The Man, The Spirit, The Gladiator

My reflections on interviewing Chris Eubank Sr at the Black Business Week on Thursday 17th October.

“Me grow Black and me nah forget my people” were the opening words booming out the system as Chris Eubank entered the stage. We were listening to a cassette recording of Chris when he was 19 years old, living in New York. The voice spoke in a strong Jamaican accent, not so familiar with the man we were staring at on the stage today.?

Prior to doing the interview, Chris had shared these voice clippings with me. No one had heard them before. Two recordings of him talking his mind and voicing his understanding of the world at that point in his life. They are fascinating. You hear a young man on a mission to conquer the world, “Me strive fe get somewhere….me have to reach the top, me have to succeed.” A man who was fiercely grounded in his Jamaican culture and history. A man who had gone through countless trials and tribulations in his younger years. Rejected from 1 school 18 times in one year ‘for protecting those who were being bullied’, and aged 15, Chris was ejected from the last in a long line of care homes and was living on the streets. His life was a mess of shoplifting, burglary, and drink from which there seemed no escape. In 1982, in a last-ditch attempt to drag himself from the abyss, he relocated to New York with his mother.?

He knew the man he was then, and what he was capable of. As he says, if Nigel Benn had listened to this audio, he would have known that he could never have defeated him.?

He puts this confidence and relentless resilience down to his unwavering spirit. And this is what I have found most fascinating about my encounter of meeting Chris. To me he is a mystical figure, who has been misunderstood by many. He is grounded in his spirituality. There is what he describes as the man you see, and then there is what he calls, the spirit - his spirit. And it’s this spirit which ensured he reigned as world champion for over five years, was undefeated in his first 10 years as a professional, and remained undefeated at middleweight.?

The Black Business Show is an event designed to inspire and connect Black business owners and working professionals. Chris took that mandate seriously, and the evening sees us hearing inspirational discussions and thoughts shared from him. Below are a few more of the key quotes and words of wisdom shared by Chris.

“Stop looking lustfully at women, she is not a plaything.” Chris has a strong sense of admiration for womanhood and protecting the honour of women. He is currently in his third marriage and is very much in love with his wife - although on a call he told me to ‘stop thinking of that foolishness’ when I asked about his current love life. With foolishness I took him to mean, the superficial lustful love. When he talks of loving his wife, he said ‘I am my wife and my wife is me.” tell me this doesn't make you coo inside. If he hadn't already won me over, this definitely secured the admiration firmly.?

When asked by a member of the audience if he has received an honour from the Queen, a woman who he describes as one of his heroes. He said he would always gladly accept an honour as “you must be grateful for everything you get.” His relationship to the Queen may seem out of sorts and a little odd to some - I know I thought it at first. It was formed in his younger years after his mother left him aged 9. No longer having his mother there, who he adored so much, he had no one else to look to for an example of womanhood, so he choose the Queen. Complex.

Chris then goes on to explain, there is no greater honour than being world champion.

“Being world champion is a merit personified. You cannot give me honour above that. That has to be earned. You have to get through these men who are… killers. So when you get that world championship belt there isn't anything superseding that.”?

He then goes on to explain why boxing is so different from all other sports or vocations. “I am not an athlete. When you are a fighter, you are a gladiator. This is a different thing. This isn't running.”?

Chris jumps up at this point and starts to demonstrate boxing to the audience. Shadow boxing backwards and forwards.

“This is gladiating. Which is why boxers, like me, start at the bottom (born ina de ghetto) and rise to the top. And everyone, from the prisoner to the politician admires you. Boxing is the King of sports.”

Chris ended the interview with an inspirational call to action for us all. “When we shine, we unconsciously allow others to do the same. And in liberating ourselves from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others. Be liberated, be free, be confident. Rastafari.”

Chris Eubank is a gladiator of our time. A man who has fought giants to gain the respect of power and privilege. I have learnt so much from him and will never forget this encounter. I feel it’s just the beginning of a longer story in my life.?