Chris Eubank Jnr has a big advantage in trying to come to terms with the awful truth his fists inflicted severe harm to Nick Blackwell.

A father in his corner who knows exactly what he is going through.

Eubank Jnr is also a victim. Not on anything like the same scale as Blackwell, lying in a London hospital in an induced coma with a bleed to the brain, but a victim nonetheless.

Watching on Channel Five the fight and the aftermath revived wretched memories.

Making a customary quick exit to Eubank Snr's dressing room, waiting for what felt like an eternity before shouts to clear a pathway up the players' tunnel at White Hart Lane as paramedics sprinted with Michael Watson on a stretcher.

Hearing some time later promoter Barry Hearn trying to play down the absence of both fighters from the press conference, already fearing the morning was likely to bring grim news.

If that is how a reporter felt, just doing his job, imagine what Chris Eubank Snr was going through.

We don't have to imagine. Microphones at Wembley Arena picked up his unmistakeable voice at the end of the eighth round, explaining to his son his confusion that the fight had not already been stopped and urging him to work to Blackwell's body, not his head.

Eubank Snr had also slapped his hand on the canvas, calling for a halt to the battered Blackwell's gradual, brutal demise.

In these moments there must have been flashbacks to that September night at a North London football ground 25 years ago when one punch altered the life of Michael Watson and changed Eubank Snr's career.

He was never the same boxer again, the instinct to finish off an opponent in trouble extinguished.

Eubank Snr inadvertently did boxing and his son's stricken opponent a service when Watson was left brain damaged.

More stringent medical regulations were put in place by the British Boxing Board of Control in order to safeguard, as far as is possible, the participants of the sport they govern.

Anaesthetists, doctors and amubulances on site, a venue in close proximity to a hospital with a specialist unit for head trauma.

All of these will have aided Blackwell in what medical experts call the 'golden hour' and his prospects of a recovery.

Naivety may help Eubank Jnr deal with the consequences of his British middleweight title victory.

His father, 25 when he had his world title rematch up a division at super-middleweight with Watson, had already fought 28 times as a professional, many of them at elite level.

Eubank Jnr, although a year older, is still a relative novice by comparison, starting out on the road to emulating his father's achievements.

He is his own man and his own fighter, lacking the one-punch penetration of his dad but still powerful enough to be cumulatively destructive, as he was against Blackwell.

Lessons can be learned, just as they were a quarter of a century ago. All boxers are, by definition, brave. Blackwell was too brave for his own good.

A premature stoppage, by the referee or the corner men, may be upsetting to the fighter who has prepared for months and years, sees a life's dream being ripped from him, but it is infinitely preferable to a belated one.

The Noble Art could also do with less of the tawdry, pre-fight press conferences in which opponents, egged on by promoters, bad-mouth each other in pursuit of extra ticket sales.

They have become a bore and cheapen the sport rather than enhancing it. More respect is due before bouts as well as after them.

In the meantime, Eubank Jnr should frame the words of Watson, now 51.

He said: "Young Chris need not blame himself for what has happened. It was not his intention to bring harm to his opponent, as strange as that sounds.

"It was an accident. Just as it was when I fought Eubank all those years ago. I have forgiven Chris (Snr) for what happened and I know he feels that in his heart."

Watson's wisdom and his father's own painful experience will serve Eubank Jnr well in the dark days and weeks ahead.