Best British boxer ever?

At least Post War it's Calzaghe.

Aside from his ability and achievements which have been debated to death, this is someone who was advised not to even turn professional because of his hand problems. Went into world title fights without any sparring because of it and still came out on top. Had to adjust his style because of the problem and did so with amazing success.

With all the debate surrounding Calzaghe I don't think he gets enough credit for dealing with ****ed up hands which is quite a big deal when they're your main asset in the ring.

 

atsch

 

Lol @ the people saying Joe! His record is comical. I'd pick Lennox ANY DAY over Joe.

Conteh is the answer.

 

Who ever says Joe calz is mental. Spending over a decade defending a wbo title in Europe against **** opposition does not constitute a great .

 

This.

 

So by your reckoning Conteh's record is better than Calzaghe's? Think before you type.

 

Bull**** born in this country hes ****ing london mate.. My mate was born in this country, his mum and dad are from portugal spent ten years growing up there the simple fact is he isnt portugeezar.. British my friend..

 

People saying Calzaghe

I can actually see a cult forming one day made up of ESB posters who have got together and come to the conclusion that Joe Calzaghe is infact the second coming.

 

Calzaghe's reign is sad.

 

Yeah. The likes of Ahumada and Lopez are better than anyone Calzaghe beat, the old light heavy incarnation of Hopkins included. There's a good argument to be made that they're right up there amongst the greatest light heavies never to win the title. Excellent fighters, both of them; they'd both snot on any of the present belt holders and contenders. And Conteh beat Lopez with one hand; his fists, the right in particular, were just as fragile as Joe's.

Even in his narrow, nebulous prime with his bad hand(s) and the self destruct button held down, Conteh still beat a fair number of top contenders and world class fighters. Not enough to make him the most accomplished Brit ever, mind. And he was a wraith of his old self when he pushed the immortal Saad Muhammad right to the edge and lost a razor thin decision after his old legs went.

I don't entirely blame Calzaghe for ending up with the historically naff CV that he did, for a couple of reasons that I won't go in to. He saw the light before the end by dipping his toe outside the pool when he took old Hopkins on away from home, winning fairly in my book despite being quite past his own best. He is what he is: a fighter of excellent talent and longevity who'd give a lot of trouble to anyone in and around his weight class, no doubt beating some of them.

His record in the scheme of things is - if not quite as terrible as gets made out - a load of gash. I've still defended him in plenty of arguments regardless, even though I thought he was an unlikeable twunt half the time.

 

Frank Bruno.

 

Great post McGrain also add the likes of Winstone , Fred Dyer ( went the distance with the likes of Les Darcy in their first fight ) Tommy Farr that went fifteen close rounds with Joe Louis and beat Maxie Baer and we could have a top ten that would be a good shout v any top ten in World boxing , but for me it's Jimmy Wilde by a country mile and in the modern era Englishman Lennox Lewis .

Great thread lads .

 

He wasn't the best but a lot of the older fella's including my late old man swore by Dave Charnley.

 

Lennox for me, although I don't know too much about some of the older fighters like Fitzsimmons. Suggesting Calzaghe is greater than LL is a horrendous shout

 

Not as horrendous as some of the suggestions on here , Johnny C , Frank Bruno , Froch lmfao some blokes here must have started watching boxing when Sky TV showed up .