
You can see my lips move, and I
kept telling him, I kept telling him
"new champ, I'm gonna win".
"I'm the new champ, I'm gonna win."
"It's over."
He couldn't even look at me.
He put his head down because he
just couldn't, he put his head down,
he looked at the ground.
So he's looking down at the ground,
his trainer's there, giving us a
part, and I'm giving
it the whole "Big I Am".
And I went back to the corner,
put the mouthpiece in, it was like a
movie, it was great, this
is gonna be so easy, you know.
And the bell rang and I went down...
Whack!
f*ck' hell that hurt.
Oh... Collins.
Is that counted as a knockdown?
No, it's not.
Collins jumped up
and shouted, no knockdown.
But it did seem to be
a glance of the right hand.
LOUD ROAR
Collins was very
clever, a very clever person.
He had a good,
very good brain on him.
He knew, as he said they had to
cancel each other out right through
the fight, because if you let
Eubanks flow, you'd get m*rder*d.
He'd... cor!
Didn't land with that, the crowd at
the back of the hall thought he did,
it only hit the glove of Eubank.
And those punches
from Collins do get through.
Three or four of them.
He did like to stand back, and he
was accused of being boring at times
and one pace.
Collins knew that.
Collins knew to keep the pace of the
fight high, go in, do his work, and
take a step back, and then just
retreat and move to the left and go
in again.
So it was a tactical thing.
And I even said it
in the commentary that night.
I said, you know, Eubank can't allow
Collins to go in, steal a couple of
shots and then get back out
again, he's got to go to him.
Everybody has their qualities
and his quality was fighting,
backing up, you know, getting hit
and not having any effect on him,
and walking guys
on to counter punches.
And by God, could he do it well!
The gratitude I have for being
chosen for this vocation, I can't
tell you how lucky I've been that I
did it correctly, because you can't
do it, you can't make it if you
don't do it correctly, but if you do
it correctly, you continue to, you
continue to enjoy your career over
and over and over and over.
Collins, once again he's past.
He did seem to hurt Eubank a
little bit there with them punches.
Chris Eubank was verbal,
but so was I, and I would talk to
him, and I felt
so comfortable in there.
I felt so well prepared, and I was
enjoying it, because I knew, I knew I
could beat him.
I knew I had the advantage, so I knew
I had the skills and experience to
beat him.
So I felt pretty comfortable.
He was dangerous, he
did catch with some good shots.
So I was always very much aware of
his danger, and I knew as the fight
went on, and I felt I was in control.
As the fight went on, he was getting
more dangerous because he knew it
wasn't going his way.
Surely there could be no
doubting Collins' desire here.
I feel Eubank's got to pick it up.
He's got to try and do something
big in one of these rounds.
I just feel he's slightly
getting out worked by Collins.
Between Freddie King and the Tony
Quinn teaching me one inch punch,
that was the jab to the head, drop
the legs, straight to the body, and
come back with the left
hook, which is my best shot.
LOUD CHEER
I reckon if it had caught him,
it would have knocked him out, but
because I put so much drive into the
right hand, I practically lifted him
off his feet, and drove him back
so far, then when the left hook came
around, I actually
-- he was too far away.
I missed him.
Crashes through his right.
Eubank is in trouble here.
Well Collins said he
had the extra punch power.
And Eubank comes
back in terrific style...
What a round this
is, look at Eubank.
Suddenly come back with an answer.
He's been stung by that...
BELL RINGS
It was the first time
he's been down since 1991.
There were several fights where
Eubank just, we thought he just
didn't do enough
to get the decision.
But then you're judging it against
him, and then the judges all come
back for him and then you
start to think, hold on a second,
well if I do that, I'll be
made to look like an idiot again.
And so you start to think, well,
the close rounds, maybe I'll give it
to Eubank.
There were a lot of, and I
don't mean this to be in any way
disrespectful, Eubank
was a tremendous fighter.
Often it looked like
he was out-worked for a round.
And I would say it's, you know, he's
A, and the other guy's B, and I was
giving B rounds that were close.
And then I see at the end of the
fight, actually all those rounds
were given to Eubank.
Good moments again from Collins,
Eubank has to do something special.
He's got to pull a big one, and
he's trying with that right hand.
Key phase of the fight now.
LOUD ROAR
The Irish crowd, a lot of them were
on their feet as those punches got
through.
When he had a fight and he'd come
back in the gym, he'd had a few
weeks off, which he never took a
few weeks off the gym, but he hadn't
sparred, he let
the opponents hit him.
And I said, what are
you doing, what are you doing?
I need to feel the pain,
I need to feel the pain.
That's what he was like, and he
would overcome it with his mental,
as I said, I've never had a fighter
like him with such mental strength.
I used to say to him, don't rely on
that punch resistance to win fights.
He's no, no, I won't, he
said, I know what I'm doing.
Crushing left hand, but Collins
takes the punches as the bell goes
to end that round.
Eubank punches the air.
A puncher always
has a chance in a fight.
Doesn't matter how far behind he
is, a puncher always has a chance.
Eubank had picked himself up off the
floor against Nigel Benn to stop
Nigel Benn.
In that awful final round against
Michael Watson, he was, he's out on
his feet, he was knocked down, stood
up and delivered this uppercut,
which was, you know, the punch that
essentially ended Michael Watson's
career and almost ended his life.
So he had this
extraordinary expl*sive power.
His WBO Super
middleweight championship.
In this his 15th...
and he's caught Collins
As I was going down,
just look at my expression.
I'm going, I'm smiling, I'm going,
f*ck, you know, because I knew I was
caught square.
I got up on one knee, and the
referee came to me, and I got up and
I put up the glove, and he says,
are you fine? I said, yeah, great.
And then Eubank ran at me.
