Who was the best British fighter in their prime out of this list?

Olu hope your well my friend.... this post i not intended to critisise your selection just using this post as an opprtunity to air an observation i've made.

Micheal Watson was indeed a fabulous fighter, however I find that many people over-rate his capabilities confusing their assessments on his achievements as a fighter, with his achievements as a human being.

Watson was a smooth boxer, with a good punch, good defence and an excellent fighting brain. His wins over Nigel Benn (KO5) and Errol Christie (RSF3) were impressive but his losses to Eubank are perhaps the biggest factor people use when arguing his standing amongst this excellent group. People tend to forget that he was almost shut out by James Cook and badly stopped by Mike McCallum.

I think to argue that he is better then Calzaghe is impossible to substantiate. Its arguable that he may have been a better fighter then Eubank or Benn but the Benn he beat was a misguided novice and the Eubank he fought with such great success was badly weight weakened.

Watson is an incredible man and deserves to be respected for the right reasons- and that is not as a great fighter but as a great person who has overcome incredible adversity. Thats my thoughs anyway. :good

 

I'm not sure Joe beats a prime eubank

 

Its such a tough question to answer, they're all so different in styles.
Benn was a totally offensive beast who annihilated Barkley and beat 'The Next Big Thing' in Gerald MCclellan but my feeling is he would always be found out against a boxer as in Watson, and Watson was by no means a top world fighter when you compare him to the top guys at the time in McCallum, Nunn and then Toney and RJJ.
Eubank beat Benn and Watson but once again he never took on any top line world fighters, preferring instead to stick to his WBO route, a route that Calzaghe would emulate.
Collins just mopped up Benn and Eubank when they had faded after being outboxed by Mccallum.
Calzaghe didnt have the tests of the other guys. The other guys either faced each other or in Benn and Watsons case faced top line guys (McClellan, McCallum).
Im going to go with Benn on this one for beating the very dangerous Iran Barkley, beating McClellan and i felt he beat Eubank in the re-match too, i believe on the whole his wins are better than anybody elses even though he lost a few.
As good as all these guys were i think theres a lot of misty-eyed nostalgia with the era. Mike McCallum convincingly beat Collins, absolutely destroyed Watson and for me would have done the same to Eubank and Benn. The Bodysnatcher must be one of the most under-rated fighters ever also beating Herol Graham in the process, McCallum could have beaten all our Brit guys.
Eubank and Benn would have been fodder for the likes of RJJ, Toney and Nunn. They sensibly stayed clear and took the paydays on offer to them and full credit to Eubank for admitting it.
Calzaghe is a different era and a naturally bigger man, he was unfortunate in a way that the challenges werent there and he 'chose', like Eubank to stay in this country and cherry-pick opponents for so long, his 'name' opponents are better than Benn's but Benn beating Mcclellan in 95' is a better achievement than any of the Calzaghe wins for me ..

 

Calzaghe would have defeated all of them prime for prime. He would have outboxed Benn and use his hand speed and workrate to edge out Watson and Eubank.

People keen banging on about Benns win over Mcclellan..am I the only one that think that win is somewhat tainted? Benn showed great heart but would he have won if he hadnt damaged Geralds brain with that leaping accidental head butt? Benn had already tasted the canvas twice and the injury ended the fight.

 

What exactly is your basis for saying that the 'leaping head butt' caused the damage to MCclellan ? Did you know the status of MCclellans Brain function before and during the fight ?? I think not, your a Joe Calzaghe fan who desperately wants to denigrate the other fighters achievements because you cant quite face the fact that Calzaghe beat an old Eubank, an overhyped Lacy/Kessler and guys past they're prime in Hopkins/Jones .... With your desperately amatuer 'leaping headbutt, brain damage analysis' you have admitted that Benn's wins are far superior to Calzaghe's .. I like Joe but your clearly a biased fan and biased fans have only one way of thinking

 

Jeff Happy New Year. I have no issue whatsoever with anyone having a different opinion to me on any topic. We all come on the forum to discuss ideas and get enlightened by our discussions.

