Rank the best British Isles fighters of the modern era....

Let's be realistic here, Lewis is way, way above everyone else here. a few years post-retirement, and the debate is whether is top 5, 10 or 15 of greatest ever heavies, not whether he was a great heavy.

i'd go hamed second. He dominated featherweight for five years and produced some extraordinary performances at the start of his reign. Talent, power, dominance and rule by fear. One of the great feathers, imo.

Calzaghe. His opposition was not great, but he was clearly the best in his division for a long time, and a post-prime but still very good JC beat an awkward, post-prime but still very good BHop in the States.

then, i'd probably go for Benn. Although flawed, he consistently beat top fighters.

honeyghan was the dominant welter for a while (bias: probably my favourite ever fighter).

Hatton. he won proper belts four times (tyszyu, Maussa, Collazo, Urango), the first of whom was again, maybe slightly post-prime but formidable nonetheless, and beat his main challenger in his chosen division, Malignaggi. Hatton's career is stellar, but we're starting to lose sight of that.

Haye. alreaduy. the talent and clear supremacy at cruiserweight.

eubank. I like eubank, admire his wars and some of his wins. But I'm not sure he really had the argument of being number one in his division at any point. Plus, to this day, I can't score the Benn rematch as anything other than a handy win for Benn.

McGuigan. Deservedly Hall of FAME for what he represented and his skills, but he didn't do enough to warrant a higher ranking here.

Bruno. Very, very good, now underrated boxer. But he's clearly the least of these guys for me.

 

I think Honeyghan is undeservedly getting underrated on quite a few peoples lists.

 

I had him number five. Do you think that is fair? I could see him over Benn, but not Lewis, Hamed or Calzaghe. they, for me, were more clearly number one in their divisions.

 

Beating Curry and destroying Bumphus and Hatcher gets him above Bruno, Haye and McGuigan.

Losing his '0' to Vaca whilst on the verge of true superstardom and then the disgraceful performances against Starling and Breland means the Raggamuffin Man can go up on the list no more.

 

I think some people see him as something of a one hit wonder.

It's a little unfair, he has a couple of solid wins other than Curry such as Maurice Blocker and Jorge Vaca whos record is completely tainted by fighting on too long, to the extent he's now overlooked. Plus Bumphus.

Can't really see him higher than 5 if we're being extremely generous, as it simply has to be based on that one extremely good win to see him so high, which is fine up to a certain point. Then longevity and depth comes into it. Plus he had a few shockers in his time as much as he was great on occasions.

 

Exactly, over-rated and boring as **** to watch. Yeah that golden era of the 1990s for heavyweights, was so golden, that George Foreman came back and won two titles.

 

The problem is that the Blocker decision did have the sniff of a hometown decision (I would say Honeyghan edged it, just) and Vaca was a brave fighter, but as Lloyd showed in the rematch and then Brown, Vaca was simply not in the league of a top Welterweight near his best.

Honeyghan may of been unlucky to drop the first Vaca fight, but even without hindsight, it was obvious that Honeyghan anywhere near his best, would of had Vaca out of there by the eighth.

 

Lewis
Calzaghe
Hamed
Benn
Honeyghan
Eubank
McGuigan
Hatton
Haye
Bruno

 

Just steals the 9th spot above Calzaghe, Calzaghe just about gets the number 10, theres still a few cracking british fighters who should have beat him.

 

Lewis top, then Hamed, then the rest.

How many times in history has a British figher dominated a division for as long as Lewis did?

 

Good list, considering off the top of your head, number 7 is an interesting pick, I like your top 5, I have taken the British boxers off an ATG World list I put up at the beginning of the year and ended up with the following :-

1] Wilde
2] Lennox Lewis
3] Welsh
4] Driscoll
5] Calzaghe
6] Ted Kid Lewis
7] Buchanan
8] Kid Berg
9] Moran
10] Lynch
{Ignored Fitzsimmons as he never fought in the UK and moved away as a boy}

 

il go with that

 

Hatton was never an undisputed champion...............

 

Neither was Barry...........

 

I didn`t say he was did I???? Just pointing out that Hatton wasn`t undisputed as he avoided the other belt holders.