Nick Blackwell has spoken of his “disgust” at the “inhuman” reaction of Chris Eubank Jnr and his father following the British middleweight title clash that threatened to cost him his life.
Blackwell was placed in an induced coma having collapsed shortly after being stopped the bout with Eubank Jnr back in March. The 25-year-old, who has since retired, was found to have suffered a bleed on the skull but woke after a week without requiring surgery.
Television images appeared to show Eubank Sr telling his son not to aim for Blackwell’s head during the fight, which was stopped in the 10th round by referee Victor Loughlin.
“Even in sparring, I tell Junior to stay away from the head because his punching is fast, powerful and dangerous,” Eubank, a former middleweight and super-middleweight world champion, told the BBC days after the bout.
“So most certainly I was saying this to protect the fighter.”
That led Blackwell to say the Eubanks were trying to “grab as much attention as they could” and “make themselves look like the good guys”.
Blackwell told The Sun: “I haven’t any hard feelings about the fight because you’re in there to win and try and hurt someone – it’s just the stuff he has done after. It’s inhuman, it’s disgusting.
“My family and friends were begging them not to talk, but they ignored it.
“I was still in a coma but they went ahead and did it. That’s the Eubanks, isn’t it? They just want attention, no matter if it’s a bad or a good thing.
“If Chris Jnr was in a coma and I wanted to do a press conference on the Tuesday and their family was begging me not to do it, I would not do it.
Eubank senior’s ringside comments were seen by many as a reaction to his 1991 World Boxing Organisation super-middleweight title stoppage-win over Michael Watson.
That bout ended with Watson needing major surgery. It also left him with irreparable brain damage and partially paralysed.
But Blackwell said: “The people who saved my life were the referee, the person who put me in the coma and the people at St Mary’s Hospital. The Eubanks didn’t save my life.
“Chris Jnr was asked later if he’d pick the belt or my health. He refused to answer.
“The night of the fight he went partying. He was celebrating...I would have wanted to go to the hospital and be by his side until he woke up.”
Eubank Jnr defended his conduct by telling the Sun: “People and media demanded that we speak to them. If we had just said ‘No comment’ it would have come off as cold.”
The 26-year-old added: “If Nick is part of the small percentage that took offence, that’s unfortunate. It’s sad for me to hear something like that.”