STRICKEN ex-boxer Michael Watson has relived the terrifying moment he feared he would die during a carjacking.
In his first interview since the ordeal, the former middleweight champ said he was left “more traumatised” than after the 1991 bout with Chris Eubank which left him brain damaged.
Michael, 51, was sprayed in the face with a noxious substance and dragged 300 yards at 50mph by thugs attempting to steal his car.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday, he said: “It was worse than going 30 rounds with Muhammad Ali.
“I feared I was going to die in the road. At least when I was boxing Eubank I was in control but this time I had none.
“I looked into the eyes of one of the thugs. He had such an evil smile on his face that I won’t forget it.
“As I was being dragged along the road I thought, ‘I can’t die like this’.
“My body was bouncing off the road, smashing my ribs against the tarmac. My back and elbow took it bad too.
"My skin felt like it was on fire, which was the friction from flesh on concrete.
“I think it was my fighter’s spirit that stopped me from dying that day.”
The Sun told of the attack last month near Michael’s East London home.
It has left him with large scars on his right arm, back and right foot as well as severely bruised ribs.
He has been unable to sleep and may seek counselling to deal with the trauma.
Now Michael and his carer Lennard Ballack, 54, are working with police to catch the thugs responsible.
Michael said: “These scumbags need locking up and the keys being thrown away.”
Michael — who won 25 of his 30 professional fights, 21 by knockout — was 26 when he suffered devastating injuries in his WBO super-middleweight title fight with ring rival Eubank.
He spent 40 days in a coma, had six operations to remove a clot on his brain and was left with limited movement on his left side. Doctors described his subsequent recovery as “extraordinary” and he received an MBE in 2004.
Then on February 16, just before 5pm, Michael was in the passenger seat of his one-year-old blue Volkswagen Golf R in Chingford.
Lennard, his friend of more than 30 years, was driving.
Father-of-two Michael said: “Len and I were coming back from a late lunch in our favourite restaurant, the Blue Legume in Stoke Newington.
"We were on my way to my place in Chingford and just chatting about life and were in good spirits.
“We got to a zebra crossing on a road called The Ridgeway. Len stopped to let a couple of people cross and then next thing we knew we were jolted forward.
“A car had gone into the back of us — not hard but enough to feel it.
“My first thought was this was an accident. Len got out to see if there was any damage.
“There wasn’t any and he went over to the car behind to tell them there was nothing to worry about.”
That car is believed to be a white Mercedes-Benz with tinted windows.
Michael added: “I was looking in the rear mirror. There were two black guys in their late 30s in the car.
As they wound the window down, I saw Len get sprayed in the face. He was screaming blue murder. It didn’t seem real.
“Before I had a chance to move, the passenger calmly got out of the car and came to me.
“He sat in the driver’s seat of our car. He had a tinned spray in his hand. He said nothing, he just had this evil grin on his face as if to say, ‘Your turn now’ — and sprayed me.
“I could feel my skin burn. It felt like acid. Thankfully I had glasses on so it missed my eyes.
“I thought to myself, ‘Just open the door and get out the car. This isn’t worth dying over’.
“I tried to get out but the guy slammed his foot down.
"I was halfway out of the door but my left shoulder was caught on the seat belt while the rest of my body was outside.
"I was facing the sky as the car zoomed away. It threw all of me apart from my arm, which was stuck, out of the car.
“I was traumatised. I couldn’t believe this was happening or why it was happening. I was saying, ‘Please God help me, I need to live, not die out on this road’.
“Then I started to drift in and out of consciousness and I fainted.”
Related Stories
Lennard had managed to scramble back in front of Michael’s car when the first carjacker drove off.
He said: “The substance in my face was burning my eyes but I tried to get back to the car. All I could think about was getting to Michael. I’m his carer after all.”
Lennard, who said he was also hit on the head with what he believes was a metal bar, continued: “Eventually I looked up and saw the car screaming off with Michael dangling out the side.
“I was 100 per cent sure at that point that he would die.
“He was being dragged like a horse drags a cowboy in a Wild West film. His body was like a rag doll.
"It was then that their car, presumably driven by the other attacker, drove at me as if to run me down but thankfully it missed and sped off.
“I thought that was the last I’d seen of Michael.”
When Michael regained consciousness he was 300 yards down the road, being tended to by passers-by. The attackers had fled, leaving him hanging from his car.
Michael said: “I felt proud that I was still alive. It was an honour to have survived it. I must be on this Earth for a reason.”
Michael and Lennard were rushed to hospital where they have been treated on and off for the past two weeks.
Michael was treated for severe burns to his arm, back and feet which have got infected and needed antibiotics.
Lennard suffered a fractured wrist and until last week had to wear an eye patch.
Michael said: “It makes me feel emotional.
"When I was lying there and thinking, ‘As if I haven’t been through enough in my life already. A man can only take so much’.
"I feel broken up. I find it hard it hard to sleep at night but I feel tired all the time. It’s traumatised me.
“Every move I make, I feel the pain in my back.
“This is the toughest thing I’ve been through. It was worse than 1991. That was an ordeal but this beats it. I was out of control.”
Michael will appear on BBC1’s Crimewatch to appeal for help. Anyone with information should contact police on 101.
Leave a comment