Greatest British boxer of all time?

[smashup]

Theres a few ways to interpret this question so for me it has to be Calzaghe at the top really...Just look at how long he's dominated and he just gets better and better and shut EVERY prick up whoever doubted him and the "who he's beat brigade" finally have to bow down and admit the facts or they simply show themselves to be narrow minded fools..... he gets stick from US fans purely because he wipes the floor with the best they can offer time and time again, in his twighlight years and better still in their back yards!
THE best fighter of my era and his record is untouched by anyone in decades. FACT (deal with it)

Lennox would be my second just for doing it in the US time and time again and avenging anyone who beat him and was the last true Heavyweight to dominate ... The way he destroyed Tyson was a great moment in my life!

Nigel Benn simply because he had balls like King Kong and was easily the most exciting fighter to watch to have ever come out of the UK.
Yeah he lost a few but f*ck me could he tear it up when he was hurt.
And i will never ever forget that Mclleland fight for being the most brutal i have ever seen.
How Nigel survived that and came back to smash G-Man to bits just shows what he was all about.
He had the will and heart of a Lion that man.

Randy Turpin gets props for beating the greatest ever fighter to have lived bar NONE (true fans will know who) and No it aint Ali..he did get another shot in 1966 but unfortunately with a gun pointed at his own head!

Don Cockell just for his name also gets props

Henry Cooper also SHOULD have beaten Clay that night but was blatantly cheated out of it by Ali's bare knuckle glove that tore his face apart.
How different the Fight game history would have been eh...?

For me Hatton needs to beat Pac then he leaps up to Lewis status but he's not far behind.
Just my opinion.

[rjj tszyu]

Theres a few ways to interpret this question so for me it has to be Calzaghe at the top really...Just look at how long he's dominated and he just gets better and better and shut EVERY prick up whoever doubted him and the "who he's beat brigade" finally have to bow down and admit the facts or they simply show themselves to be narrow minded fools..... he gets stick from US fans purely because he wipes the floor with the best they can offer time and time again, in his twighlight years and better still in their back yards!
THE best fighter of my era and his record is untouched by anyone in decades. FACT (deal with it)

Lennox would be my second just for doing it in the US time and time again and avenging anyone who beat him and was the last true Heavyweight to dominate ... The way he destroyed Tyson was a great moment in my life!

Nigel Benn simply because he had balls like King Kong and was easily the most exciting fighter to watch to have ever come out of the UK.
Yeah he lost a few but f*ck me could he tear it up when he was hurt.
And i will never ever forget that Mclleland fight for being the most brutal i have ever seen.
How Nigel survived that and came back to smash G-Man to bits just shows what he was all about.
He had the will and heart of a Lion that man.

Randy Turpin gets props for beating the greatest ever fighter to have lived bar NONE (true fans will know who) and No it aint Ali..he did get another shot in 1966 but unfortunately with a gun pointed at his own head!

Don Cockell just for his name also gets props

Henry Cooper also SHOULD have beaten Clay that night but was blatantly cheated out of it by Ali's bare knuckle glove that tore his face apart.
How different the Fight game history would have been eh...?

For me Hatton needs to beat Pac then he leaps up to Lewis status but he's not far behind.
Just my opinion.

Fair points with Calzaghe but he didn't beat americas best until they were ancient. Turpin beat a prime Robinson and Lewis was doing it in America against the best they had to offer throughout his career.

[HattonTheHammer]

1- Calzaghe
2- Lewis
3- Hatton
4- Cooper
5- Eubank

[KananKrus]

For me, the greatest British boxer of all time is Robert James "bob" Fitzsimmons.

He was the first three-division champion in the history of boxing. I think he is the only one that I know of, that won the world heavyweight crown, before winning the world light-heavyweight version. He also won the world middleweight earlier on, to make him king of all the three heavier weight divisions in boxing.

He is burried here in our state of Illinois, in Graceland Cemetery, located in about Chicago with another legendary boxing great, Jack Johnson.

[Kev]

For me, the greatest British boxer of all time is Robert James "bob" Fitzsimmons.

