Top 5 Greatest Scottish Boxers?

Dick McTaggart deserves a mention even though he never went pro.

 

Jim Watt’s win over Howard Davis Jr was terrific

 

I´d agree completely.

Also gave a near peak Buchanan a good fight and hung tough with Arguello something Alexis following 4 lightweight challengers couldn´t do (including Mancini).

Dominated undefeated Davis who later came so close to beating Edwin Rosario. His best career performance and one of the best of any British fighter.

Watt´s win over reigning EBU champ Charlie Nash (fresh off a win over an ageing Buchanan) is rarely mentioned. Ruined Nash.

Jim´s reign as EBU champ has virtually no footage available, by all accounts he was devastating against dangerous Spaniards Jeronimo Lucas (himself coming off a huge 3 round win over former EBU super-feather champ and WBC challenger Sven Erik Paulsen)+Antonio Guinaldo (big puncher who moved up to super-lightweight to score 2 EBU title kos abroad before Boza Edwards outpointed him).

I would place him either 4th or 5th on SonnyRoll´s list.

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1 Benny Lynch
2 Ken Buchanan
3 Jackie Peterson
4 Josh Taylor
5 Walter McGowan

 

1. Ken Buchanan

2. Ricky Burns

3. Josh Taylor

4. Scott Harrison

5. Benny Lynch

 

Mancini did hang tough with Arguello. Only one round less.

The Davis quote is entirely true, through.

 

Benny & Kenny are often cited, but that is typical modern cited 'achievement based listings which fall short of H2H and Era realities...

a more all inclusive accurate list is

Lynch
Clarke
Buchanan
Paterson
McGowan
Harrison

Keenan
Gilroy
Kilrain
Calderwood
Milligan
McCormack
Brady
Hill
Lafferty
Watt
Taylor

Burns
Ken Shaw, Scotland's best ever HW...

and loads of lesser known greats like Hugh Cameron, Johnny McGrory, Ginger Stewart and a good few other British Contenders & Noted fighters.

 

Hard to determine criteria but I would have Ken Buchanan as no 1 and Josh Taylor would probably be in my top 5. Benny Lynch top 5 as well somewhere.

 

O’Grady night was a great night too at Kelvin Hall on ITV. Always blood shed in Jim Watt fights.

 

Watt wasn’t the most gifted but a terrific tactician. Strong chin and would take a half step back when more talented fighters would load up a combination, allowing it to fall marginally short of the target. He could see through blood and think through pain.

 

Brilliant fight as you'd all say! Thank you!

 

Always difficult to compare across eras, but if making a list:

1) Ken Buchanan
2) Benny Lynch
3) Jim Watt
4) Walter McGowan
5) Tancy Lee

Ranking gets difficult after the top two, and there's a dozen or so names you could potentially throw in the mix. A few years ago I would have presumed Taylor would be a lock once his career was done, but the bottom pretty much fell out of his career as an elite performer.

There has to be a weighting towards fighers who were legitimately the number one guy in the division, which is why Ricky Burns doesn't make the cut. You can make a solid argument based on longevity and consistency, but he was always one titlist amongst many.

Watt was the top Lightweight in between Duran and Arguello. McGowan didn't have a long run at the top, but I rate his wins over Burrini and Rudkin higher than more recent fighters.

Tancy Lee has a standout win over a prime ATG, regardless of how it tends to get diminished, which separates him from the pack.

 

I would definitely have Watt in the top 5 probably 3rd and Murray Sunderland in top 10

 

Scotland has produced a good few dozen greats,
grading fighters by world titles is fine, but it truly gives a wrong idea, simply and in part, because in the last 40 years or so we have all these plastic belts & 17 divisions, which also forgets greater & more superior eras...

at one time and for a long time, the British title was only 2cd to the world title, National titles, in all of boxing's Leading Nations, held clout and were necessary in order to propel fighters into higher ratings and more prestigious titles and noted history.

Scotland, like other great Boxing Nations, had dozens of greats, that fighters like Burns, Taylor (should have been more), and even Watt would sit well behind them. There really were more than you can imagine.