Worst fighter who could beat every British heavyweight champion before Lewis?

Rating "worst" fighters is never an easy task. There are a good amount of non-champions who could do it such as Ron Lyle and Ernie Terrell. Also, I wasn't sure if you meant every British heavyweight world champion or every BBC champion.

Pound for pound Ruby Bob Fitzsimmons would be the best Brit before Lennox and it would take a top five heavyweight to beat him. To that end I will go with Joe Louis.

As far as head to head match ups go I just think Fitz is too small to beat these guys. So, as a surprise answer, I am going to go with multiple-time cruiserweight champ, Carlos "Sugar" De Leon. De Leon, a world champ for all or part of every year in the 1980s, was a really good, underrated fighter. The thread title said "could" so I am going to go with him.

 

I think there's enough serious contenders that it'd take someone truly elite on that schedule.

Guys like Len Harvey, Tommy Farr, Henry Cooper and plenty others.

Maybe Floyd Patterson would be my pick.

 

Can ya gimme a mini roster of who I am working with? (British guys) Sorry.

 

Looking at the list of British national champions, really the main hurdles are Farr, Cooper, Joe Bugner and Gary Mason (depending on what you think of him) before Lennox claims that crown.

Now I’m going to toy with the stipulation put down by @cross_trainer because it’s a six-year chore by my count for someone to beat the 36 men (some held it twice) who held this title before Lennox — and frankly most of those guys couldn’t handle fighting every other month for six years themselves … nor could a lot of guys.

In fact, that’s the real crux here, not the level of opposition. Because the idea of getting through that schedule against any opponents, really, without ever breaking a hand or suffering a cut that wouldn’t be fully healed in two months (and allow training in between) is pretty ludicrous.

Not to mention fighting that pace for six years is going to leave most anyone shopworn by the time they get to Mason at the end of it, and he’s the most physically imposing (Bugner might be taller but he’s not a physical fighter — but with him, who has the legs to stalk him down after fighting every two months for six years?).

So let’s do away with that whole thing and just find the least of the heavyweights who would be good enough to beat the whole lot with some kind of time machine reset between each of the fights.

I like Earnie Shavers here — we know what he did with Bugner; I think Mason is a bit to stiff and oafish to avoid Earnie’s barrage; I figure Cooper’s sharp left hook poses the biggest danger but one good shot from the Acorn and I figure Our ‘Enery loses a pint or two of blood from the gash it leaves, if he’s standing.

Carl Williams might could do the trick, as there’s no major punchers of note unless you think Mason could do it, but I figure The Truth is, Carl would jab his way to victory after victory.

Going a rung further down, Bert Cooper might beat every single one of them on a given night but he’s just too inconsistent — he’d show up out of shape and disinterested at some point. Tex Cobb gets hit too much, isn’t explosive and Bugner probably outpoints him. Perhaps crude South African slugger Kallie Knoetze does the trick?

 

Bombardier Wells
Len Harvey (L-HW)
Jack London
Tommy Farr
Freddie Mills (L-HW)
Bruce Woodcock
Don Cockell (L-HW)
Henry Cooper
Brian London
Joe Bugnar
Frank Bruno
Lenox Lewis
David Haye


GIANTS, S-HWs
AJ
Fury...

you can cite Phil Scott, Jack Peterson, Tommy Martin, Richard Dunn, Gary Mason, Henry Akinwande, Derek Chisora & Dylan Whyte... who I'm I forgetting?

there haven't been many ATG's, but some worthy fighters who might surprise, though Most True TOP 3-5 HW Contenders could probably do it.

But who knows, our 3 Best might surprise.

 

There's atleast a reasonable chance of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali failing to pull this off.

Certainly Len Harvey was confident about his chances against Ali

 

Bombardier Wells
Len Harvey (L-HW)
Jack London
Tommy Farr
Freddie Mills (L-HW)
Bruce Woodcock
Don Cockell (L-HW)
Henry Cooper
Brian London
Joe Bugnar
Frank Bruno
Lenox Lewis
David Haye

GIANTS, S-HWs
AJ
Fury...

you can cite Phil Scott, Jack Peterson, Tommy Martin, Richard Dunn, Gary Mason, Henry Akinwande, Derek Chisora & Dylan Whyte... who I'm I forgetting?

there haven't been many ATG's, but some worthy fighters who might surprise, though Most True TOP 3-5 HW Contenders could probably do it.

But who knows, our 3 Best might surprise.

 

Maybe Bonecrusher ?

 

Len was 60 at the time too !

 

This takes some weighing up and I do wonder if one of our American cousins isn't tugging our tail. No "Worst" could have beaten all of these shapes, sizes and abilities.
Ali, Louis, Foreman ? No problem other than Joe Bugner. Marciano struggles with Bugner too, maybe Bruno and Mason.
Floyd Patterson has the all round game to outbox, out fight and out last just about all these lads.

 

Your forgetting- Jack Bodell / Danny Mac / Neville Mead / to name a few. stay safe buddy.

 

Archie Moore would laugh his way through this lot. In top shape he's beating them like they owe him money. Not the "worst" because he's literally one of the best ever but he is a former MW so it adds flavour. I think Mac Foster could nuke his way through them all if he was willing to suffer, I am thinking Carl Thompson could do it but that's not saying much he was a monster. Hmm... Jimmy Bivins could... I am not concrete on any of these but Archie I am trying to find the right guy.