Who are the 10 greatest UK fighters of all time?

[Larry the boss]

How is he from Jamaica? He was born in England and grew up there. Moved to Canada as a teen and moved back to England after a few years.

His heritage is Jamaican and his folks were born there but does that mean Mikey Garcia isn't American because his parents are from Mexico? Are you African and not American?

You are right and I am wrong...

[Sparked_26]

Only in my lifetime watching boxing. Which is 1999ish onwards

1. Lennox
2. Calzaghe
3. Naz
4. Joshua
5. Froch
6. Frampton
7. Tyson Fury
8. David Haye
9. Hatton
10. Johnny Nelson (lol) To be fair his inexplicably brilliant fight with Ezra Sellers is one of the first fights I can remember loving. Other than that his Entertainer nickname was ironic. But his reign was long and after such a crap start to his career he fascinates me.

BJS, George Groves might surpass him.

[Raonic]

Billy Joe Saunders.

[JAB5239]

Steve Collins probably deserves mention on this list. He fought some great fighters.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

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.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

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 ****** 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.

[chrisJS]

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.

[iamboxing]

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.

[DreamFighter]

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.

[chrisJS]

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.