I thought, two or three more punches
and it's over, and you just expected
Eubank to charge in there with
fists flailing and finish the fight.
Is Collins' head really clear?
I was banging the canvas, finish the
fight, finish the fight, finish him,
finish him off and he wouldn't.
He just walked about.
May make the crisis a very deep
and alarming one indeed for Steve
Collins.
Yes, his legs
still don't look solid.
He postured, he posed, he didn't
make the commitment, and frankly,
let Steve Collins off the hook.
And Steve was a good
enough fighter to take advantage.
What do you think he's saying?
I think he's just trying to lull
him into a false sense of security.
He's trying to bring Collins in,
trying to make him make a mistake
so he can counter.
They're both
saying, come on, come on.
I think they both want the other
to lead, so that they can counter.
He was just hopeless at coming
forward, and he was pretty gassed at
that stage.
And even though he knew he
was well behind, he couldn't do it.
He simply couldn't come forward
and fight aggressively enough.
I don't want to, I'd rather not
actually talk on that for this
reason that it takes credit away
from Steve, that I can't do, no.
I chose to do what I did
and it was a choice I made.
He was in trouble in the early
seconds of the round, and I was kind
of expecting a Eubank barrage
really, for the rest of the round.
That has not happened.
That was a slip.
As the bell goes, but that was
a 10-8 round for Chris Eubank.
He come back to the corner.
And I've got him to
realise, I slapped him so hard.
I said, you've just blown
it boy, you've just blown it.
You're gonna stop him.
Sit down, sit down.
Davey seemed to be furious with him
for not finishing the fight when
he could have and he said, you've
got two rounds to win the fight.
You've got two
rounds to save your title.
Pretty close again here as
they touch gloves, the final three
minutes.
But one thing strikes me, try
telling this big Irish crowd that
Collins is not ahead.
The press, or a few of them anyway,
think Eubank might be winning.
I've never been under so much
pressure, I've never been so wanting
to succeed and determined and in a
dangerous place ever in my career,
as I had been that night,
and I did put myself under pressure.
And I did say things public to
purposely put myself under pressure.
I wanted to be under pressure.
I wanted to be in a
situation that you have to win this.
After all you've said, all
you've gobbed off, all you've done,
if you don't back
this up, you're finished.
Whoa, big right from Eubank!
Collins took it
very, very well indeed.
I would rank Chris Eubank
as the physically strongest,
toughest and probably one of the most
determined fighters I've ever fought.
I felt he was dangerous to
the last second of the last round,
and really wanted to keep his title.
Really on instinct, with the
batteries going ever flatter...
BELL RINGS
Who's got that?
We shall see.
It was close, as I said, all the
newspapers and TV had him two rounds
up.
Look at the tape, and
you'll see me inside in the ring,
I said, Steve, I think you've won.
And he threw his arm around my neck,
and he said, I know I have won.
Chris Eubank was the golden goose
of Sky Sports and Matchroom Boxing.
So were they going to let -- and I
won't even say it was a close fight
when he fought Steve,
I don't think it was.
I think Steve won the fight by
probably eight to four rounds.
But could we see him being robbed?
If you can keep your head when
all about you are losing theirs
and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself, when all
men doubt you, but make allowance
for their doubting too.
If you can dream and
not make dreams your master.
If you can think and
not make thoughts your aim.
If you can meet
with triumph and disaster,
and treat those two
imposters just the same.
Yours is this earth
and everything that is in it,
and which is more, you
will be a standard bearer.
You will be an example.
You will be a benchmark.
You will be, you will be a man.
Ladies and gentlemen, we
have a unanimous decision...
CHEERING
When I was writing the column
for that Saturday, it was Saturday
evening column, which is the night
of the fight, I knew I was sticking
my neck out, but I did go for
Collins, it was against the grain,
because nobody else seemed to be,
you know, convinced that he could do
it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the winner and the new...
LOUD CHEERING
Eubanks was the kiddie on the block.
He was the
shining example of success.
And then this little kid from Cabra,
from a working class family, comes
in and just takes it from under him.
It was just the worst idea ever
had, as it turned out, wasn't it?
You know, we had Steve Collins had
just won the middleweight title,
he beat Chris Pyatt.
And then I come up with this idea.
Look, you know, we can't really seem
to find a big middleweight fight.
Why don't you move
up to super middleweight?
And I'm virtually saying to
him, why don't you move up to super
middleweight and get beat?
Because it doesn't really matter,
because you're still going to be
middleweight champion and
you're gonna get a colossal payday.
It all seemed to tick so many boxes.
And then, you know, Steve forgot
the script, didn't he really?
No complaints.
I don't have any complaints.
An opponent brings you to places
where you can only look back and
thank them for.
I thank them for putting me
through what they put me through.
In regards to that first loss,
it was the relief that, you know,
perhaps you can see me now
as a human being, because I am.
I tell you the
truth, it was very close.
It was a very, very close fight,
and it was -- when Stephen won,
I needn't tell you,
oh my God, it was great.
It was great because
Eubanks was good too, you know.
And they all thought Eubanks was
going to win because he was heard
of, and he was known and he was
tough, but he wasn't tougher than
Stephen.
I just thought Steve was
the perfect guy to work with.
It made it all very easy for me.
I felt I was very lucky, but I
thought there was something you see
strange going on, from the time I
was with my dad watching that movie,
then I always thought I was going to
be in Vegas, like all, you know, it
was destiny, really.
Steve never lost again.
It's like a path.
So we got on that path together for
a while, and we were both winners.
It was elevated into the air.
I'm sure it's probably picked up on
my brothers and family, but I just
rose into the air, and I
thought, do you know, if I die now,
I've achieved it.
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One Night in Millstreet (2024)
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