top 10 brit super/middles

Good list.


I have thought about this alot in the past and my list usually comes in something like that. Calzaghe still has a way to go before cementing a place at the top but hopefully he will achieve a couple more big wins before his career is done.


I do also like to add Bob Fitzsimmons. The guy was great and an heaveyweight title holder who could mix it with the best of the big guys but when you look at his height, size and frame he woulde be more suited to the Super middle ranks. I am pretty sure he was 5' 11" and an half and weighted on average coming into fights 1bout 167lbs. He had a 71" reach, 41"chest and 44" expanded plus a 12" fist.

On that account I would have to put him at the top even though he never actually fought at the weight.

 

Calzaghe is clearly already number 1 though.

 

Yes but tbh he probably fought like a caveman so although he may have the best dimensions of any man on the list there is little to support his fighting capabilities.

 

My two pence:

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

 

I was always under the impression that he was quite handy skill wise even going onto being a fairly decent coach.

I am not overly sure but I am sure he could box well. I guess it depends on whether you judge the fighters in those days as just being lumbering punchers.

 

Fitzsimmons was a Macean trained fighter, his basics were sound and he worked off the jab.

A Macean trained fighter (punching wise) looked very similar to a modern fighter, other than the fact they tended not to have a left hook (as Mace did not need it in LPR, as it would be too dangerous).

 

I thought that. I have read various bits and bobs on the guy. He was mighty impressive at times, especially against the bigger men.


Do you know if there have been any good books written on the fellow?

 

Career super middleweights like Calzaghe are rated at 175 if you are putting the extra weightclasses into the original 8.

Anything over 160 is not a true middleweight.

 

Forgive me for been so 'ignorant' to the old guys but I don't buy it. Comparing modern day fighters to the older guys is impossible. They are so much more advanced these day.

If you haven't actually watched someone fight with your own eyes its impossible to make an accurate assesment of their capabilities... To suggest any different is very silly.

 

We are far more advanced now than we wer twenty/ thirty years ago but that does not stop people claiming the fighters from those days being called the best and superior fighters.

 

Course Wilson.... I totally respect you as a good poster and stuff ... just a bit of a bad subject for me this one. Thats why I always feel there should be a top ten for ability/capability and one for achievement/legacy.... Two very different lists.

I'll give you an example... Of all the old school fighters (pre 60's for the sake of argument) the only guys who really stand out to me as been capable of mixing it in this era are Sugar Ray Robinson, Marcel Cerdan, Joe louis, Henry Armstrong.... Now thats not to say the others couldn't and that i've seen 'every' fighter who's ever boxed but these guys just stood out to me as been at least as good technically and physically as modern day athletes.

 

Sorry let me add the Rock he would have been canny and powerful enough to bash any cruiserweight who's ever lived.

 

Not true at all.

I can see some not rating the real old-timers like Langford, Wilde etc.

Surely anyone with an ounce of knowledge of the technical side of boxing that has watched many 70s and 80s fighters in action would realise there have been no real advancements in technique since then(in a general sense).