Was Duke McKenzie`s win over Gaby Canizales one of the Top 10 performances by a Brit at elite level?

I have not seen the fight....I will have to check this one out.

My initial thought is Gabby was in his prime 5 years prior to this and was in the twilight of his career. However as evidenced by his stoppage of Lora (also on the decline) he was still a pretty competent operator...but clearly past his top form.

He wasn’t top 10 ranked since 87, so I am not sure what the win means in terms of Dukes performance.

 

Duke was a excellent little fighter ,certainly one of the best British ones at the lower weight s .Im sure he was the first Brit to win a belt in 3 different weight division. He never got the headlines that such as Benn, Eubank or Hamed got ,but the boxing fans recognized his talent .

 

Very good win, as were his victories over Benavides and Soto. At his best he looked a class operator.

McKenzie was too inconsistent though to rank too highly amongst all-time British fighters. McAuley handled him pretty comfortably, Jacob gave him a bit of a beating, he was outhustled by Jimenez, stopped by Robinson, and blasted out in a round by Del Valle. Although his chin wasn't that bad, he was vulnerable to being outmuscled and really struggled if he couldn't dictate the tempo of a fight.

Titles at three weights is a nice stat, but he only made three successful defences across those reigns. I don't think he's underrated; underappreciated I'd go with though, as his career was entertaining and he so often bounced back after being written off.

 

Age is arbitrary for human beings in general even more so for determining a boxers prime.

 

I guess you'd need to do a ranking, which in an interesting idea.
Some of the top ones IMO would be:
Randy Turpin beating Sugar Ray Robinson
Owen Moran beating Battling Nelson
Bob Fitzsimmons beating James J Corbett

 

Duke was a excellent boxer with text book skills .The only British fighter to win three different weight class titles .very underrated IMO.

 

Bob Fitzsimmons.

More recently Ricky Burns, but, yeah.