James DeGale, first Brit to win an Olympic gold and a professional World title, deserves an honourable mention. He actually won his Gold, unlike Femi who got gifted his. DeGale has maybe three years left to consolidate his resume otherwise he's looking like unfulfilled potential.
Conteh was such a good technical fighter, with excellent movement, speed and a great jab. To think he got nowhere near his potential too.
Good point on Stracey. He obviously is remembered for the Napoles win but he never got HOF consideration which is probably right but Barry McGuigan did get in and Stracey had a perhaps as good a career. He also beat some top, top Welterweights of that time like Ernie Lopez, Hedgemon Lewis and Roger Menetrey. Napoles was definitely over the hill but surely that win trumps the Pedroza one given that Napoles was a greater fighter (than Pedroza) and he did it in hostile territory. Perhaps McGuigan's charisma and what that particular night meant gave him the edge when it came to HOF balloting.
I think Hamed over time has been romanticized a little too much. I think he was probably the Featherweight of the 90's and outside of Marquez, Barrera, Morales, Lomachenko and Pacquaio likely wouldn't lose to any modern era (last 20-25 years) fighters at Featherweight or below but I think some go a little overboard on his talent level and actual skill set. He was a huge puncher though and yes, he did win a bunch of belts and was a very dominant champion for a long time against a strong caliber of opposition. Did he get the best out of his potential? Probably not because his hunger went (literally) away and when he hit adversity he didn't give it a shot to get back.
Completely agree on Conteh...
McGuigan slipped my mind tbh, he’s definitely in the top 20 IMO if he’s considered British. I would put Stracey higher though the fact he went out to Mexico to beat an ATG fighter Napoles in front of 40,000 Mexicans, plus the better names on his resume puts him closer to the top 10. The only knock on Stracey would be all his notable wins came against guys who were right at the tail end of their careers. Great matchmaking I suppose...
Hamed probably is overrated by a lot of people who haven’t actually watched his fights and have just seen spectacular highlight pacakages. He was in many ways a flawed fighter, who made a lot of fundamental mistakes but his insane athleticism, reflexes, power was more than an equaliser on most occasions.
I also think his resume stands up to nearly any of the modern British greats, that run from 96-98’ish were he beat Medina, Kelley, McCullough, Vasquez, Soto etc was a real impressive period. I don’t like to make allegations but the one question I’d have about Naz is if he used PED’s, the fact he fought out of the Wincobank gym which has significant PED suspicion only adds fuel to the fire as well.
Regardless, he was still a great fighter it’s a real shame the motivation just went, I think a big problem with Naz was that because he came from nothing, once he’d earned enough money he just lost all motivation. He’s apparently invested his money well though and owns a lot of properties, restaurants etc back in Sheffield.
Post and discuss please
https://www.sportsbreak.com/boxing/the-top-10-british-boxers-of-all-time/
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/661141-the-top-20-british-boxers-of-all-time
I don't have the slightest pretensions towards being any kind of boxing historian, so I'm going to take at face value the received wisdom that Bob Fitzsimmons and Jimmy Wilde were amongst the greatest of all time in their respective weightclasses. Calzaghe has a strong claim of course (alongside Ward) to be one of the greatest SMWs of the divisions relatively brief history.
As for the rest of the UKs modern era fighters Lewis and Hamed are probably the pick of the bunch, though my personal favourites are probably Froch and local boy Ricky Hatton.
jeez calzaghe wasnt even the best brit of his time in even his own division after froch left him trailing in his SMW wake.
Still makes an entry in a modern Brit top ten though.
Post and discuss please
And with this one post and thread Larry the legend humiliates and anihilates the retard robbie the racist Barrett
Dude is no where to be found! Lmfao
Probably crying in a corner especially after realizing that the greatest one is Lewis and he isn’t even British he is Jamaican lmfao oh this was a good one larold
Yes, I believe so. Bhop and Jones were beyond their best. It's the manner in which he won too. He made an impact in America. Calazaghe was largely forgotten in the US after those fights.
I couldn't stomach Calzaghe's style .
Games fought America 5 times including a dominant loss. Was Kelley, Soto, Sanchez, McCollough that much more impressive than Hopkins and shot Jones? He also defended 21 times and became lineal at 175.
Yes, I believe so. Bhop and Jones were beyond their best. It's the manner in which he won too. He made an impact in America. Calazaghe was largely forgotten in the US after those fights.
He won the WBC when he beat Soto. He also beat Vasquez who was stripped by the WBA for choosing Naz over his mandatory.
thanks, you are right good call.
I have to redo my list now. cheers mate that took me ages of harsh keyboard work.
nice, but not sure naz won anything other than IBF, lineal and WBO.
He won the WBC when he beat Soto. He also beat Vasquez who was stripped by the WBA for choosing Naz over his mandatory.
I have Naz at 2 after Lennox with Calazaghe at 3 followed by Froch.
Reason: Calazaghe didn't leave UK till later in his career. Didn't fight RJJ in his prime. Naseem went to the US and defended his title FIFTEEN TIMES winning IBF, WBO, WBC and technically the WBA. Lennox unified the HW title, and beat Holyfield. Vastly underrated HW. Same as TJames Toney, underrated, but that's for another thread.
nice, but not sure naz won anything other than IBF, lineal and WBO.
I have Naz at 2 after Lennox with Calazaghe at 3 followed by Froch.
