Who is the greatest British boxer of all time?

Agreed, for achievements in his era Fitz is unparalleled in British boxing.

A few in these parts don't like to hear that though, they only like the ones that fight in colour

 

:think I can't decide about Fitzsimmons...his "signature" fight with Corbett is flawed, until someone can explain away the long count and leg hugging then there will always be question marks about his greatness

 

Lennox Lewis...

 

agreed :happy

 

Jimmy Wilde

 

good call, i was thinking him too

 

It's got nothing to do with them fighting in a lack of colour, it's to do with the fact pre-war fighters fought in a very different sport. I don't think there's much point in comparing Wilde and Fitzsimmons to Lewis and Calzaghe.

 

Totally agree.

It's difficult enough to compare fighters 2 decades apart so what chance does anyone have of comparing a modern day fighter with someone who won his most celebrated fight 113 years ago?

It is fair to say, in my humble opinion, that Fitzsimmons was the best, or close to being the, British fighter of the early years of the sport. However, they were almost competing in a different sport.

A friend of mine would argue that Ted "Kid" Lewis was the best though even that is probably an era that can not be compared with any preceeding or subsequent one.

I'd say that if we split the history of the sport into three ages (early, middle, modern) we'd be doing ourselves a favour. For the modern era you wouldn't get much arguement from me for suggesting Lennox Lewis.

 

Joe Calzaghe or Naseem Hamed.

 

Randy Turpin. He'd hand Calzaghe his arse, IMO.

 

Randy would have had a bit too much power for Calzaghe in my opinion. But it would have been interesting...

 

Fitzsimmons or if you want 'modern' boxers. Benny Lynch

 

Fitzsimmons, I suppose, if we are including him as a British fighter.

Otherwise, I'd say Ted "kid" Lewis.

 

Wilde