Boxing: 45-year-old Chris Eubank thinking of fighting

By Sean McDaniel: 45-year-old WBO middleweight/super middleweight champion Chris Eubank (45-5-2, 23 KO’s) is thinking seriously about making a comeback after 14 years in retirement from boxing. According to thesun.co.uk, the soon to be 46-year-old Eubank wants to fight on the same card as his son Chris Eubank Jr. Eubank told The Sun “I’m a light heavyweight now and when I look at 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins, I think, ‘If he can do it, why can’t I?…I was even talking to Nigel Benn and I said ‘Come on kid, we’ve got to get it back on.’” The comparison to Hopkins isn’t a very good one, because Eubank stopped fighting when he was only 31 after having lost three straight bouts against Joe Calzaghe and Carl Thompson [twice]. Eubank didn’t look like he had it anymore at that time, and retiring for 14 years obviously hasn’t helped his skills. Hopkins looked sensational at 31, and he never stopped fighting. Eubank can’t compare himself to Hopkins because it’s like apples and oranges. Hopkins is much different fighter than Eubank and he never gave up. If Eubank had the inside smothering skills like Hopkins then maybe he could make a very brief comeback, but he simply doesn’t. Eubank will likely do well if they match him against a 3rd tier opponent with a poor chin and mediocre skills. But if he wants to fight anyone good, he’s going to have problems in a big way. During his prime years, Eubank had wins over Nigel Benn, Graciano Ricchigiani, Lindell Holmes, Thulani Malinga and Michael Watson. Eubank’s career seemed to stall when he went up against Steve Collins and was beaten twice by him. Although Eubank rebounded from the two losses to Collins by beating a couple of guys, but he then lost his last three fights of his career to Calzaghe and Thompson.