Who was the best British fighter in their prime out of this list?

Completely disregarding the question posed by the OP (and the fanboy answer I gave to that earlier in the thread) I truly believe that a prime Nigel Benn in his full snarling pomp would have been too much for Joe Calzaghe, too determined, too single minded, just too much...work rate would not help Joe here.

 

I'm with you and genuinely believe that the version of Benn you talk about would have beaten most, if not all SMWs. I think RJJ would have been able to deal with any version of Benn. Other than that, I'm struggling.

 

Well one things for sure

You didn't beat that version of Benn without going through hell

I don't think we've ever seen Joe go there, and Joe's answer to pressure (flurrying) would be so dangerous against Benn

They are all great fighters and every time I think about it I can come up with a different answer

I had decided on Eubank but then again Olu makes a good point - IMO Watson proved himself the better fighter in their fights

Of course the styles are so, so important, at the end of the day you'd probably get a very mixed bag of results if they all faced off

 

The myth lives on - Collins and Benn were the same age - and Eubank was two years younger and unbeaten when Collins beat him!

 

They were both done, or there abouts, what age they were is not really relevant.

Tyson peaked in his very early 20s, Hopkins in his mid 30s.

 

Calzaghes prime is very hard to judge - shame he fought so much crap for most of his career!

I think Benn would beat any version of Calzaghe, although would probably be more vulnerable to an early Calzaghe when he could punch (although still beats him IMO).

Conversely, I think Eubank in his prime would struggle more against a later Calzaghe (even though he was beaten by an early Calzaghe, Eubank was well past his best), so probably Calzaghe on this match up.

And Eubank did edge Benn in their encounters, so I think this could be a classic case of the A beats B beats C beats A scenario.

So who this makes the best, I not really sure, but I think I'll go with my bias and go for Benn!

 

You cannot say that Mike Tyson peaked in his early 20's, because his training and life style dramatically...dramatically changed.

Hopkins did not peak in his mid 30's neither, it's just called consistency....

"He earned his big pay days, in his mid 30's...but i don't think he fought his best fights"

 

So you're saying that Collins beat a prime Nigel Benn ? Or Eubank for that matter. But Benn inparticular was a shadow you must know this

 

After much thought, I think the middleweight Eubank was the best h2h. That's just an impression though, he didn't actually prove it over a long time v many different styles at world level like Calzaghe did. But in the end, I believe Joe has too many technical deficiencies and relies too heavily on artisan physical attributes (workrate, handspeed) to be a truly great fighter. I think the mw Eubank was, for a short time, a great fighter h2h who could trouble most middleweights in history - perhaps not beat them, but certainly trouble them.

 

Nigel Benn