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It's always been there. Especially among the brit heavies. Take Frank Bruno for instance.
The brits have always been very passionate of their fighters and boxing in itself has always been a major sport. Much more so than in any other european country. In GB boxing was (and still is?) a significant sport on boarding schools as well as public schools. So the brits has always provided good 'opponents' to housefighters all over europe. The point here is that boxing is much more popular and has a larger following than any other place in the world traditionally, so when they see a good prospect the brits always wants him to conquer the world.
The more I think about it it's not just boxing, but probably all sports. Tim Henman is another example of a (over)hypejob.
But you gotta love the brits they are so passionate about their fighters. Even more so when they lose. Take Henry Cooper. He was a very good HW but the brits didn't love him to begin with because he dethroned their big hero (who's name I've forgotten, maybe Joe Erskine or something). But that changed when he lost to Cassius Clay because of the way he lost. After that ol' 'enry and 'enry's 'ammer was adored by the british public transcending the sport to become a household name among all the brits not only the boxing fraternity.
Sorry fellas I got a little carried away from the topic, but the brits are a special breed and I love'em (when they don't give me red for mentioning that Lewis picked up his belt from the bin
)
The brits have always been very passionate of their fighters and boxing in itself has always been a major sport. Much more so than in any other european country. In GB boxing was (and still is?) a significant sport on boarding schools as well as public schools. So the brits has always provided good 'opponents' to housefighters all over europe. The point here is that boxing is much more popular and has a larger following than any other place in the world traditionally, so when they see a good prospect the brits always wants him to conquer the world.
The more I think about it it's not just boxing, but probably all sports. Tim Henman is another example of a (over)hypejob.
But you gotta love the brits they are so passionate about their fighters. Even more so when they lose. Take Henry Cooper. He was a very good HW but the brits didn't love him to begin with because he dethroned their big hero (who's name I've forgotten, maybe Joe Erskine or something). But that changed when he lost to Cassius Clay because of the way he lost. After that ol' 'enry and 'enry's 'ammer was adored by the british public transcending the sport to become a household name among all the brits not only the boxing fraternity.
Sorry fellas I got a little carried away from the topic, but the brits are a special breed and I love'em (when they don't give me red for mentioning that Lewis picked up his belt from the bin
)For some reason us Brits seem to love the guy who shows heart and vulnerability in failure rather than the guy who succeeds. Bruno was always much more liked than Lewis, although some of that probably had to do with Lewis being seen as Canadian. Another example is how Eubank's popularity seemed to peak around the end of his career, after he lost a few times but showed a lot of heart in doing so. I wasn't watching boxing at the time but apparently he got a lot of unfair criticism for what happened to Michael Watson as well.
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