Reason: Calazaghe didn't leave UK till later in his career. Didn't fight RJJ in his prime. Naseem went to the US and defended his title FIFTEEN TIMES winning IBF, WBO and WBC and the technically the WBA. Lennox unified the HW title, and beat Holyfield.
Games fought America 5 times including a dominant loss. Was Kelley, Soto, Sanchez, McCollough that much more impressive than Hopkins and shot Jones? He also defended 21 times and became lineal at 175.
in my time -
1. lennox
2. honeyghan
3. buchanan
4. mcCauley
5. hamed
6. froch
7. mcGuigan
8. hatton
9. calzaghe
10. conteh
Potential entry - Joshua
To add outside my time, you'd need to throw in ted lewis, turpin and possibly farr, and for sure not forgetting the ginger ninja himself... Bob.
There'll be others I am not aware of outside my time too.
I have Naz at 2 after Lennox with Calazaghe at 3 followed by Froch.
Reason: Calazaghe didn't leave UK till later in his career. Didn't fight RJJ in his prime. Naseem went to the US and defended his title FIFTEEN TIMES winning IBF, WBO, WBC and technically the WBA. Lennox unified the HW title, and beat Holyfield. Vastly underrated HW. Same as TJames Toney, underrated, but that's for another thread.
Yeah Conteh never lived the life so somewhat underachieved, but in terms of ability and talent is right up there IMO. Being from Liverpool I am a little bias towards Conteh though.
The fact that Hamed pretty much unified the featherweight division, and went over and conquered America which not too many Brits do would make him a top 10 guy for me.
It’s hard to rank a lot of the earlier guys for me as I’ve read a lot about them but not exactly watched a plethora of footage of a few of them, so it’s hard to compare their skill sets to the more modern fighters.
Turpin is another tough one to rank as he’s in the same sort of category as Stracey and Honeyghan in the sense that one outstanding win is what defines their legacies. The fact that Turpin beat (an albeit under-motivated) SRR in the middle of a near decade long, 90 fight undefeated streak puts him in the position of 10-15 or possibly in contention for top 10 IMO.
Conteh was such a good technical fighter, with excellent movement, speed and a great jab. To think he got nowhere near his potential too.
Good point on Stracey. He obviously is remembered for the Napoles win but he never got HOF consideration which is probably right but Barry McGuigan did get in and Stracey had a perhaps as good a career. He also beat some top, top Welterweights of that time like Ernie Lopez, Hedgemon Lewis and Roger Menetrey. Napoles was definitely over the hill but surely that win trumps the Pedroza one given that Napoles was a greater fighter (than Pedroza) and he did it in hostile territory. Perhaps McGuigan's charisma and what that particular night meant gave him the edge when it came to HOF balloting.
I think Hamed over time has been romanticized a little too much. I think he was probably the Featherweight of the 90's and outside of Marquez, Barrera, Morales, Lomachenko and Pacquaio likely wouldn't lose to any modern era (last 20-25 years) fighters at Featherweight or below but I think some go a little overboard on his talent level and actual skill set. He was a huge puncher though and yes, he did win a bunch of belts and was a very dominant champion for a long time against a strong caliber of opposition. Did he get the best out of his potential? Probably not because his hunger went (literally) away and when he hit adversity he didn't give it a shot to get back.
I always felt that Naz was more of a "show" than a prizefighter, and that he retired once he finally had a real fight.
But I'm also not British, so who knows lol. I've just always felt he was like Kiss (they are a show, not a rock band)
He was certainly a showman, and the hype he generated around himself eventually became detrimental to him, he started to believe the hype and it caused issues with guys like Warren, Ingle etc who where instrumental to his success. He started to cut corners in training camp, Manny Steward always said he was instantly worried when he showed up for the last two weeks of Naz’s camp for the Barrera fight because of the manner of his training and how underprepared he was in comparison to Barrera who was training extremely hard out in Big Bear. So I suppose in that sense you make a fair point that he wasn’t ready for a “real fight” against someone like Barrera who was on that same elite level and could expose his deficiencies.
What was so impressive about Naz though was that he essentially through the boxing rule book out the window, he done bizarre perhaps stupid things in the ring but he had that much natural ability, athleticism, speed and power he managed to get away with it and beat some damn good fighters along the way like Kelley, Vasquez, Soto etc.
Yeah, Hamed deserves strong consideration. Conteh also an excellent shout. His lifestyle probably held him back somewhat but he posted some excellent wins.
Turpin also could be considered for the bottom of the list. Benn and Eubank in the mix too but then after that a bit of a drop off but led by Frampton, Hatton and Froch if we are talking career accomplishments. I'd have those three between 16-20 if I created such a list with some research.
Yeah Conteh never lived the life so somewhat underachieved, but in terms of ability and talent is right up there IMO. Being from Liverpool I am a little bias towards Conteh though.
The fact that Hamed pretty much unified the featherweight division, and went over and conquered America which not too many Brits do would make him a top 10 guy for me.
It’s hard to rank a lot of the earlier guys for me as I’ve read a lot about them but not exactly watched a plethora of footage of a few of them, so it’s hard to compare their skill sets to the more modern fighters.
Turpin is another tough one to rank as he’s in the same sort of category as Stracey and Honeyghan in the sense that one outstanding win is what defines their legacies. The fact that Turpin beat (an albeit under-motivated) SRR in the middle of a near decade long, 90 fight undefeated streak puts him in the position of 10-15 or possibly in contention for top 10 IMO.