Ranking the best English fighters of all time

[BoztheMadman]

Ok, this time I have come up with a new format and a new way of ranking. Sometimes when you rank by who YOU think is the best, it is not easy to rank everyone correct. Or, you have to make up your mind sometimes who to put ahead of who-it's a headache. So, now I will be ranking purely by this criteria: A-number of titles/title defenses and B: number of world champions/elite fighters they beat. I will also make it less extensive, because writing about each guy in detail takes up too much time and is EXHAUSTING! Ok, are you ready now? I realized that I've done all the parts of UK except one-the biggest part. So here we go, ranking the best English fighters of all time!

 

1. Lennox Lewis

 

He barely qualifies as "English" but was born in England and represented it as a pro. Or UK, but you know what I mean. Lewis was the undisputed world champ between November 1999 and April 2000 and has won the WBC title three times, in 1993, 1997 and 2001. He also held the IBF title twice. He made 13 world title defenses altogether. His best wins (on paper) were against Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Vitali Klitschko, Hasim Rahman, Oliver McCall, David Tua, Tommy Morrison, Frank Bruno, Tony Tucker and Donovan Ruddock. Only Tua and Ruddock never won a world title but were considered elite level back then. Lewis got knocked out twice and his win over McCall came due to McCall falling apart psychologically, so that one is weak. He was knocked out by Rahman and then came back to knock him out, which goes to his credit. He was losing to Klitschko when the fight got stopped, but after losing the first two rounds in spectacular fashion, he came back to inflict a bad cut on Vitali, which also goes to his credit, despite the victory not really being well deserved. He didn't fight Wladimir or Tyson and Holyfield at their best, but still, statistically, he has the strongest record of all English and probably British boxers so far.

 

2. Ted Kid Lewis

 

Lewis has far more victories on his resume than any other Englishman-192! He scored 78 ko's, meaning he could punch too. He won titles at welterweight, middleweight and light heavyweight, and has also fought at heavyweight. He first won the welterweight world title in 1915 by beating Jack Britton, his nemesis. He defended it four times, including another win over Britton, before he lost it to Britton in 1916. He recaptured the title in 1917 by decisioning Britton again and once again beat him in his next four defenses! He made one more defense against Brian Downey before again losing the title to Britton in 1918. He won it for the third time against Johnny Tillman and made 3 defenses, including a draw against Benny Leonard, before losing again to Britton, this time by KO9, in 1919. He became a middleweight after once again failing to recapture it from Britton, and won the European title here by RTD12 against Johnny Basham. He also won the British lhw title by TKO14 against Boy McCormick. He then challenged the reigning world champion here, Georges Carpentier, who was 4 inches taller and weighed in at 8 kilos or 18 pounds more. Lewis was knocked out in 1 round in May 1922. He finally retired in 1929. Lewis is rightfully considered one of the best boxers Britain and England have produced.

 

 

3. Chris Eubank

 

One of the best defensive fighters from England and UK, Eubank has more world title defenses than Lewis, which puts him at no.1 there. However, he has had his share of questionable wins, such as the ones against Michael Watson, Ray Close and Dan Schommer. He was also fortunate to "escape" with a draw in the rematch with Nigel Benn. Eubank first achieved glory when he stopped his national archrival Benn by TKO9 in a classic fight on 18 November 1990. He thus won the WBO middle title. He defended it against Dan Sherry by technical decision and hard-hitting Gary Stretch by TKO6. He then had that famous first fight against Watson and in the eyes of many did not deserve the decision he got. That was in June '91 and in September they fought for the super middle version of the title. In a climactic war, Eubank came back from the brink of defeat to put Watson down in round 11 and then stop him early in the 12th on his feet. He made 14 defenses of this title altogether and the best guys he beat were Sugar Boy Malinga, Tony Thornton, Lindell Holmes, Graciano Rocchigiani, Ray Close and Henry Wharton. He also drew against Benn as mentioned and Ray Close, in the first fight, which Eubank by all accounts should have lost. He finally lost his title to Steve Collins in 1995, in a close fight where he had Collins down and hurt. Eubank had great physical as well as technical talents, but was sometimes lazy on the offense and liked to "dance" and show off too much. His chin was as hard as it gets and his physique and conditioning perfect. He never got to fight the very best out there, like Roy Jones or James Toney, which is truly a shame. Thus, we can never really know just how good he was.

