As boxer Nick Blackwell lies in a coma, brain damage victim recalls beating at hands of Chris Eubank Jnr’s father a quarter of a century earlier
Nick Blackwell is “not deteriorating” while in an induced coma following his British middleweight title defeat by Chris Eubank Jnr, according to trainer Gary Lockett.
The BBC also quoted Lockett as saying on Monday that the 25-year-old had been “heavily sedated” but could be brought round on Tuesday.
Saturday saw Eubank win the British middleweight title from Blackwell at London’s Wembley Arena when the referee stopped the contest in the 10th round after the ringside doctor ruled a closed left eye meant the defending champion could not continue.
I went down memory lane in many senses. It was a real sense of deja vu as the story unfolded
During the bout Chris Eubank Snr, the father of the new champion, told his son to stop hitting to the head of his opponent, although it was not clear if this was for tactical reasons or to spare Blackwell more severe punishment.
His comments had a special resonance as Eubank Snr’s 1991 World Boxing Organisation super-middleweight title stoppage-win over Michael Watson in London ended with his beaten opponent needing major surgery.
“I went down memory lane in many senses,” Watson wrote in Monday’s edition of Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“It was a real sense of deja vu as the story unfolded,” added the 51-year-old Watson who spent 40 days in a coma and had six brain operations, leaving him with irreparable brain damage and partially paralysed.
Ringside television coverage by broadcaster Channel Five showed Eubank Snr telling his son at the end of the eighth round: “If the referee doesn’t stop it then, I don’t know what to tell you, but I will tell you this, if he doesn’t stop it and we keep beating him like this, he is getting hurt, and if it goes to a decision why didn’t the referee stop the fight, I don’t get why, so maybe you shouldn’t leave it to the referee.