Greatest ever british boxer?
 

With Hatton losing and retiring, I read he may go down as britains most popular boxer ever. I never quite got why, whilst he had a very good career, there were loads of better and more exciting boxers, but he certainly had an enormous following.

That got me thinking, so who is the best british boxer ever?

Haven't really seen much of him boxing but Ted "Kid" Lewis was suppose to be amazing

joe calzaghe

unbeaten
didn't duck anyone, fought world champions and beat them, roy jones, bernard hopkins, chris eubank and jeff lacey.

rocky marciano was unbeaten and he's a boxing legend, maybe if calzaghe was american he'd be held in the same esteem

Yeah those 2 are legends, what about randy turpin, jimmy wilde, barry mcguigan, eubank, howard winstone, lennox lewis, theyve all got to be in contention

Lewis more recently yes without a doubt he has conquered so many greats

lewis was awesome, he retired as world champion after getting the better of everyone....The only reason hes not considered amongst the alis , fraziers, tysons, foremans, joe louises, marcianos, is because he wastn involved in quite as many super fights and was a pretty cautious fighter , so less drama sometimes...why? well most ducked him and the division wasnt at its strongest era...still he beat holyfield, he beat klitschko, he ruined razor ruddock, hammered tyson (past his best but he still hammered him)demolished bruno, beat the nineball out of botha, briggs, avenged mccall, tommy morrison, gary mason, glen mccrory, avenged rahman.

as a fighter he was smart, huge at 6 foot 5 and 17 plus stones, but he was fast, he was utterly ruthless in finishin oppnents with combinations and hand speed, he knew when to cover up, he had a huge right cross. The only blemish caught twice with 2 massive blows, but he avenged those defeats.. Im pretty sure every heavyweight ever would have had serious problems trying to defeat the mighty lennox lewis

Pmsl at Lewis and JC. JC is the biggest fraud EVER. Bitch please if he thought Benard or Jones in there prime he would have lost his head his whole resume is smokes and Mirrors

As for Lewis would put him up there but lets not act like if he stepped in the ring with Prime pre prison Tyson he would not have actually been killed

Froch is quite clearly the best the guy fights champ after champ like no other fighter in history including Ali and Floyd can't remember the last bum he faced. He fights in the most stacked division and once he gets revenge vs kessler Ward will be the only mark beside his name(Ward is already a first ball

Ot HOF fighter and Froch pushed him damm hard

And lets not act like Lewis did not RUN away from Vitali. Vitali took that fight on a couple of weeks notice and was winning on the cards until Lewis lucked out. Lewis wanted no part of him after that retiring instantly after Vitali offered the rematch

I disagree with literally every word your posted on this subject so far. you slate Lewis and calzaghe yet praise froch as an all time great? Calzaghe won every single fight , he beat 14 world champions and won an all time record 23 straight world title fights over a decade as world champion, beating eubank, brewer, lacy, mitchell, kessler, roy jones, popkins, to name but a few. Fact roy and popkins ducked him for years because 1) he wasnt famous enough to make them money and 2) because he was such a difficult opponent. Tyson ducked Lewis for years in similar fashion.

The man is a complete and utter legend. 46 and 0 undefeated undisputed super middleweight and lightheavy weight champion of the world, goes on at the very top , with his family beside him, Tom Jones singing the anthem and sylvester stallone cheering him on, holding the belts, beating the nineball out of roy jones all at the spiritual mecca of boxing, madison square garden. If thats not great then nothing is!

nicely put

Nearly Stopped reading at Tyson ducked Lewis PMSL. Prime Tyson is the greatest heavyweight boxer in history (including Ali) he would have KO Lewis inside 5 rounds. As for Joe a lot of his so called great wins were against opponents well past there prime ala Jones and Hopkins

Yet more nonsense. Tyson was awesome but limited. He had no jab, no range,no combinations to speed of, just speed and power(The speed only lasted 5 years), but sadly when damata passed, Tyson didnt have the mentor and lost the discipline which gave him this speed and power. When he lost that , then he didnt have the technical skills to fall back on. He was sadly exposed by buster douglas and holyfield and lewis etc I do sympathise with Tyson, because he was from the wrong side of the tracks and became the baddest man on the planet. He was then screwed over by most rich men, by gold diggers. However as a fighter every boxing pundit on the planet has him behind Ali,Joe Louis, Lennox, holyfield and Foreman. I agree with them. Ali and Louis and lennox were probably the 3 best ever. They had different styles, they were technically superior, they had everything a heavyweight needs. Tyson though is an all time great, at his best Id put him number 5.

As for Calzaghe he fought the likes of charles brewer, byron mitchell (1 of the greatest rounds of boxing ever), robin reid,richie woodhall, jeff lacy,mario veit, mikkell kessler, all in their absolute prime, he beat eubank aged 31,
He was asking Roy and Popkins for a fight for a decade. They simply wouldnt fight him. In the end he beta both in their own backyard. Roy(39) was 2 years older than Joe(37), big deal? He clearly didnt look after himself so well and Joe schooled him. Popkins on the other hand Joe beat , then bernhard came back and won the belt off the over-hyped Pavlik who most americans talked up, then he beat Pascal to regain both world titles. Proving he was still a greta boxer in great shape, But Joe beat him in america aged 37, pavlik didnt.

Joe is an all time great. However I would question 2 things, 1) Did Frank Warren do the best for him? awful deal with the now bankrupt? ugly court case against warren which Joe won. 2) Joe was welsh so naturally being from a small nation he didnt have the masses behind him that Hatton did. 3) Joe is a pretty reserved type of guy, a gentleman really. This didnt lend itself to hyping himself in the UK where everything is about Tabloid hype. To be honest he was more hyped by the american press, they know boxing class acts out there. He was class and frankly in a different league to the endless second rate fighters and awful world title performances weve sent stateside over the decades

tyson best ever heavyweight? as you would say pmsl, i smsl (sh*t myself laughing) at that, which great did tyson ever beat? he beat a 38 year old larry holmes who had just come back out of retirement after 4 years, the only other great's he fought, holyfield (he was beaten twice), lewis (he was beaten), so your comment highlight's that you don't have a clue what your talking about.
better than ali? ali beat plenty off great's, liston, frazier, foreman, patterson

the biggest win for tyson was probably against michael spinks

yes it was, and he was only a light heavyweight