I am not sure people overrate Watson. If anything I think he might have been a bit unlucky. He was in my opinion a better fighter than Eubank technically which Chris himself has later admitted. I think Watson clearly won their 1st fight in my opinion, changed his style and tactics and was handily winning the 2nd until the disasater struck when he floored Eubank and got caught when a hurt Eubank landed a desperation right uppercut from the outside, a get out of jail shot and the tragic aftermaths. Had Eubank fought Doug De Wit,Barkley or maybe even Duran he may have would have won the world title.

I think to beat McCallum he would have needed to be at his best and that would probably still not have been good enough. I thought he lacked sharpness on the night due to the fight having to be rescheduled when he broke his nose in his last sparring session. He might have been sharper on the original date as oppossed to the rescheduled date 10 months later without taking a tune up fight which was a mistake going in against the excellent ring mechanic like McCallum.

I don't want to do comparison here as situations are never really the same. As you know I am not a fan of Calzaghe's but I think his record however it has been achieved has to be viewed as that of a great fighter. Yes I know all the negatives about Calzaghe's record.

I vote for Watson because I think he was the best all round of the 5 of them but I agree this is debatable.

 

I've gone Benn, but feel I need to explain why...

For me, looking at the list there were only two options - Benn/Calzaghe.

Benn, head to head, could beat anyone in his prime. He was an animal and impressive on the world scene.

Calzaghe - the best super middleweight of all time in my opinion. However, I find it hard to pin point his 'prime'. Was it the Calzaghe that beat Eubank and Reid? If so, he falls behind Benn and Eubank in terms of prime for prime acheivements - as I dont think he was as awesome in these two fights as Benn and Eubank were in their prime. Was prime Calzaghe the one that beat Omar Sheika and Richie Woodhall? If so then this is impressive and puts him ahead of Eubank for me, but not ahead of Benn given the level of opposition. Or is it the Calzaghe that beat Kessler/Hopkins/RJJ. I think it probably is this form of Calzaghe, but I would see Benn's prime as more impressive.

Pound for pound, Calzaghe tops this list. H2H, prime for prime, Benn sneaks it for me. But it's close!

 

Touchy? Most people seem to agree Calzaghe was the better of the listed fighters so i dont need to bash anyone...just simply making a point about this "greatest win by a british fighter" .

After the leaping hook which ended up a headbutt...McClellan took a knee and started blinking...which he continued to do showing signs of distress until he took a knee for the final time which ended the fight.

Benn was knocked down twice and behind on the scorecards before this incident occured. For me this takes something away from the win..but im clearly in the minority.

 

I re-watched the Benn-Mcclellan fight recently and I thought that what happened could have been avoided or perhaps made a less worse. Mcclellan started blinking in the round or two before the fight was stopped. As soon as he felt uncomfortable, he should have stopped or been pulled out by his corner. It was clear he was having problems with his head.

 

Eubank for me

 

Agreed. I remember watching it at the time with my Dad and we were both calling for it to be stopped as soon as the blinking became apparent. It was quite clear that there was something wrong in there.

 

the benn-mclelland fight made all but hagler-hearns look tame
the fight finished benn too,and he was only a shell when collins licked him.
i thought watsons best win was against don lee ,who battered sibson a few years before.
i pick calzaghe as No1 and think bomber graham would have beaten the other four too.

 

So true Jeff :good

 

We are blessed to have so many great fighters to talk about. Or have had rather.

 

Nice post Axl.

McCallum was indeed top notch. He would have beaten any British fighters of that era, I think he demonstrated that against Watson. I was surprised to see so many easily picking Hopkins over McCallum in a peak H2H matchup.

What this is of course demonstrates is that McCallum is easily the best 154lb'er all-time.