Chris Eubank Jr Says He Backed Off Nick Blackwell Following Father's Instructions

 

Chris Eubank Jr has revealed he backed off during his fight against Nick Blackwell after receiving instructions from his father Chris Sr. Blackwell has been in an induced coma and was found to have suffered a small bleed on the brain since collapsing at the end of Saturday's British middleweight title defeat by Eubank Jr.

Referee Victor Loughlin stopped the fight in the 10th round because of the horrific swelling around Blackwell's left eye. Eubank Sr had earlier told his son to stop targeting Blackwell's head in an attempt to protect the stricken fighter from further punishment.

Eubank Jr said “There was no reaction at the time. I am completely in the zone, poker face, I don't give anything away. But as the fight went on after that I am thinking about what he said and then I am focusing more on Blackwell and really looking at him instead of thinking where I'm going to punch him next. It's a sport and you have got to score points. You are looking for the body, you are looking for the head but at one point it was like okay I am really starting to look at what I am doing and I am thinking 'how has the referee not stopped this? I am looking at his face, I am looking at his eye and that's when I kind of decided at the end of the fight to really back off. I stepped back and I just completely lowered the tempo. I started not throwing shots. I thought okay, my father's telling me go to the body, stay away from the head. Obviously he's hurt, he's in bad shape and I'm that far in front, so let me give the referee an opportunity to really look at him properly. So I backed off and at that point the referee kind of looked at him, took him over to one side to the doctor and the doctor cut it off. So it was the right decision. I knew it was a brutal fight, but that's when I kind of really understood the severity of the situation. I went over there to try and see if he was okay - it happened and all we can do is hope that he recovers as quickly as possible”.

There has been some debate about what Eubank Sr was suggesting with his comments during the fight, but the former WBO middleweight champion has revealed his son was not acting on his advice that was broadcast on television, but on a separate comment. He said “In my view the fight was one-sided so at that point I said to Junior 'leave his head alone'. That was actually a stand-alone comment. There was another comment which has been played on replay where I said 'leave the face alone, go to the body', that was more of a command. Then it's for him to actually take on the view of what I've said and execute. So as you saw he took his foot off the pedal, so to speak, in the last round - in that 10th round - he kind of slowed it back, he pulled it back”