Greatest Era For British Heavyweight Boxing?

If Aussies count its 1900s because the Aussies were doing great at boxing until Churchill got the next generation of elite boxers killed.

 

The greatest British era was most definitely the Joshua-Fury era that is winding up.

Not only were most of the top heavyweights from the UK - THE TOP TWO for a brief period - but most of the major fights were taking place there, too.

Lennox Lewis didn't fight a whole lot in the UK when he was champ. Hell, Lewis-Akinwande fought in front of 2,000 (not 20,000 ... 2, 000) people in Nevada. Even when Lewis fought Bruno (the most popular British heavyweight of that era) in the UK, there were only 25,000 people there.

By comparison, Anthony Joshua's title fights, regardless of who he fought, routinely drew crowds three times bigger than that. Because British fans wanted to see Joshua. The opponent rarely mattered.

Hell, Joshua-Dubois had 96,000 people on hand, and it was only for the IBF strap.

Those shows were ridiculously huge in terms of fan interest. And Fury's fights weren't far behind. There were 94,000 there for Fury-Whyte and 60,000 for the Chisora rubber match.

You could argue Lewis and Bruno were better, but they didn't have the fan support the last era did. Not remotely. Lewis wasn't fully appreciated by the Brits until he was retired. Joshua won gold for England and during his whole career was more beloved by the Brits than Lennox ever was. (I think US fans liked Lewis more than British fans ever did when he was active.)

 

Skelton started late but if he didn't Lennox, Akinwande, Skelton is a group I'd take over Fury, Joshua and Whyte. Dubois came a little later when Fury and Joshua while being ranked high probably were no longer top 10ers. Fury and Joshua aren't top 10ers in 2026 and they probably ceased being so around 2022,2023ish.