Chris Eubank Jr: I eased off when I saw Nick Blackwell was hurt

Chris Eubank Jr has said he reduced the number and ferocity of his punches during Saturday night's title fight against Nick Blackwell, after Eubank's father warned him that his opponent could be seriously hurt.

The newly crowned British middleweight champion was told by his father in between rounds that his opponent could get permanently injured if he kept beating him in the same way. Blackwell collapsed after the fight and is now in a coma.

Chris Eubank, a former world champion, instructed his son to aim for the body rather than the head, after wondering whether the fight would be stopped.

At a press conference in London on Tuesday, Eubank Jr, said: “I had spared my uppercuts. I thought this guy is hurt. I worked it down a notch. I was playing.

“I’d won the fight, so I thought let’s put on a little bit of a show because people are still watching. I wasn’t throwing as many punches.” He said he eased off because he knew he had “severely hurt” Blackwell.

His father described his son’s punching ability as ferocious and dangerous, and claimed he often urges him to avoid throwing head shots in sparring to avoid causing damage.

Eubank, who said immediately after the fight that he was banging on the canvas urging the referee, Victor Laughlin, to stop the bout, was careful not to criticise him directly.

“I can’t speak for the British Board of Control, I can’t speak for the referee, he has his own discretion but I have been in there,” he said. “I know what it feels like. I have been saying how dangerous Junior is for the past two years.”

He suggested that former top level boxers might make good referees. He said banning the sport would merely make it go underground and make it more dangerous.

Eubank said that he did not have any update on Blackwell’s condition but that his family would not be celebrating the British middleweight title victory until his son’s opponent had made a full recovery.

Blackwell collapsed shortly after his fight with Eubank at Wembley’s SSE Arena on Saturday night. He was placed in an induced coma after being diagnosed with a bleed on the brain.

A family spokesman told the BBC that he remained heavily sedated but his condition was “not deteriorating” and suggested he could be brought out of the coma on Tuesday.

Eubank, who was in his son's corner for the bout, was involved in a world title fight with Michael Watson in 1991, which left his opponent with severe brain injuries and led to improvements in safety at fights. He could be heard on television telling his son in the corner in between rounds: "If he [THE REFEREE]doesn't stop it, and you keep beating him like this … he's getting hurt."

Some have argued that Loughlin should have stopped the largely one-sided fight sooner, despite there being no knockdowns, due to the level of punishment Blackwell was taking.

Peter Hamlyn, a leading neurosurgeon who operated five times on Watson, told the Guardian that the title bout should have been stopped in the seventh round as Blackwell had received "dozens and dozens" of "neuro-physically significant punches" in the fight while landing only two in return.

Eubank Jr landed a number of uppercuts during the fight which repeatedly jolted Blackwell’s head backwards. Hamlyn added that he felt for the referee. “It is very tough to be in the ring under all that pressure trying to make instantaneous decisions.”

Robert Smith, the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, has defended Loughlin's decision to let the fight continue as long as it did.

(Guardian service)