He was the first three-division champion in the history of boxing. I think he is the only one that I know of, that won the world heavyweight crown, before winning the world light-heavyweight version. He also won the world middleweight earlier on, to make him king of all the three heavier weight divisions in boxing.

He is burried here in our state of Illinois, in Graceland Cemetery, located in about Chicago with another legendary boxing great, Jack Johnson.

Yeah but but he fought in an era where they didn't fight blacks. When he eventually got in with Jack Johnson he got battered in a couple rounds.


Besides the sport was in its infancy then and the strength in depth simply wasn't there.

Nowadays there are hundreds of excellent professional fighters all with years of training following extremely disciplined, regimented training programmes and lifestyles.

It's like the early days of MMA when Royce Gracie was beating guys outweighing him by 100 lbs or more.

Yes he was great, but it only happened because these big lumps had no skill whatsoever when it came to submissions and ju jitsu etc.

As soon as they started to learn the basics Royce quite the UFC and of course was never so successful again.

Nowadays nobody could repeat his feats because technique has increased across the board.

It wasn't that Royce was so good but rather that he was good when everyone else sucked.

Pretty much the same with Fitzsimmsons.

Would he have won titles in 3 weight divisions in the modern era where black athletes (who barely fought in his day) predominate?

Let's be real, hell no.

[KananKrus]

Record entombed in eternity, it is though. Would we rather put an asterisk on each of his entires as world champion, and indicate... have not met the required number of African American opponents! (or whatever wording to that effect). Silly it will look.

I would think that that is an outright disrespect to the pioneers of the sport.
We should just erase all records kept before Jack Johnson altogether then, if the thinking of sane minds would parallel those thoughts.

Almost in the same disrespectful tone should also indicate... Jack Johnson,... (after an asterisk the disrespect would read)... dominated the world heavyweight division only because of the lack of quality African American opposition to the crown! It get sillier by the second.

Bob Fitzsimmons... the first three division World Boxing Champion!

Now that sounds about right. It might even be in the record books! LOL

[BIG H]

There are some that stand out FOR ME and are in a different league to the rest:

Lennox Lewis, Jimmy Wilde, Joe Calzaghe & Ken Buchanan.

Most of the others have been mentioned, my other top Brits are Bob Fitzsimmons, Naz, Howard Winstone, Ted Kid Lewis, Kid Berg and one of my favourites Lloyd Honeyghan

[WelshDevilRob]

1- Calzaghe
2- Lewis
3- Hatton
4- Cooper
5- Eubank

The list is fine apart from Henry Cooper, who was European level rather than World. Sure he floored Cassius Clay, as he was known at the time, but Clay was young and over confident and got caught by a peach - he got up and won - if you listen to Henry Cooper then Ali had a 10 minute break after the knockdown (The story has been over exaggerated overtime) Ali would have won regardless. Ali never got Ko'd and wasn't goto against the limited Cooper. (Yes, Holmes stopped him but that hardly counts)

It wasn't just Coopers eyes that lost him fights he also had a weak chin and was brutally Ko'd by both Ingemar Johanson, Zora Folley and Floyd Paterson. He also lost to lesser named fighters like the Joe Bygraves, Joe Erskine, Peter Bates, Eric Schoppner and Roger Rischer.

Henry was popular and always tried to give a good account of himself but he is not Top 20 best Brits ever let alone Top 5.

[rjj tszyu]

1- Calzaghe
2- Lewis
3- Hatton
4- Cooper
5- Eubank

The list is fine apart from Henry Cooper, who was European level rather than World. Sure he floored Cassius Clay, as he was known at the time, but Clay was young and over confident and got caught by a peach - he got up and won - if you listen to Henry Cooper then Ali had a 10 minute break after the knockdown (The story has been over exaggerated overtime) Ali would have won regardless. Ali never got Ko'd and wasn't goto against the limited Cooper. (Yes, Holmes stopped him but that hardly counts)

It wasn't just Coopers eyes that lost him fights he also had a weak chin and was brutally Ko'd by both Ingemar Johanson, Zora Folley and Floyd Paterson. He also lost to lesser named fighters like the Joe Bygraves, Joe Erskine, Peter Bates, Eric Schoppner and Roger Rischer.

