10) HERBIE HIDE
Hide became the youngest Brit to win a version of the world heavyweight championship in 1994 when, aged 22 years, six months, he took the WBO title off Michael Bennt, born in London, but based in the States. Bentt said of Hide: “He was awkward as hell. His rhythm was completely unconventional – and he could punch like an atomic bomb. The guy could crunch. Riddick Bowe said it was the hardest he had been hit.”
Bowe took the WBO title off Hide, but he had another spell as champion, ended by Vitali Klitschko.
9) BOB FITZSIMMONS
Born in Helston, Cornwall, Fitzsimmons grew up in New Zealand and won the world heavyweight title in Nevada in 1897, famously knocking out Jim Corbett with a 14th round solar plexus punch after his wife had apparently screamed: “Hit him in the slats, Bob !” Fitzsimmons was boxing’s first three-weight world champion.
8) HENRY COOPER
Bedevilled by cuts, Cooper relied on his strong left hand – the hook was christened ‘Enry’s ‘Ammer – to win three Lonsdale belts outright. Famously, his ‘Ammer dumped Cassius Clay on the floor before the fight was lost on cuts. Their world-title rematch, at Arsenal FC’ Highbury Stadium in 1966, ended the same way.
7) FRANK BRUNO
Granted Oliver McCall, who Bruno took the WBC title from in 1995, was among the weakest heavyweight champions in history, but with Bruno, it was all about his journey – and millions followed it. The McCall fight was Bruno’s fourth shot at the world title and a nation embraced when his hand was raised. Bruno lost the belt to Mike Tyson in a rematch. In their first fight, in February, 1989, Bruno picked himself off the floor in the opening seconds to shake Tyson with a left hook. Tyson kept slugging through the fog in a round voted best of the year by American boxing magazines and went on to force a fifth-round stoppage.
6) ANTHONY JOSHUA
Though he still has much to prove, Joshua gave us one of THE best nights in recent British boxing history at Wembley Stadium in April. The fight with Wladimir Klistchko appeared to be slipping away from him – “Joshua had only one chance in 10,” was how American analyst Steve Farhood put it – until he found the punches to finish the fight in the 11th.
5) DAVID HAYE
The criticism of Haye was always that he was too small to be a heavyweight – so he went out and beat the biggest heavyweight champion in history. Nikolay Valuev stood a colossal 7fft tall and outweighed him by seven stones, but, following Adam Booth’s instructions to “sting and be gone,” Haye thoroughly outboxed him in
The criticism of Haye was always that he was too small to be a heavyweight – so he went out and beat the biggest heavyweight champion in history. Nikolay Valuev stood a colossal 7fft tall and outweighed him by seven stones, but, following Adam Booth’s instructions to “sting and be gone,” Haye thoroughly outboxed him in Nuremberg in November 2011. Haye made defences against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison, then lost a unification fight to Wladimir Klitschko.
4) TOMMY FARR
Tommy fought a peak Joe Louis in 1937 – and pushed him hard over 15 rounds. For a moment or two afterwards, Farr thought he had won the fight. “(Referee Arthur) Donovan came to take my hand . . .” wrote Farr in his memoirs. “’I’ve won,’ I tried to shout through cut and ghastly swollen lips . . . But I misunderstood. Donovan had but lifted my hand to congratulate me upon “a wonderful show Tommy” and to stir the crowd to further appreciation. All the joy, the heat, the ecstacy went out of me. I had lost.” The moral victory was his. New York columnist Dan Parker wrote: “No loser ever won more in defeat than Tommy. American fans admire spunk and good sportsmanship and Tommy displayed both.” Farr also shared a couple of fights with Max Baer and lost a close one to ‘The Cinderella Man,’ Jim Braddock. 3) JOE BUGNER
The public never warmed to Bugner after he ended the career of Henry Cooper in 1971 – it wasn’t the robbery you might think it was – but how many other British heavyweights could have lasted the distance with Muhammad Ali twice and Joe Frazier ? Bugner emigrated to Australia and returned to Britain as pantomime villain ‘Aussie Joe’ for a fight with Frank Bruno in 1987 that lived down to expectations. Bugner was well beaten in eight rounds.2) TYSON FURY
Whatever you may think of Fury, a sort of muddled man child, he went to Germany and beat the outstanding heavyweight of his generation. If it’s said now that Wladimir Klitschko was on the slide, nobody was saying it at the time – Fury was a huge underdog – and given his size, mobility and awkwardness, Fury would have always given Klitschko problems.1) LENNOX LEWIS
The fighter who changed the world’s perception of British heavyweights, Lewis was the dominant heavyweight of his era and nobody else on this list can say that. Yet. He reversed the two losses on his record – against Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman – emphatically and the draw against Evander Holyfield was put right in the rematch. He said after thrashing an old Mike Tyson: “I have achieved what I wanted to do.”
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