 

4. Nigel Benn

 

The exact opposite to Eubank in almost every way, as a fighter and a human, Benn was a destroyer and one of the greatest punchers to ever come out of UK. Despite that, he had a good movement and solid defense and could box when needed. He won the WBO middle title in 1990 by stopping the tough Doug DeWitt and then defended it with an impressive 1-round destruction of Iran Barkley. After losing the title to Eubank, he won the WBC super middle title in 1992 by stopping Mauro Galvano. He made 9 defenses this time and his most famous one was against Gerald McClellan in a climactic war, where he prevailed by TKO10. He also stopped Nicky Piper, drew against Eubank (he had won if he didn't get a point deducted) and beat Henry Wharton by UD. He finally lost his title by SD to the tricky Sugar Boy Malinga. He ended his career by getting stopped twice by Steve Collins. Benn has 10 world title defenses altogether, which puts him at no.3. He was another guy who could've had better discipline out of the ring and got stopped by Michael Watson and perhaps also Eubank because he wasn't in a good enough shape.

 

5. Randolph Turpin

 

One of the greatest British and English middleweights who scored a great victory over Sugar Ray Robinson, but was never able to follow up that success and instead turned into another unrealized talent. Turpin won the world title by outpointing Robinson in 1951, but then lost the rematch by a questionable 10-round stoppage only 2 months later. He beat several of that time's best boxers also, including Cyrille Delannoit (TKO8), Luc van Dam (KO1), Don Cockell (TKO11) and Charles Humez (PTS15), but he lost his last world title attempt to Bobo Olson on points in 1953 and then got stopped by Tiberio Mitri in 1 round, losing his Euro title, in 1954. He was a raw talent with great physical abilities, such as punching power and agility, but his problems with women led him on a downward slope and he ended committing suicide in 1966.

 

6. John Conteh

 

Conteh is the best English and British light heavyweight still. He won the WBC title in 1974 by beating Victor Ahumada by decision in a hard fight. He made 3 successful defenses, the best one against Yaqui Lopez by way of decision, before vacating the belt. Thus-he didn't lose the belt in the ring, which goes to his credit. He also experienced a controversial loss to Mate Parlov in an attempt to regain his old title. His only truly devastating loss happened in a rematch against Matthew Saad Muhammad, where he was stopped in 4 rounds after being caught suddenly and then dropped 5 times. Also the first fight with Muhammad was controversial and he lost by decision. Conteh beat Yaqui Lopez, Chris Finnegan, Jorge Ahumada, Tom Bogs, Vicente Rondon, Lonnie Bennett and Len Hutchins. Due to his excessive partying and fast lifestyle, his prime was cut short and thus, he was capable of achieving even more. He thus gets an extra "unrealized talent point".

 

 

7. Lloyd Honeyghan

 

Was a fighter with great offensive talents. Very fast, hit hard and good enough technically. He seemingly burst out of nowhere to defeat the seemingly-unbeatable Donald Curry in a great upset in 1986, making him retire after 6 rounds and thus becoming the undisputed welter champion. Honeyghan made 3 defenses, before losing controversially to Jorge Vaca in 1987. He recaptured the WBC title by stopping Vaca in 3. His great downfall came when he lost the title in his second defense against Marlon Starling, who gave him a bad beating before stopping him in 9, in 1989. Honeyghan would never be the same again and was stopped in 3 rounds by Mark Breland a year later, in a WBA title fight. Honeyghan fought till 1995 but never achieved anything and was again stopped by Vinny Pazienza and Adrian Dodson. A great talent, not least physically, but with a short prime.

 

8. Alan Minter

 

A very talented guy who would have been rated higher, had he not been so prone to cuts. Minter's career would have looked different without all those losses on cuts, but he still won the world middle title and became the first Brit to hold it in 29 years. Minter first won the Euro title twice, before winning the WBC and WBA titles (then the only ones) by SD15 against Vito Antuofermo in March 1980. He made one successful defense by stopping Antuofermo on cuts in 8 rounds in June, before losing it to Marvin Hagler in September in 3 rounds, also on cuts. Minter was a tall middleweight who hit hard and had a very good jab, but was perhaps too aggressive and got cut up too easily. His best wins were over Antuofermo, Sugar Ray Seales, Gratien Tonna, Tony Licata, Kevin Finnegan, Earnie Singletary and an aging Emile Griffith. Since he lost so many fights due to cuts and was only really knocked out once in his last fight against Tony Sibson, Minter earns that "unlucky man point".

