Boxing: The night that changed Eubank's life

He no longer owns a tape of the fight against Nigel Benn which transformed him from a low income, low profile boxer into a mega-rich, headline-making world champion.

This Saturday marks the tenth anniversary of Eubank's epic contest with Benn for the WBO middleweight title at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre.

The video evidence may have disappeared from his vice-like grip, but the powers of recall are still selectively vivid for the retired pugilist turned celebrity.

The more painful periods of a brutal nine-round battle, which gripped millions of viewers watching on terrestrial television, are a blur. The meaningful moments of that crisp Sabbath evening remain crystal clear.

"I cannot remember anything from rounds three to six and seven, apart from the fact that it was a survival period, a desperate struggle," says Eubank. "He was just relentless and vicious.

"I slipped in the eighth, but I was given an eight count. I complained all the way through it to the referee (Richard Steele) but he wasn't having it.

"In the ninth I hit him (Benn) with a flurry of jabs, followed by a right hand which caught him flush. His body went into a big wobble, his arms were only half-up, his mouth was open and his eyes had resigned.

"Then it was all about coming on. I caught him with several punches, some of them glancing blows, and Richard Steele just jumped in and held him.

"Benn sobbed on his shoulder, because it was such a grudge match, such a big thing in the media.

"There is a picture, which is the ugliest thing you will ever see, where I open my mouth, I scream yes and my body is just like steel.

"I was WBO champion of the entire world in one particular weight division and that brings money, fame and notoriety. It was a huge turning point and it was fantastic."

The setting for our interview is testimony to the enormous impact beating Benn had on Eubank's life. We are sitting in one of his two luxurious detached homes in a wealthy part of Hove, where he lives with wife Karron and four children.

"Before Benn I bought a house in Old Shoreham Road," he reveals. "If I'd lost I would have had to get rid of it.

"Karron and I and little Christopher were in a three bedroom maisonette in Hartington Road, just off the Lewes Road in Brighton. And before that, when Karron was pregnant with Christopher, we were living in one bedroom."

Eubank had been accustomed to boxing for £8,000. He received £100,000 as the challenger for Benn's crown, "a good purse", but nothing like the lucrative sums he went onto pocket in a glittering 52-fight career in which he also became WBO world super-middleweight champion.

He doesn't miss it. "My life remained about structure for eight years after that fight until I retired," he says. "Everything was neat and tidy and sparse; hot water and lemon peel, no tea, no coffee, bed on time and up in the morning to run.

"There is only one way to be in boxing and that is extremely cruel to yourself. There are no niceties.

"That is no life, it is so very lonely. Once you start winning it becomes lonelier, because people don't accept you for winning.

"Empathy comes with losing, hurting and being human. You are inhuman as a boxer. Your health comes second to training.

"People say if I could do it all over again would I? Of course not. It's too hard and cold.

"People don't pat you on the back when you win all the time and you have an attitude and an original stance. You become the odd one out, which is not nice at the time but in the long run it's very nice. People say there's a man that stuck to his guns."

Eubank, now 34, was unbeaten until suffering five defeats in his last nine fights. Steve Collins and Carl Thompson both beat him twice, so did he carry on too long?

"I don't have any regrets," he insists. "That's the way my cookie crumbled.

"In life you win and lose. They are both imposters and it's about how you deal with them.

"I got out at just the right time. If I had got out sooner the public would never have known I was capable of taking punishment, losing and accepting defeat like a gentleman.

"They would never have known my grit. They would have thought Eubank can dish it out but could he take it?

"They saw I could and they appreciated that. People don't like it when you are just good, they have to know you can suffer as well and take your suffering and not complain."

Eubank still keeps himself in shape, although he admits: "It's shameful in comparison to what I used to do.

"Half of Hove would have seen me over the last ten years in the morning dodging the cars, strutting and shadow boxing and showing them the moves. How do you think I kept on winning?

"I see some of the fighters today and they are in the bars at one in the morning. They cannot make champion. Why? Because I know, I applied myself."

Eubank is now applying himself to a new career. His diary is crammed full of requests to appear on TV programmes, take part in adverts and attend charity functions.

He recently shared a catwalk with Benn at a fund-raising event for the NSPCC at Harrods. "He's fine," says Eubank. "He has mellowed now. He isn't fighting any more either."