Sunday 13 December 2015 12:08, UK
Chris Eubank Jr stopped Gary O'Sullivan after seven rounds in a thriller at The O2. What did the fight teach us?
Before the fight even started, Eubank Jr announced his entrance with menace. He isn't as outspoken as his father and his style of speaking is less remarkable, but the son has definitely inherited an appreciation of theatre.
As Dr Dre's immortal 1999 smash-hit 'Still D.R.E' struck up over the PA, the screens parted to uncage Eubank Jr draped in a Union Jack flag with 'English' all smiles behind him. The crowds struck up the chant of 'Eubank! Eubank!' and the British boxing public's adoration was pouring down a generation before our eyes.
The verbal slickness on The Gloves Are Off. The cold threats. The black clothes. The steely stares. There seems to be a ruthless edge to Jr that didn't come across as clearly in the way his father handled himself. And speaking of handling, one female fan had to be wrestled away by security after screeching in to his path and stroking Eubank Jr's chest during his ringwalk...
It's not necessarily a negative thing. People love to see it even if only so they can hate to see it. There was one occasion in the second when it almost looked foolish though, as Eubank Jr danced away from an exchange and side-stepped casually towards the corner while barely looking in O'Sullivan's direction. A lunging O'Sullivan caught him seconds later.
Ahead of the fight, Eubank Jr had promised to give O'Sullivan 'a free shot.' Opinions will vary as to whether he did just that in the fifth, but it was certainly a seldom-seen tactic if not. With O'Sullivan in the centre of the ring, Eubank Jr approached him and crouched down for several seconds, swaying and shaking his body as if trying to taunt his opponent in to screwing shots down on to his head.
There was the customary Eubank posturing at the bells and the regular flashy shuffle of the feet - not to mention some of the flamboyant shots thrown from a dazzling array of angles. A lot of it isn't showboating, of course; it's the advertisement of skill - to opponent, trainers, judges and spectators alike.
O'Sullivan taunted him. For years. Eubank Jr confessed he felt disrespected by the Irishman's comments on social media and vowed to 'punish' him in the ring when they met. It had been made personal.
When the first bell went, what happened in the first round made it plainly clear to all that Eubank Jr was the superior boxer and could win the fight comfortably on points through using the jab and stepping off. That was never enough for the Brighton fighter, though. He wanted to show O'Sullivan that he was a tougher man as well as a more skilled one.
The decision (whether it was conscious or subconscious) to engage in the war both men promised in the build-up was not without danger. In the second and third, there were screams in the crowd as O'Sullivan threatened to wreck the party with several solid shots of his own that momentarily jolted Eubank Jr. On the whole, though, there was little doubt as to who the victor would be. You just wonder whether that was 'the plan' or whether he fought from heart rather than head.
Eubank Jr's uppercut was arguably the key shot to the fight. There was one absolutely withering left jab that startled O'Sullivan and wounded his right eye, but the majority of Eubank Jr's success included work with the uppercut.
As he opted primarily for the attritional route to victory over the artistic one, Eubank Jr often found himself at close quarters with the Irishman - and it was from these tangles that he found O'Sullivan's chin and nose with a tide of searing upward shots. The visitor could find no way to stem them.
Some will argue the repetitive success of the punch was down to deficiencies in O'Sullivan's defences but whether it should have landed as often and as cleanly is irrelevant. Eubank Jr selected it appropriately, executed it clinically and never looked like overusing it.
O'Sullivan did not asked to be pulled out of this fight. He had taken a serious beating in there but never stopped trudging forward for more - even as his right eye closed and he gasped for breath with his ideas on how to turn the fight clearly exhausted.
It was left to his trainer, Paschal Collins, to call it off. After the fighters had spoken, Eubank Jr told the crowd that O'Sullivan had apologised for kissing him at the weigh-in. The man from Cork then gave a movingly magnanimous post-fight interview in which he admitted he was "losing to the better man" when the visiting corner threw in the towel.
History will remember the night for Eubank Jr and Anthony Joshua producing dramatic stoppages to end dramatic bouts - and rightly so - but the contributions of O'Sullivan and Whyte, who took an ocean of full-blooded clean shots and continued to throw back their own, should not be forgotten.
