1. Lennox Lewis 2. Wladimir Klitschko 3. Max Schmeling 4. Bob Fitzsimmons 5. Vitali Klitschko 6. Ingemar Johansson 7. David Haye 8. Frank Bruno 9. Primo Canera 10. Sultan Ibragimov Until the careers of Usyk and Fury are over, and then the list changes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe#List_of_states_and_territories
Max Schmeling isn' t heavyweight by modern standards and neither is Bob Fitzsimmons, Johansson, or Cooper. Is Lennox Lewis really European? Both of his parents are Jamaican. Both of my parents are black Americans but if they moved to China and had me there would I be considered Chinese by any Chinese person? But if you want to call Lennox Lewis European then Henry Akinwande should be on the list.
Just for the fun of it, here is Boxrec's list. 1. Lennox Lewis 2. Wladimir Klitschko 3. Tyson Fury 4. Vitali Klitschko 5. Ingemar Johansson 6. Alex Povetkin 7. Oleksandr Usyk 8. Max Schmeling 9. Anthony Joshua 10. Frank Bruno
It doesn’t matter if they aren’t hw’s by modern standards. They were HW in the past and they achieved a lot so they are high on my ranking.
Good shout on Mildenberger, mind you the beating he dished out to Walker was painful to watch, Billy shipped a brutal amount of punishment in his fairly short but action packed career, but very few as sickening as the beat down Mildenberger administered, Walkers bravery knew no bounds, but how his brother let him go out out round after round onto Karls thudding, hurtful, punches is beyond me. I have met and spoke to Walker at various boxing functions over the years, and despite all the punishment he absorbed he remained articulate and erudite, amazing really, what struck me the first time I met him was his size ( or lack of it ) I am around 5ft 9in and he looked smaller !! perhaps he shrunk with age, when I think of all the debates on here about the HWs of yesteryear competing against today's crop, I couldn't see Walker lasting more than a couple of rounds, not that he was world class, or even approaching, just the thought that he competed in the HW division is almost laughable . stay safe Noel.
Chagaev is a Russian by nationality, as is khabib, beterbiev, chimaev, bivol, ggg, ibragimov and so on
Well it is the same way the USA. If you say you are American then you are American and if you don't agree you are "racist".
It would probably depend on how successful in sport you were! For example, Japan is a right win conservative country where blood lines are still culturally important, yet they now accept Naomi Osaka as a Japanese sporting icon. Admittedly whilst brushing under the carpet the right wing voices that didn't like her because she was seen as a black American, and therefore non-Japanese. But even then, such strong ethnonationalistic views tend to only be espoused by fringe far-right groups, even in Japan. I can't speak for all nations of Europe, but it's pretty much accepted in the UK by the majority of us (far left to center right) that if you are born in Britain and adopt the culture and language then you are British. Not many of us can trace our Anglo-Saxon heritage and dance around the maypole - and I say that as likely one of the whitest people on the board who was brought up in a conservative household. I doubt Akinwande would make the list, though born here, living from 4 years old to 21 in Nigeria I suspect he would be too disconnected culturally. But more importantly he wasn't that good.
