Rank the top 5 British heavyweights in history

Gloved:
Lennox Lewis
Bob Fitzsimmons
Tyson Fury
Anthony Joshua
Tommy Farr

I think that has to be the top 4, since those are the ones who reached the top of the division.

 

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not much depth really -

lennox
fitz
farr
joshua=bruno
akinwade

 

we'll see, perhaps he is.

 

Lennox Lewis
Bob Fitzsimmons
Anthony Joshua
Frank Bruno
Tommy Farr

 

Post I made in the British forum last year below:

The list of wins by British heavyweights over world class opposition is very thin on the ground, once you take Lewis out of the equation. Most of the famous British heavies are remembered and in many ways defined more by their losses than their wins.

I haven't included Fitz, partly because his claim to Britishness appears to have been made by others, and partly because throwing a guy who would barely be a super middle these days into a debate alongside modern day heavies raises too many questions in itself.

Going by record against world class opposition, and not H2H:

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Tyson Fury
3. Anthony Joshua
4. Frank Bruno
5. Joe Bugner

6. Tommy Farr
7. Henry Cooper
8. David Haye
9. Henry Akinwande
10. Bruce Woodcock

Lewis doesn't require any explanation. None of the fighters below Fury and Joshua have a win that comes close to beating Klitschko, and Fury has a slight edge by ending Wlad's reign and slightly better competition outside of that.

Bugner and Bruno are tough to split and could go either way. Bugner probably has more depth in his wins, and the overall quality is similar, but Bruno doesn't have any eyesore losses like Bugner. Farr has a win over a lineal heavyweight champ (Baer), which neither Bugner nor Bruno can claim. However, against world class opposition he more often than not came up on the losing side, including the rematch with Baer.

Ranking gets very difficult outside the top 6, as you're looking at a limited number of world class wins. It's difficult to compare Haye's brief heavyweight career with flashes of brilliance, against Cooper's exemplary run against British/European opposition but patchy record at world level. It gets highly subjective at that point and a lot depends on which criteria you consider most important.


I would switch Joshua and Fury around based on AJ's 2018 wins adding a bit more depth to his resume, but that could change back at the weekend. Whyte is making a decent claim for the lower top 10 and may crack it with a convincing win over Chisora.

 

I don't usually make a judgement on a fighter still active ,but AJ has proven he is capable of coming back from a KD and winning Bruno never did that. AJ's instincts are more suitable to a fighter than Bruno's ever were.

 

Bruno certainly cant prove he can come back from a KD versus a 43 year old man.

CHefily because he didnt face a 43 year old man in a serious bout, let alone get floored by him.

 

He didnt prove he could do it anytime against anyone.

 

ok that is a fair point...bruno never proved he could recover from a knockdown vs a 43 year old man, I wil grant u that.

but you'd have to figure in that he never got kded by a 43 year old man for the chance to prove he could recover from it.

 

Just so I'm clear - is the 43 year old man being referred to in fact then 41 year old world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, the most dominant heavyweight of the previous ten years... or some random 43 year old man whose pint Joshua spilt in the pub?

 

I don’t think when he was sitting on the canvas AJ shrugged it off based on the fact that it was a 41-year-old and put them down. I also believe age in many cases is less meaningful than in times past. If he had the heat to knock him down he had the ability to follow up and it shows something that AJ was able to get up and come back from it.

 

lol.