Chris Eubank was a world champion who deliberately went out to provoke hatred among fight fans. Flamboyant, egotistical, eccentric, he strutted the stage with defiance that was carefully choreographed at a series of meetings. Barry Hearn his promoter, reveals that a shrewd Eubank modelled himself on that typically British actor Terry Thomas. Hearn said ” All his mannerisms, his clipped english vocabulary, the way he dresses and conducted himself was gleaned from watching Terry Thomas films. Chris was a showman-he sold tickets alright, even if a lot of fans only wanted to see his head knocked off. I remember him being engrossed in a book one day he told me ‘ i like reading you know, its Dickens.Did you know that he’s dead? I didn’t even know he was ill.’ That was a Terry Thomas line.” Hearn went on ” Chris took the dandy bit to its ultimate,wearing a monocle and jodhpurs. We worked together for years on nothing more than trust. At the end when Eubank wanted to go his own way i said fine, we’d made a lot of money together and had fun. I wasn’t going to bad-mouth him and we shook hands, but i was sad to see him finish with two defeats Carl Thompson and another to Joe Calzaghe.”

Hearn’s office is a museum of memories and prominent on his wall is the Eubank v Benn poster.

“That first one was a great fight” enthused Hearn “I gave Nigel ?400,000 and paid Chris ?100,000. Benn and his people thought they couldn’t lose, but he did. I sat there as the bell went and told them ‘you’ve just done your money boys’. Don King wanted to come aboard for the rematch. I’d agreed to pay ?1 million each to the fighters, but the overseas TV money was only ?25,000. King offered me a ?2 million overseas deal for half the action. It wasn’t a difficult decision. He took out options on both fighters-win or lose and Benn and Eubank would both fight for him next. They drew ! King called a news conference where he would announce that he was taking over British boxing-until i turned up and reminded him the contract said nothing about a draw and all deals were off. You can imagine the look on his face-his hair was standing up more than usual. I don’t get medals or belts for what i do, so you take your victories in that fashion. It was a good win.” Another talented fighter Hearn promoted was Prince Naseem Hamed.” He was more of a gifted fighter than Eubank,” maintained Hearn. ” He was a puncher and had style. The only trouble was eventually Naz believed his own publicity that he was invincible in the ring. I warned him about Marco Antonio Barrera but he wouldn’t have it and he lost. “