Best British Show of Skill

Lacy A shot Sheika beat the **** out of him, a shot, inactive, rusty Reid lived with him and even a shot-to-smithereens, though still-sharp 168lb Roy Jones beat him just as easily and slightly more impressively than Calzaghe did.

Push that non-fight aside and there's not a lot to go on with Joseph. He 'beat' 45-year-old Hopkins with sloppy workrate and slappy punches, a puffy, heavy-looking shot-to-smithereens Jones, life and death with a one-dimensional, inexperienced Kessler, life and death with a legless, unsharp version of Eubank, life and death with Reid, Sheika, Woodhall, Brewer, Mitchell, Salem...the list goes on. He was good, but barely very good and definitely not great. He clearly lost to Reid and Hopkins and clearly would've lost to Eubank if Chris wished to take one step back in the dying seconds and deliver one uppercut, I honestly think Eubank decided in a moment that he'd gain more respect losing than winning that night, and so let Joseph off the hook.

Joseph looked terrible against the very average David Starie. Truly terrible.

 

I think we can safely all agree that Hatton and Eubank are the skillsters of British Boxing History, and Calzaghe and Froch are the messy, crude operators.

 

Very impressive dominations, though Graham I prefer to call an awkward talent than a skillster-type. He was all speed, reflexes and extreme unorthodoxity.

McMillan at his best was far more aesthetically pleasing to watch than 'Bomber'. He was a beautiful, beautiful boxer.

 

They certainly had very similar styles, Hatton and Eubank. Both held their hands in the same position - gloves pressed together at stomach-height, and this made it very difficult for their opponents to read what punch was going to be released next.

 

What about Michael Watson-Nigel Benn?

 

The 2nd round in particular is an almost flawless exhibition of boxing from Watson, not just defensively but offensively. He is literally punch-fcuking-perfect - along with Benn's fists swirling round his guard, we see Watson hit him with every shot in the book in this round. Not just jabs, though plenty of them; lead straight right hands, lead right uppercuts and baby Barrera-style left hook/uppercuts, uppercut-jab 1-2's, lead right-left hook 1-2's, digging body shots, the absolute works... in his quite methodical way Watson hits him with the kitchen sink. Benn lands maybe twice cleanly in the whole round.