Chris Eubank Jr reveals tragic injuries he inflicted on Nick Blackwell made him an even more ferocious fighter – The Sun

CHRIS EUBANK JR has revealed the tragic injuries he inflicted on Nick Blackwell forced him into being an even more ferocious fighter.

Eubank battered his middleweight rival in 2016 for 10 hard-to-watch rounds before he was stopped with a grotesque swelling over his eye.

Blackwell collapsed after the bout and died briefly in the ambulance, before being revived at the hospital and being placed into a coma for a week.

The tragedy had painful similarities with the 1991 bout Eubank Jr’s father won against Michael Watson, leaving him paralysed.

The heartbreaking fall-out was compounded by the Blackwell family’s furious reaction to some interviews the Eubanks did in the aftermath

In a wide-ranging, in depth podcast with Tris Dixon’s Boxing Life Stories, Eubank said: “That was tough and when he came out of the coma and called me a ‘scumbag’ – and said he was unhappy I had talked about my fight, and how upset he and his family were – that just made it even worse.

“When you are in that situation, where some is seriously hurt, you sit down and ask yourself how you are going to be moving forward.

“When my father had the situation with Michael Watson being paralysed, it affected him mentally because he could not pull the trigger and lost some of his killer instinct.

“People asked me the same question about moving forward and I was the opposite, it made me understand these things are 100 per cent real.

“This is not a book or a movie, this guy died on the way to the hospital and it could have been me.

“I never want that to be me so I am going to be even more ferocious and train and fight even harder to make sure it never happens to me.”

Eubank Jr, 30, is the mandatory challenger for Canelo Alvarez’s WBA middleweight world title.

But the only Brits being linked with a mega-money showdown with boxing’s biggest draw are super-middleweights Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith.

And Eubank Jr, whose Brighton home was burgled earlier this month, believes fans are getting conned by those potential fights.

Smith edged past John Ryder with a controversial November decision and old enemy and two-weight king Saunders has not really impressed since dominating David Lemieux in 2017.

Eubank Jr said: “I have been calling for the Canelo fight for some time now so hopefully we can get it on in the next 12 months.

“Canelo is not going anywhere and neither Callum Smith nor Billy Joe Saunders cause Canelo any problems.

“I don’t even think Saunders takes that fight, anyway, I think he wants to fight easy opponents and look bad against them.

“If you go off previous performances, both of theirs were terrible so I don’t even see the interest in them fighting Canelo.”

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