 

9. Bob Fitzsimmons

 

I really don't know why so many rate Bob at nr.1 and 2 in these lists. Perhaps because he was the first Brit to win a world heavyweight title, but if you look at his record-he didn't really achieve that much. Not to justify such a high rating. Bob did succee in winning both the heavy and light heavy title, but lost them both in his first defense. His great moment of glory came when he knocked out Gentleman Jim Corbett in 14 to lift the world heavy title, 17 March 1897. As was then customary, he didn't have to defend his title every year, so it went until 1899 when he did it and got knocked out by Jim Jeffries, in 11 rounds. In 1902, he was again knocked out by Jeffries in a match for the world title, this time in 8 rounds. Fitzsimmons then went down to 175 and won the world title there on points against George Gardner, 25 November 1903. In 1904, he first won a 6-round newspaper decision over Philadelphia Jack O'Brien. He fought O'Brien again with the title at stake in December 1905 and lost by a corner retirement in 13. In 1907, he was knocked out by Jack Johnson in 2 rounds in a heavyweight fight. Fitzsimmons was a hard puncher who scored 57 ko's in 61 wins but he lacked the finesse and was a typical brawler. At 5'11, he was somewhat undersized for a heavy of that time and was outweighed by Jeffries by as much as 15-18 kilos or 30-40 pounds! He was simply never a true heavyweight but a light heavyweight and his career surely would have been better had he focused on that division. He is therefore seen with "rose tinted glasses" by many when talking about historical perspective.

 

10. Ricky Hatton

 

The Hitman Hatton, the beloved Mancunian brawler, was the first Brit to win the fighter of the year award in 2005 and one of the first Brits to win a world light welter title. Hatton was a great body puncher who defeated the legendary Kostya Tszyu by corner retirement in 11, 4 June 2005, to win the IBF title. Only 5 months later, he also added the WBA belt when he knocked out Carlos Maussa in 9. He then suddenly vacated his belts to move up to welterweight and in May 2006 he beat Luis Collazo in a hard fight by a close UD. He then beat Juan Urango by another UD to win back the IBF belt and also win the IBO one, January 2007. After stopping the faded Jose Luis Castillo with a body shot in the 4th to win the WBC belt, he fought Floyd Mayweather in December that year and after doing well for a long time, got caught by a surprise punch and then stopped in round 10. Hatton came back next year by winning the IBO belt after beating Juan Lazcano convincingly by UD and then stopped Paulie Malignaggi by TKO11. He was then blown out in 2 rounds in brutal fashion by Manny Pacquiao, 2 May 2009, and retired. His comeback fight in 2012 ended unluckily as he was hit by a kidney shot and stopped in the 9th round, against Vyacheslav Senchenko. Hatton was not a technical boxer but a come forward fighter who used his speed to cut off the ring well and was a volume puncher who was good at breaking down his opponents. He might've been a slight overachiever, but definitely had true world class talent.

[LondonRingRules]

--- Careful now Boz, they be pulling down statues and won't be long before beheadings.

 

Bobby Fitz an Englishman in narrow definition from being born in a Celt community on the southern coast before relocation as an infant to New Zealand and so on and so forth. He beat the legendary unbeaten original Jack Dempsey and has a resume packed with HOF fights and the star of the first ever full length feature film.

 

Made a legendary appearance in Texas with an assist from the legendary Judge Roy Bean in another historical bout on a spit island in the middle of the Rio Grande(Bravo) after facing down the cumulative rifles of a thousand Mexican soldiers and Texas Rangers.

 

Still appears on top 20 p4p lists.

 

Makes Lenny da Lion a Puddycat light in his loafers in comparison...just da facts!

[BoztheMadman]

--- Careful now Boz, they be pulling down statues and won't be long before beheadings.

 

Bobby Fitz an Englishman in narrow definition from being born in a Celt community on the southern coast before relocation as an infant to New Zealand and so on and so forth. He beat the legendary unbeaten original Jack Dempsey and has a resume packed with HOF fights and the star of the first ever full length feature film.

 

Made a legendary appearance in Texas with an assist from the legendary Judge Roy Bean in another historical bout on a spit island in the middle of the Rio Grande(Bravo) after facing down the cumulative rifles of a thousand Mexican soldiers and Texas Rangers.

 

Still appears on top 20 p4p lists.

 

Makes Lenny da Lion a Puddycat light in his loafers in comparison...just da facts!

 

:rofl2:Ok, rofl...Fitz was good but the guys he beat...he didn't beat so many great fighters really. He lost too many big fights too.

[Robbo]

No place for Naz or Kid Berg? Seems a bit harsh. They're both above Benn and Eubank for me.

[BoztheMadman]

No place for Naz or Kid Berg? Seems a bit harsh. They're both above Benn and Eubank for me.

 

Ah right...damn! :laugh: Forgot Naz...he should share the tenth place with Hatton. Kid Berg...not sure.

[LondonRingRules]

- -Well, Boz, he was English and he beat Kid Chocolate in Harlem.

 

And he was Jewish though I suspect not religious being a rowdy fighter and all.

[BoztheMadman]

- -Well, Boz, he was English and he beat Kid Chocolate in Harlem.

 

And he was Jewish though I suspect not religious being a rowdy fighter and all.

 

Yes, I found out that. But Kid Chocolate was a Cuban. ;-) Anyway-you'll have to do without him-not changing my list any more! :whip: