Chris Eubank's One Man Show, Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton - review

On Thursday night, Chris Eubank won the respect of a crowd at Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Hall with a talk heavy on emotion and deep on insight into the boxer’s incredible career.

Now focusing on coaching his son during his rise to the top of the sport, Eubank showed a softer side to his personality that he admitted during the evening was something he had to hide throughout his 52 fights in order to survive.

It is a shame that the public didn’t really warm to Eubank until his career was over because when you hear his story in his own words you realise there really isn’t a more perfect example of how far integrity, determination and class can take you in sport.

After appearing to the sounds of Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra, the 51 year old went straight into a word perfect recital of The Woman in the Glass by American poet Dale Wimbrow, one of many astonishing linguistic performances throughout the evening.

Eubank really is a great speaker and despite appearing a little hesitant to embrace the room at first, it didn’t long before he had the whole crowd in the palm of his hand.

He told stories of how he ‘learned to box at 17 but learned to fight at eight’, and attributed his steely determination which became one of the key traits of his fighting style to physical and emotional battles with his brothers, which he would later draw on in times of trouble in the ring.

The first half of the evening ended with the story of how he won the WBO middleweight title against Nigel Benn during a historic battle at Birmingham’s NEC on November 18, 1990.

Eubank told the crowd how part of him still felt he had ‘blagged’ his way to a title fight and how he even contemplated politely asking Benn if he would ‘be kind enough to allow me to take his title’ as a gesture of kindness two weeks prior to the fight.

He told the story of how he unshackled himself from the chains of his self-doubt to achieve the biggest win of his career and transform from ‘a pretender’ to ‘The Great Pretender’, while giving those in attendance a blow by blow account of one of England’s biggest sporting events.

The second half of the show contrasted with the euphoric, rags to riches story of the first half by focusing mainly on Eubank’s second bout with Michael Watson, which resulted in the challenger suffering a near fatal injury as a result of an uppercut from the champion.

It is clear that what happened that night still haunts Eubank to some degree, but as with all things in his life, he seems to have found a philosophical way of sifting through the emotions and getting clarity from the fact that what is done is done.

He called Watson ‘a perfect example of the strength of human spirit’ and spoke with pride on how his once upon a time foe overcome the odds to not only survive, but go on to complete marathons and defy all medical logic by still going strong today at the age of 52.

It was an evening of triumph and tragedy, with the two often overlapping.

But most of all it was real, from the heart and inspiring.

Nobody can deny that when it comes to getting across the highs and lows of a boxing career to a crowd who couldn’t even imagine what it takes to reach the top of the sometimes brutal sport, Chris Eubank is simply the best.