This documentary series on four major black British boxers contains some powerful insights, but needs more focus on its subjects’ experiences of racism, argues Jamal Elaheebocus

October 1993 saw the biggest week in British boxing history. It was the climax of the rise of four black British boxing legends, which had produced fierce rivalries and toxic discourse. All four boxers suffered racism throughout their careers and several struggled severely with their mental health after retirement. Four Kings, the Amazon prime documentary series, is an intimate and very moving portrayal of the careers and lives of these four boxers: Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn.

Combining interviews with the four boxers and past footage of interviews, training and the fights, it is a very honest appreciation of both the remarkable talent of these athletes and the brutality, and life-threatening danger, of the sport they love. It is at its strongest in the final two episodes, which begin with the defeat of Frank Bruno by Lennox Lewis for the WBC heavyweight championship. This is shortly followed by a draw between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank in their rematch for the WBC and WBO super middleweight titles.

From there, the documentary charts the end of three careers in quick succession, Frank Bruno, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank, and their subsequent mental and physical struggles. Perhaps the most moving is Frank Bruno, who during his career was haunted by allegations made by both Lennox Lewis and subsequently Oliver McCall that he was an ‘Uncle Tom’ and had betrayed the black community.

Bruno was not entirely blame-free, having featured in a HP advert as a Man Friday to a white Robinson Crusoe. However, he never got over these allegations and, even after becoming the WBC heavyweight champion, was still defending himself. Following his retirement shortly after, his mental health rapidly descended before he was sectioned in a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Benn and Eubank also describe their struggles with mental health, including Benn’s diagnosis with bipolar like Bruno. One of the most moving scenes involves Eubank and former boxer Michael Watson, who was knocked out by Eubank in a rematch for the WBO title. The blow left Watson unconscious on the floor, with no medics in the arena to help him. He ended up in a coma for forty days and had six operations to remove blood clots from his brain.

Over many years, Watson learned to walk, hear and speak again, but is still left disabled. When Eubank visits Watson in his home, he breaks down in tears and asks for Watson’s forgiveness, which Watson readily gives and reassures Eubank that he does not blame him for what happened.

Boxing’s damage and society’s racism

Eubank, understandably, is deeply affected by what happened and the scene shows the mental toll the sport takes on its athletes as well as the life-endangering risks it presents. When Nigel Benn slipped and headbutted Gerald McClellan in a fight in ’95, the boxer was left in a coma for two weeks and to this day has hearing, memory and mobility problems.

Bruno was also put in serious danger by his career. In a fight with Mike Tyson, he suffered a detached retina which could have left him blind and had to take time away from the sport. And at the very end of the series, it is revealed that his brain is in a slow decline as a result of the blows to the head over many years.

It seriously calls into question how boxing as a sport can be justified when it has such life-changing and potentially life-ending impacts. Many obviously love the sport and care deeply about it, and many of us not involved in the sport can still appreciate and enjoy watching the incredible talent of these athletes. However, the series raises serious questions: at what point is the risk too great? And why aren’t the governing bodies of boxing putting in extra measures to mitigate these risks?

The element where the documentary is lacking is the political atmosphere surrounding these boxers’ careers and the racism they face. There are brief mentions of all four boxers being children of Windrush-generation parents and how they faced racism, but it is given too little time, particularly considering that Benn’s brother was killed in a racist attack at the age of seventeen.

And more broadly, very often the victims of boxing’s brutality are black men, from Watson to McClellan and Bruno to Benn. After Benn and Eubank’s rematch, there were coins and beer cans thrown at them from the crowd. Given that these boxers’ careers spanned the mid-to-late 80s and 90s, and the rise of the BNP over that time, there ought to have been a bigger focus on the racism experienced personally and professionally.

Despite this drawback, it is still an insightful and powerful look at the lives of some of British boxing’s most influential and groundbreaking characters.