Top 25 European fighters since 1990

[Humean]

I'm going to go further back with this in 25 year intervals but here is the first 25. This is the 25 from those who belong in this particular (1990-2015) era. I'm not too interested in arguing for or against minor differences in placing, but are any placings way off or are there any fighters I should have included/excluded?

1: Naseem Hamed
2: Joe Calzaghe
3: Lennox Lewis
4: Kostya Tszyu
5: Yuri Arbachakov
6: Dariusz Michalczewski
7: Wladimir Klitschko
8: Chris Eubank
9; Nigel Benn
10: Steve Collins
11: Vitali Klitschko
12: Carl Froch
13: Henry Maske
14: Mikkel Kessler
15: Vic Darchinyan
16: Ricky Hatton
17: Sven Ottke
18: Laurent Boudouani
19: Sergey Kovalev
20: Fabrice Tiozzo
21: David Haye
22: Arthur Abraham
23: Marco Huck
24: Mahyar Monshipour
25: Felix Sturm

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I'm going to go further back with this in 25 year intervals but here is the first 25. This is the 25 from those who belong in this particular (1990-2015) era. I'm not too interested in arguing for or against minor differences in placing, but are any placings way off or are there any fighters I should have included/excluded?

1: Naseem Hamed
2: Joe Calzaghe
3: Lennox Lewis
4: Kostya Tszyu
5: Yuri Arbachakov
6: Dariusz Michalczewski
7: Wladimir Klitschko
8: Chris Eubank
9; Nigel Benn
10: Steve Collins
11: Vitali Klitschko
12: Carl Froch
13: Henry Maske
14: Mikkel Kessler
15: Vic Darchinyan
16: Ricky Hatton
17: Sven Ottke
18: Laurent Boudouani
19: Sergey Kovalev
20: Fabrice Tiozzo
21: David Haye
22: Arthur Abraham
23: Marco Huck
24: Mahyar Monshipour
25: Felix Sturm

Good list

But
1 lennox
2 Calzaghe
3 wlad
4 prince

[Humean]

Good list

But
1 lennox
2 Calzaghe
3 wlad
4 prince

Heavyweights are always overrated, if anything I think i'm actually being too generous in my placing of both Klitschko brothers and Lewis.

[joeandthebums]

Keep coming back and looking at Hamed as No. 1...

[Humean]

Keep coming back and looking at Hamed as No. 1...

Where should he be for you? Who would be your number 1?

[joeandthebums]

Where should he be for you? Who would be your number 1?

I don't know, I've always thought my opinion on Hamed and the fact I tend to have him lower than others is because of the way his career ended and that perhaps others judge him partly on what he could of achieved, not what he did achieve.

Solely on quality of opponents I could see a case for Froch being placed above Hamed. But I imagine your criteria fused together several different aspects.

[Humean]

I don't know, I've always thought my opinion on Hamed and the fact I tend to have him lower than others is because of the way his career ended and that perhaps others judge him partly on what he could of achieved, not what he did achieve.

Solely on quality of opponents I could see a case for Froch being placed above Hamed. But I imagine your criteria fused together several different aspects.

I don't like the way Hamed's career ended either but lets be fair when the loss finally came it was to a damn fine opponent. I think Hamed's opponents are a lot better than people give credit too, I myself used to doubt the strength of them too but when you look into it he did defeat, and almost always convincingly, some talented fighers. I think he quite convincingly proved himself the best featherweight in the world over the course of around 6 years.

Froch was outclassed by Ward, narrowly defeated by Kessler and in my opinion also narrowly defeated by Dirrell. There is a lot of positive stuff for Froch, I can see a case for him being higher than I have him, but it needs to be counter-balanced by the bad stuff too. For me Nas was a bona-fide elite fighter whereas Froch is a bit borderline on that score.

[Suckmedry]

better question is who gives a fcuk. Only fighters i really rate on that list are Tszyu, Lewis and Hamed.

Okay nah being a bit harsh. I rate plenty of fighters on that list. One who is particularly underrated is Mikkel Kessler. If you wanna show a kid how to box, you could show a video of Kessler with no reservations.

[The Old LefHook]

Lewis is not a European fighter unless Jamaica and Canada got moved to Europe. He did not learn any of his stuff in England from English trainers, did not grow up there and hardly (if ever) fought there. He is strictly a North American package, so it is laughable that Europe is desperate enough to want to claim him. A look at the list shows why. Europe has not had a great prizfighter since Marcel Cerdan. The closest they came was Joel Calzaghe, which says it all.

California fighters Klinchko and Golovkin will soon be joined by Kovalev in California so they can all be California fighters. It is too late now, old soviet bloc. If they all move back to Russia tomorrow, they will still be introduced as California fighters at all functions, for they are Californians now. Damned yankees. Yeah, right.

[Humean]

Lewis is not a European fighter unless Jamaica and Canada got moved to Europe. He did not learn any of his stuff in England from English trainers, did not grow up there and hardly (if ever) fought there. He is strictly a North American package, so it is laughable that Europe is desperate enough to want to claim him. A look at the list shows why. Europe has not had a great prizfighter since Marcel Cerdan. The closest they came was Joel Calzaghe, which says it all.

California fighters Klinchko and Golovkin will soon be joined by Kovalev in California so they can all be California fighters. It is too late now, old soviet bloc. If they all move back to Russia tomorrow, they will still be introduced as California fighters at all functions, for they are Californians now. Damned yankees. Yeah, right.

Lewis was born in London and spent the first 12 years of his life there, he is a British National which means he counts as part of Europe, he can also count as part of North America too (also a Canadian national) just as Kostya Tszyu is both a Russian and an Australian national. Most of Lewis's early pro career took place in the UK, including some prominent fights, Ruddock, McCall I and Botha fights were in London and the Bruno fight in Cardiff. You clearly have a great handle on all things Lennox Lewis.

Golovkin wouldn't count for Europe anyway, he is from Kazakhstan, not Russia, and Kazakhstan is in Asia.