Michael Watson said it was a privilege to receive the Freedom of the City of London on Monday after a “dark journey” that left him thankful to be alive.
The former British boxer was at the Guildhall to accept the honour 34 years on from his near-fatal world title fight with Chris Eubank Sr.
Watson spent 40 days in a coma in 1991 and had multiple brain operations before he embarked on a remarkable journey to learn how to walk and talk again.
Yet in 2017 he was the victim of a traumatic carjacking incident and he reflected on the road to this latest accolade.
Watson, who was made an MBE in 2003, said: “It’s been 34 years since I had my world title fight with Chris Eubank and it’s an honour for me to receive such an award.
“It’s been a very dark journey and I am very overwhelmed I am alive to receive this award. I am very privileged and very happy.
“To see where I am coming from, I have had seven brain operations and I shouldn’t be living. I shouldn’t be alive.
“The doctors are saying I should be bed-bound. It is a miracle I am still alive up to this day. I have been on a very dark journey, I was car-jacked and I thank God that I am alive.
“It is a privilege to be playing the role I am now and inspiring people. Everywhere I go I am inspiring the next generation. I love to be who I am, the people’s champion.
“I am here to help disabled, people that have mental health problems in life, I am just here to inspire everybody in life. It is an honour and privilege to play the role I am playing.”
Watson walked a mile in April alongside the doctor who saved his life in support of i-Neuro – the charity previously known as the Brain and Spine Foundation.
“I’m living my purpose, as an inspirational figure, the people’s champion,” Watson told Sky Sports before the walk.
“There’s a lot of helpless souls in life, they’re suffering from mental problems, I just want to let them know, don’t give up on yourself.”
Peter Hamlyn, the founder and president of i-Neuro, is the surgeon who saved Watson’s life.
“It took him 12 years fighting the most amazing disability to walk the marathon in 2003. It was an extraordinary 12 years of struggle to get over the injury that he’d had. Here we are now in 2025 and he’s walking his mile,” Hamlyn told Sky Sports.
“It’s a long way, a mile, when you’re carrying his degree of disability.
“It is like a marathon and he really has put himself on the line. He’s had a lot of help.
“He puts himself on the line and he’s done that I guess his entire life in a very physical way. It’s hard work and I hope he succeeds.”
Michael Watson is congratulated by Chris Eubank at the London Marathon finish line
He too sees Watson as an inspiration.
“He had eight surgeries over those weeks after his initial injury. But I think the darkest times were the years that followed. He left hospital after eight months with an incredible level of disability that would crush most of us. Climbed back through that. He’s stronger now than he was 2003,” Hamlyn said.
“I’ve done some stuff for him physically, but what he’s done for me as an individual in terms of showing what’s possible way exceeds that.”
