Those British Boxers that you believe were stand out and excellent? A few that are greats. Lennox Lewis Ken Buchanan Joe Calzaghe Bob Fitzsimmons (Yes imo he's a Brit) Ted kid Lewis
some lesser known and forgotten great British fighters over the years. Joe Bowker Len Johnson Len Harvey Jack Casey Jock McAvoy Ginger Sadd Jim Brady Ernie Roderick Bert Gilroy Peter Keenan Dave Charnley Chic Calderwood Walter McGowan Joe Bugner present, Josh Warrington... and obviously many, many more over the 150 years of Boxing.
Lennox Lewis isn't British in my book. Marketed himself as British to increase his following and revenue but never had an amateur fight in Britain and represented Canada at the olympics. A true Brit would never represent another country!
The underlined were never great ,imo. And several others were very good, but not great either. Great is a much overused word,imo.
It has to be Fitzsimmons. Lewis became overrated here but that´s my opinion only... Calzaghe was pretty good but no... he can´t be top 5 british... I gotta learn more about Ted Kid Lewis, I have nothing to do tonight, maybe he is the one for tonight !
Calzaghe was Sardinian... and Welsh. Y'all can't have him. Lummox was Jamaican. Fitz was Cornish and/or Antipodean. It's between Hatton and Woodhall in my book.
quite the opposite for many Boxing people & fans, sure there are ELITES, who stand alone, a good handful in every Era... but as too Normal TOP Fighters, Champions, Contenders and even TOP Noted fighters, there is little & nothing between Most of Them. Handfuls of Truly Elite fighters, yes, but Hundreds of Greats and thousands of great fighters over 150 years of Boxing. a couple of handfuls of Champions and dozens of Contenders deemed as so over the same 150 years, is not only ridiculous, but an absolute insult to Boxing History and abhorrent to the thousands of great fighters who have climbed through those ropes.
Great fighters are world class men who beat world class men,and I'm not talking about one outlier,but several victories over ranked contenders.Many on your list did not do that. Many on your list weren't even good enough to win national titles. So ,by definition they were not great fighters. I'm insulting nobody,but neither am I putting,good and very good fighters on the pedestal of greatness when they fell short of it. We have widely different definitions of the word,'GREAT '. Nothing personal,but your Grandfather, Bert Gilroy was not a great fighter as I understand the term,the only time he came up against greatness he was out of his depth,and hammered and the difference in class was blatantly obvious. Marcel Cerdan 162 lbs beat Bert Gilroy 173 lbs by KO at 2:18 in round 4 of 10 Date: 1947-02-11 Location: Seymour Hall, Marylebone, London, United Kingdom "Marcel Cerdan, 161 1/4, of Morocco, the French and European middleweight champion knocked out Bert Gilroy, 173, of Scotland Tuesday night in the 4th round of their scheduled 10 round bout after flooring him seven times. Cerdan sent Gilroy down for the full count at 2:18 of the 4th round in the non-title bout before 1500 fans at Seymour Hall. Gilroy, who outweighed Cerdan by 11 3/4 pounds, was unable to take advantage of the extra poundage. Cerdan sent Gilroy to the canvas four times in the 1st round, once in the 2nd, once in the 3rd and once in the 4th." -United Press As to boxing fans and boxing press, produce a list that classes any of the names below as "Great" Jack Casey Len Johnson Jim Brady Ginger Sadd Bert Gilroy Joe Bugner
Calzaghe ,if he had taken on Hopkins and or Jones Jnr and beaten them when they were anywhere near prime ,would certainly qualify,but he didn't. When asked why,he candidly replied,"boxing is a business".