Which do you feel is the greatest British victory since 1970 (Classic)

It´s between Buchanan and McGuigan..IMO
I like McGuigan vs Pedroza more... because Pedroza was a very dominant champion at the time.....

 

I thought Benn beating Barkley was great. Although I think the 3 knockdown rule ruined what would have been a better fight even.

 

Curry (weight drained, i know) was considered by many as P4P#1 when he was beaten by Honeyghan.

I don't know if other fighters were ranked that highly (at the time) when they were beaten.

 

Stracy
Honeyghan
Benn
Hatton

 

1.Buchanan vs Laguna....even with the caveat it was a razor close fight.


2.Stracey vs Napoles....I've never rated Stracey that highly and even with Napoles being past it, to go without home advantage and beat him with the talent Stracey had was a considerable feat.Nerves of steel.

3. Honeyghan vs Curry...would probably be higher if Curry had fought better.he gave up so easily.A rightfully damaging knock on him to this day.PLus Honeyghan had more talent than Stracy imo.the opponent they faced was about equal on the night imo though that's with the benefit of hindsight due to Curry's shite performance.

4.McGuigan vs Pedroza....Pedroza in decline and McGuigan had what essentially amounted to home advantage that night.I wouldn't argue at swapping it with Heonyghan vs Curry though as Pedroza fought determinedly and asked all he could of McGuigan at that point in his career.

5.Hatton vs Tszyu....strong win because Tszyu had more class than Hatton even at that stage of his career, however the Tszyu he fought was a lesser fighter than any of the other fighters defeated above + comfy home advantage and a pretty biased ref.

I don't know how i would rank benn vs G-man.In some ways it's the best of all....Mclellan at his peak,benn was past his peak physically, dismissed by many, amazing comeback and effort etc However not knowing when the brain issues were kicking in for Gerald and how much of a role they played throughout the fight, + a poor referee that lost control of things early makes it a hard one to rank.

 

I think Tyzsu's and Curry's stock at that time was highest on the pound for pound lists at the time of those wins. Pedroza and napoles were not as highly regarded as the other pound for pound champions at the point of thier defeats. You would have to say Curry and Tzsyu were serious A listers when Hatton and Huneyghan beat them.

Fair enough if you want to regard their overall ATG worth within their divisions in a "historical impact" regard but IMO you should measure their worth only at the time they lost. For instance Ali was a great champion but very poor post manila as a world class HW.

mcclelann was not as highly regarded as Roy jones was at the time benn beat him. Laguna just did not make enough of an impact on history for buchanan's win to merit anything more than say Terry Downs win over Paul Pender.

 

Tszyu had a weaker crop of P4P entrants to be contending against.He was aging and inactive when he fought Hatton, i doubt that same fighter makes a top ten at all for many of the 70s and 80s years.Long layoffs and beating a Sharmba Mitchell who turned in a terrible performance and was getting old himself wouldn't sustain his reputation in stronger times.

 

David Haye beating Nikolai Valuev in his backyard

 

Curry/Honeyghan & Benn/McClellan a respecfull 2nd.

 

It's Buchanan.

Curry was nearly killing himself to make the weight, Pedroza was on a slippery (though far from vertical) slope and Tszyu had been v.inactive and had never boxed in UK before.

As for McClellan, too many Q marks - he hadn't been beyond 5 rounds for 5 years, for instance.


Apart from those listed, Eubank over Watson in their rematch was a great, great comeback, and what Benn did to Barkley was very impressive.

 

I thought Buchanan lost the first Laguna fight, but I'd even put the win in the second Laguna fight of 1971 above all the other victories listed there, simply for the fact that Laguna was still a better fighter there than all the others were at the time they fought the British guys they did ('loss' in Eddie Linder's backyard notwithstanding).