#70: ‘No Middle Ground’ by Sanjeev Shetty

‘No Middle Ground – Eubank, Benn, Watson and the Last Golden Era of British Boxing’ is Sanjeev Shetty’s attempt to document the influential period of British boxing from the late 1980s through to the 1990s, which was dominated by a number of talented middleweights.

I don’t put too much thought into the order in which I read the books that eventually end up on this blog, so it’s always a surprise when two concurrent books have such strong overlaps. Along with the book featured in my last post, Ian Probert’s ‘Rope Burns’, ‘No Middle Ground’ takes as its central theme the rivalry at 160lbs between, initially, Michael Watson and Nigel Benn, and which later swept Chris Eubank into its circle.

There are obvious similarities between this rivalry and that of Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler, as there are similarities, in the structure and purpose, between Shetty’s book and the brilliant ‘Four Kings’ by George Kimball. It’s probably important to say here that at no point does the author claim that the trio of Watson, Benn and Eubank were anywhere near as talented or dominant as the Four Kings.

Where these similarities are found is when the boxers in question met and fought each other. What separates the Four Kings was their desire and commitment to fighting the very best in and around their weight divisions, and the longevity of their careers, something that none of these British boxers can come anywhere near to matching.

What can’t be denied is the effect that the meetings between Watson, Benn and Eubank had on the British public. The boxers’ desire to make fights happen, combined with the biggest bouts being available to watch on free-to-air terrestrial TV, meant that as the soap-opera of their relationships developed, the bouts were accessible to the widest possible audience.

Though I’m a bit younger than Probert and Shetty, this is also the era of boxing that got me hooked as a youngster, though because of my age it was mostly down to Benn vs Eubank, and the later battles which included Joe Calzaghe and Steve Collins at 168lbs. It’s only more recently that I’ve been learning about Michael Watson, as it’s taken me a long time to want to delve into a career so publicly cut short as a result of horrific injuries suffered while fighting Chris Eubank.

This book really highlights that good matchmaking doesn’t solely revolve around pitting international stars against each other. With the emergence of satellite TV, and now streaming services, we’ll probably never see this reproduced; this is a massive shame because if we had promoters willing to work together today, and media invested in providing a platform to show the personalities of boxers and allow (sensible) rivalries to develop, we could easily be watching a similar period of British boxing blossoming in and around the cruiserweight division.

As a historical document this book is also interesting in that it captures a time in which the sport was proving its popularity, to an extent that TV executives knew that investment was worthwhile; though of course, this resulted in boxing almost completely vanishing from terrestrial TV, and only being available to those paying a monthly subscription. It was also the period that saw the emergence (and disappearance) of new promoters such as Ambrose Mendy, Barry Hearn and Frank Maloney.