Henry was popular and always tried to give a good account of himself but he is not Top 20 best Brits ever let alone Top 5.

Finally someone who knows the true story! I think the whole glove episode only bought Ali 7 seconds really.

[ICB]

1- Calzaghe
2- Lewis
3- Hatton
4- Cooper
5- Eubank

The list is fine apart from Henry Cooper, who was European level rather than World. Sure he floored Cassius Clay, as he was known at the time, but Clay was young and over confident and got caught by a peach - he got up and won - if you listen to Henry Cooper then Ali had a 10 minute break after the knockdown (The story has been over exaggerated overtime) Ali would have won regardless. Ali never got Ko'd and wasn't goto against the limited Cooper. (Yes, Holmes stopped him but that hardly counts)

It wasn't just Coopers eyes that lost him fights he also had a weak chin and was brutally Ko'd by both Ingemar Johanson, Zora Folley and Floyd Paterson. He also lost to lesser named fighters like the Joe Bygraves, Joe Erskine, Peter Bates, Eric Schoppner and Roger Rischer.

Henry was popular and always tried to give a good account of himself but he is not Top 20 best Brits ever let alone Top 5.

Finally someone who knows the true story! I think the whole glove episode only bought Ali 7 seconds really.

Yes but Muhammad Ali also had smelling salts, which wasn't allowed in the UK at that time i believe. So technically he should of been DQ.

[yvonne]

1- Calzaghe
2- Lewis
3- Hatton
4- Cooper
5- Eubank

No Benn?He was the man!!

[Taeth]

1- Calzaghe
2- Lewis
3- Hatton
4- Cooper
5- Eubank

No Benn?He was the man!!

Benn was definitely good, but not great. I think guys Turpin should be placed way up there, Cooper definitely doesnt' deserve to be up there. I think even Bruno was better than him.

There were a lot of good boxers from the turn of the century that I will dig up from Bert Sugar's top 100 fighters ever.

[porkypara]

Theres a few ways to interpret this question so for me it has to be Calzaghe at the top really...Just look at how long he's dominated and he just gets better and better and shut EVERY prick up whoever doubted him and the "who he's beat brigade" finally have to bow down and admit the facts or they simply show themselves to be narrow minded fools..... he gets stick from US fans purely because he wipes the floor with the best they can offer time and time again, in his twighlight years and better still in their back yards!
THE best fighter of my era and his record is untouched by anyone in decades. FACT (deal with it)

Lennox would be my second just for doing it in the US time and time again and avenging anyone who beat him and was the last true Heavyweight to dominate ... The way he destroyed Tyson was a great moment in my life!

Nigel Benn simply because he had balls like King Kong and was easily the most exciting fighter to watch to have ever come out of the UK.
Yeah he lost a few but f*ck me could he tear it up when he was hurt.
And i will never ever forget that Mclleland fight for being the most brutal i have ever seen.
How Nigel survived that and came back to smash G-Man to bits just shows what he was all about.
He had the will and heart of a Lion that man.

Randy Turpin gets props for beating the greatest ever fighter to have lived bar NONE (true fans will know who) and No it aint Ali..he did get another shot in 1966 but unfortunately with a gun pointed at his own head!

Don Cockell just for his name also gets props

Henry Cooper also SHOULD have beaten Clay that night but was blatantly cheated out of it by Ali's bare knuckle glove that tore his face apart.
How different the Fight game history would have been eh...?

For me Hatton needs to beat Pac then he leaps up to Lewis status but he's not far behind.
Just my opinion.

I agree with you there.

If Hatton beats Pac-Man he has got to be in the top 3 rits of all time.

[X]

Soccer bad boy Craig Bellamy is Welsh
Soccer bad boy Vinnie Jones is Welsh
Failed politician Neil Kinnock is Welsh

British Joe Calzaghe remains undefeated in the boxing world.