Chris Eubank vs Lindell Holmes

[Simon Lau]

Again, on paper, it seemed to be a very easy fight.
Holmes (former IBF champ) used to be a classy fighter
but at 36 was considered, justifiably, to be over the hill.
People expecting the american to come and lie down were
pleasantly surprised, especially me watching from a t.v. in the
lab :)

As soon as the bell began the opening round Holmes was on
Eubank, throwing sharp solid punches. Eubank seemed taken
aback by this but nonetheless regained his composure soon
afterwards. The opening rounds were fairly close with Holmes
slightly busier and more accurate of the two. Chris used
the sensible tactic of going to the body and by the middle rounds,
Holmes visibly slowed.

Holmes did show some class at times though, switching
from body to head rapidly and doubling up on his hooks and jabs.
I was surprised at how often Chris was caught solid on the chin
but he always kept calm and rode out the storm whenever Holmes began
applying any real pressure. In fact, the same could be said of the
challenger who displayed a very tight defense and was quite cool when
Eubank began to unload. It was disappointing that Chris couldn't
sustain his attacks whenever he had Holmes under fire. This is probably
due to him having too much muscle and related stamina problems.

In one of the rounds, the american caught Eubank flush on the chin
and I thought he might be in some trouble as the challenger followed up.
Once again though, his granite chin passed the test, and he didn't show
any visible signs of wobbling though he did cover up pronto !

It seemed fairly close coming up to the last few rounds but it
was Eubank who was the fresher of the two and probably clinched it
for the judges with some eye catching flurries in the last three.
He tried hard to knock out the challenger but again couldn't sustain
his attacks and allowed Holmes to come back now and again. Lindell
made an admirable fight of it right up to the bell closing the fight.

The scoring again showed the enormous subjectivity of the fight game.
One judge scored it a shutout to Chris, another had Chris winning by
a 4 round margin, and the third had him winning by only 2 rounds.
I leant towards the latter. The only thing the judges agreed on was
the winner.

By right, Holmes was ancient and had no right being in the ring
but I had to admire him after that. It was probably his last hurrah.

Holmes had been sparring with Toney and thought that Eubank would give
Nunn an 'interesting' fight though he thought Toney would beat Chris;
being slightly younger and craftier. He also said that Toney hit him
harder in sparring than Eubank did tonight.

Eubank still wants to fight Nunn or Toney but apparently they don't.
Eubank's manager, Barry Hearn, has approached the two but Bob Arum
mentioned something about Eubank having an 'awkward' style which
would make Toney or Nunn (!) look bad and besides, Eubank isn't enough
of a household name to sell pay for view which is probably true.

Other news : Nunn KOs Danny Morgan in 1 round and of course, the
great Chavez stops Greg Haugen in 5. Still think it would be
dumb for Chavez to move up another weight class to fight
Norris though, who's more of a middleweight.
If I had to choose between one guy coming down and another
moving up it would be the former. Too much power, it
wouldn't go the distance.

Simon.