Who is the UK's best boxer of the last 30 years?

I'm a huge fan of Herol but he wasn't the best to come out of that gym. The young Naseem Hamed was out of this world.

 

"The Nigel Benn who beat Doug DeWitt would beat any middleweight in history" said Emanuel Steward

 

Except Marvin Hagler, Carlos Monzon, Ray Robinson and countless others.

 

this.:good

 

He would've beaten them all other than possibly Hagler and Monzon. Hagler's chin may of been too good and Monzon's height and reach was probably too much. But I see where Manny is coming from. Tommy Hearns had just about the best ability ever and Manny considers his absolute peak 1986 (Schuler), and DeWitt made every round razor-tight with him, Tommy slightly edging them on flashyness and rangeyness. DD looked great against the terrific Matthew Hilton. Benn completely obliterated him, punching his head from one side of the ring to the other from the opening minute! His ear actually turned BLUE after two rounds! DD's chin was supposed to be unbreakable.

Benn blows Robinson out, he's too big and aggressive. He's four times the fighter the limited Randy Turpin was. Robinson can have Benn out on his feet with ripping combos and Benn can still knock him out with one punch from an unforeseen angle!

(SRR the king of 147lbers.)

I see six rounds with Benn at his most aggressive as too many rounds for Roy Jones to escape.

Eubank would've probably been stopped on body shots.

Toney laid on the ropes at middleweight and Benn would've ripped in combos to the body there.

Many were thinking Benn was looking a bit unbeatable against DeWitt and Barkley. It seemed a backpedaling Nunn might've been punched out of the ring. Benn was that good at that time.

 

So Benn would beat Hopkins?

 

The older Hopkins would be outworked with in and out movement, bobs, weaves, speed punching. The younger Hopkins came forward in straight lines, and Benn's rights were untelegraphed.

If Benn loaded up too much against the older Hopkins, he'd be out-smarted, tied up and lose. Benn had the physical ability, no question. It's mentally, and emotionally, where he wasn't great.

 

Benn fought supposedly better boxers than him like Eubank (II), McClellan, Sanderline, Sims and he outboxed them all, not with range and jabs and circling, but with ducking and slipping and sliding and rolling, backing off, countering, out-speeding etc. Lenzie Morgan was 6ft4in, robbed against Tiozzo in his previous fight (Tiozzo was robbed of his WBA title the fight before that), and Benn outboxed him! His physical ability was something else. Barkley was much taller and rangier and far more experienced, but Benn got off first all the time, his punches simply quicker and more compact and his adaptation (chin tucked after being tagged) and positioning too good.

 

A bizarre thing about Benn was that seemingly nothing little shots would shake him up more than huge right hands! But his powers of recovery from short sharp shots were almost superhuman. The right hands Eubank and McClellan landed on him in most of the 31 rounds should've knocked guys out 15+x over.

Benn was just different.

 

Had he retired after the McClellan fight, he IS the greatest British fighter ever, let's be honest.

 

this ^^^

STOP including a Canadian in these discussions its embarassing

 

Take the Canadian out and Joe Calzaghe has won the poll and deservedly so. End of thread. Big up man like Herol Gee.

 

If we are talking about star power I would go with Hamad and Hatton. One loved, one hated but both had world wide appeal that Lewis and Calzaghe never touched. I'm not really a fan of Hamad or Hatton although I admire what they did, on a world level they were huge in their time. Bruno was definitely the biggest star of them all in the UK. Anyway that's a different subject I guess.

On subject skill wise I go with Calzaghe and overall accomplishment to Lewis so I picked him on the poll. Funny thing is if Lewis didn't mess up with Rahman and had that solid run during his dominance it would even be an argument, he was owning the division. I still wished he blasted Holy out though, his legacy overall would be so much better for it.

edit - with regards to Lewis and his Canadian roots I see where people are coming from. It was defiantly a bit fake coming to the UK early in his career to claim his British loyalty and support for west ham football club etc, he admitted as much himself that basing himself in England was designed to further his career. So I can see why the pure British thing can be an issue for some. Bruno had him banged to rights there and made Lennox look a bit silly. But he spent some young years in the UK so technically.....

 

Often due to excitement. Benn at MW was able to hurt his opponent but had been beat at MW, so it adds excitement.
With say Lewis, he wasnt often in the most exciting fights but was often dominant.
If a fighter is going to struggle in a more even fight, then fans will tune in.
If they are going to be in dull dominating fights, many casual fans wont be interested.
When their careers are weighed up years later than people note how dominant certain fighters were and they get their due respect