Chris Eubank - Career Beyond Boxing

Career Beyond Boxing

Throughout his successful years and beyond, Eubank developed a reputation for eccentricity. In a poll published by BBC Homes and Antiques magazine in January 2006, Eubank was voted the second most eccentric star (after Björk). Speaking with a lisp and in affected upper-class tones; dressing as a stereotypically upper-class Englishman (in jodhpurs, bowler hat and riding boots; sporting a monocle) and carrying a silver-tipped cane, such affectations (along with his perceived arrogance and self-glorifying antics) did little to endear him to the tabloids – he was once voted third in a Reader's Digest poll of Britain's Silliest Celebrities. However, in 1991 and 1993 he won Britain's Best Dressed Man award, given by the Menswear Association of Great Britain. In 1993 and 1995 he won the Daily Express Best Dressed Sportsman award and in 1998 and 2001, the Gold Tie Pin Award.

His collection of vehicles included a customised Harley Davidson and a huge American Peterbilt 379 truck cab – the largest truck in Europe. At one time he owned the only Hummer in the UK and Ireland.

In the early 1990s, Eubank was caricatured as a puppet on Spitting Image. He featured on the front cover of Esquire magazine for the April 1992 edition. He has featured in television advertisements (commercials) for Nescafe, the Royal Mail, McDonald's and Jaffa Cakes, and has modelled for Vivienne Westwood and Versace.

In 1991 Eubank publicly launched the 'Breast Cancer' charity 'Breakthrough' on breakfast television .

He has purchased the title of the Lord of the Manor of Brighton and used the ancient right of this position to appoint a town crier in addition to the town crier employed by the local authority. In 1994 he took over a prime site in the city, which he called 'Buckingham Place'. He knocked down the interior whilst keeping the grade II façade intact and built 69 flats for the homeless, using £1,250,000 of his own money. The building was leased to the charity Sanctuary Housing Association with the lowest rents in the country.

In 1996, he was the guest presenter on Top of the Pops the week Suggs from Madness was at number six with a song called Cecilia: a move apparently made to capitalise on his lisp for humorous effect. The video of a boxer with a lisp saying 'Six, Cecilia, by Suggs' was subsequently often shown on the comedy music quiz programme Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 1999, he launched the Dreamcast and in the same year, he appeared in his truck in the music video for the song Turn Around by Phats & Small.

In 2001, Eubank appeared in the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 4, where he was the first celebrity to be 'evicted'. He also had his own show on Talk Radio called Eubank's People: guest included Linford Christie, John Fashanu, Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed.

More recently, Eubank has been spending time penning a musical based on his life. The project, which carries a working title of 'Eubox', was initially being funded by producer (and chairman of Everton F.C.) Bill Kenwright. After showing great interest in the project initially, Kenwright eventually pulled out after he received an invoice to the value of £17,500 for a giant wooden replica of the Peterbilt 379 truck which Eubank owns. Eubank insisted it was essential to the production but Kenwright maintained that a script was needed before set design was considered. Undeterred, in an interview with QVC, Eubank insisted that the production would go ahead and he hoped to be in London's West end by the summer of 2011 and then on Broadway by the following year. As of 2010 Eubank is yet to finalise the script and he has not received interest from any West End or Broadway producers.

After the accident in 1991, Eubank and Michael Watson became friends, with Eubank accompanying Watson for the final mile of the 2003 London Marathon, which Watson – still showing physical damage from the fight and taking more than six days – completed to raise money for charity.