sport news Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn embark on trip down memory lane to re-live fierce ...

sport news Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn embark on trip down memory lane to re-live fierce ...
sport news Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn embark on trip down memory lane to re-live fierce ...

The men with the famous beef are discussing a lesser-known use for lemons. It has taken a while to reach this point, both in the bringing of old enemies to a table in a leisure centre and in the journey of this conversation.

But here we are, deep into a chat loaded with empathy and insight and impersonations. At some stage in all of that a plate of lemon slices has appeared and a surreal evening is about to take another unusual turn.

'Trust me,' says the fighter who became a lover.

'But Chris,' replies the son of God. 'I mean… huh?'

Former rivals Chris Eubank (left) and Nigel Benn (right) are taking a trip down memory lane

Former rivals Chris Eubank (left) and Nigel Benn (right) are taking a trip down memory lane

'This is not madness,' says the lover. And so he undoes one of the buttons on his shirt. The shirt carrying a sheriff's badge. He always was different, Chris Eubank. Brilliantly, dangerously different. Which is why he is now rubbing his armpits with a lemon.

'The best deodorant you can use is a lemon,' says Eubank. 'If you use your brain and think about it, those roll-ons are chemicals. This is sensible and that is madness.'

'I am not going there,' says the other man, the one who used to hit Eubank harder than anyone else. 'Nope.'

He always was a little bewildered by Eubank, was Nigel Benn. Brilliantly, dangerously bewildered. Which is why he is raising his eyebrows.

And it is also why the 200 or so who have come here, to the Wodson Park Leisure Centre in Hertfordshire, will soon raise theirs, when these guys leave this interview and head downstairs.

The former boxing stars captured the world's attention with two brutal fights in the 1990s

The former boxing stars captured the world's attention with two brutal fights in the 1990s

It is because Eubank and Benn are together again, 31 years after the savagery of that first fight, 28 after the rematch, 18 after they dressed as gladiators and came to real blows for Channel 5, and 10 after talking about another trip to the ring as middle-aged men. Water under the bridge? Is there a big enough bridge in the world?

But these are strange times and this is the fourth date of 17 as Eubank, now 55, and Benn, 57, tour Britain, talking and reminiscing and confounding any sense, reasonably held, that these were two men destined to loathe each other for all of time.

'Hate him?' asks Eubank. 'If you are prepared to listen to me, the truth is far more interesting.' 

Rewind an hour and it is a little after 6.30pm, a Friday evening. Benn is running late but Eubank is here.

This is a talking tour and he always was a talker. He was built like a statue, still is, and goodness could he fight, but no boxer spoke quite like Eubank.

For now, Eubank wants to talk about Benn. He also wants to talk for Benn and when he arrives Benn won't be so keen on that idea. But with Benn absent, Eubank, in his jodhpurs and that sheriff badge, has the floor.

'What kind of interview is this?' he asks Sportsmail. 'Is your piece going to be frivolous? Because that is not me. If you want to ask me how I feel about Nigel Benn I will tell you. But it is not the truth people believe they know.'

Benn readily admits he 'hated' Eubank while the charismatic fighter insists he was indifferent

Benn readily admits he 'hated' Eubank while the charismatic fighter insists he was indifferent

Benn and Eubank shared the ring twice, with half a billion watching their rematch in 1993

Benn and Eubank shared the ring twice, with half a billion watching their rematch in 1993

Eubank is stroking his chin; a chin no one tested quite like Benn back in the day.

That first fight in 1990 was special. Truly. Eubank almost bit through his tongue after swallowing an uppercut in the fourth before winning Benn's middleweight world title by stoppage in the ninth.

According to some estimates, half a billion watched their rematch on television in 1993 and Benn probably edged it, but the judges gave a draw.

Benn hated Eubank back then and said as much; Eubank maintains his only feeling towards Benn was 'indifference', and was always pointed in saying the less eloquent half of British boxing's greatest rivalry was too crude as a fighter to be on his level.

Through their differences in style and personality, they worked brutal and beautiful magic. For the same reason, it is sincerely baffling that they are on tour together.

'How do I feel about Nigel Benn?' says Eubank, and he throws in one of his theatrical pauses.

It is because he is chewing over some deep thoughts about the Windrush generation and the shared ground of being born to parents from the Caribbean - Eubank to a Jamaican in Dulwich in 1966, Benn to a Barbadian in Ilford two years earlier. He will go from there to Winston Churchill, racial equality, Don King, tragedy and, finally, a declaration that is really rather touching.

Eubank was knocked down early on in their first fight but came back to secure a knockout win

Eubank was knocked down early on in their first fight but came back to secure a knockout win

'Think about the building blocks of each individual, what they've had to go through,' Eubank says. 'Look at the Windrush generation. The Government, Churchill, didn't tell the people that we are decent and honest people. Our mothers comforted this country and our fathers helped rebuild it from the Second World War.

'What must it have been to mould these two individuals, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank? What is it that fortified them as men? What did they have to go through, to become that resilient, that hard, that prideful? That is the real story. When I think what has happened in life to Nigel, I see what he overcame. You know his brother was killed by racists when Nigel was eight years old. This isn't luck that we ended up together in our lives. We are men like you or anyone else. But do you want to do this for a living, to take yourself out of the rat race and stand at the top? We are the guys who were the fiercest. Those are the truths.

'Time gives us the ability to look at what one has to go through. I wouldn't have beaten him in that first fight had I not respected him, and you're talking now to a man who sees himself as a doctor in this craft.

'What were the building blocks of us as fighters, as warriors? I use words like valour, commitment, integrity, grit, fortitude, confidence. It is knowing that to win against him, I can only do that by going through pain barriers that you wouldn't dream of going through. That is how I look at Nigel.'

Eubank appears almost emotional as he heads for a tangent to develop his point. He wants to talk about Benn's fight in 1995 against Gerald McClellan, a wrecking ball of a fighter who was expected to destroy Benn.

The pair could not be separated in their rematch with the judges deeming the contest a draw

The pair could not be separated in their rematch with the judges deeming the contest a draw

The American hit Benn out of the ring in the first but was counted out on one knee in the 10th, afflicted by brain injuries that have had awful consequences.

For McClellan's difficulties, read Michael Watson and his. For Benn, read Eubank, beaten around for 10 and a half rounds by Watson.

'They brought over this man, the mini-Mike Tyson,'

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