Which area of the UK has produced the best boxers?

[King Tubby]

East London seems to have done well through history.

[Ezzard]

Without doing any research at all I'd guess Wales.

[Deadendgeneration]

The North West has been pretty good in recent times.

[oliverfennell]

All the major cities have had their ambassadors and good eras. Most recently Manchester. London, as the capital and with such a big population, will obviously always be well represented. In terms of success-per-population, as Ezzard said, Wales has done very well, as has Sheffield on a city basis.

[King Tubby]

If you break London down into N/S/E/W to account for size, East London would be the best wouldn't it? Always seemed that way to me.

[Baby Face Finster]

Without doing any research at all I'd guess Wales.

That would be my guess also simply for that fact that the best British boxer of all time came out of there.

[oliverfennell]

Without doing any research at all I'd guess Wales.

That would be my guess also simply for that fact that the best British boxer of all time came out of there.

Lennox Lewis is Welsh? Who knew!

[Baby Face Finster]

Don't tell me you think Lennox Lewis ranks higher than Jimmy Wilde!

[dr_devious]

Wales has 4 fighters in Britains all time top 10 P4P - Jimmy Wilde, Jim Driscoll, Freddy Welsh and Joe Calzaghe

East End of London has three - Lennox Lewis, Ted Kid Lewis, Jack Kid Berg

Scotland two - Benny Lynch and Ken Buchanan

The other is from Cornwall / New Zealand - Bob Fitzsimmons

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

East London seems to have done well through history.

I wouldn't have East London as the hotbed of British boxing. It certainly had it's time but I would say South London equals it with ease. East London (and the York Hall) are the hotbed of British boxing because people from there tells us this is so.

You have to split the game into amateur and pro - the amateur game then I would say Liverpool and Birmingham. The pros - obviously London has to be there as that is where most if not all big time boxing took place at up until the mid 1980s but Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff and Belfast and you may or may not believe it - Nottingham are the main pro boxing cities. (in that order)

[JC]

Merthyr Tydfil produced Jimmy Wilde, Howard Winstone and Johnny Owen which is very impressive when you consider it's size.

The most productive area in the 20s and 30s must surely have been the London Borough of Stepney in terms of both quality and quantity.

[Coco]

Blackwood is much smaller than Merthyr and has produced Robbie Regan, Joe Calzaghe and Gavin Rees

[twenty six]

Sheffield, Sheffield, Sheffield .........

[pyenest77]

All of the above Manchester, Sheffield, London which you would expect.

To me Leeds & Birmingham always underperformed for the sizes of the cities.

Liverpool the current up & comer. A lot of prospects coming through.

[coghaugen11]

Scotland has had some goodies too - Lynch, Buchanan, Watt, McGowan, Clinton, Harrison, Burns, McManus.

[dookus]

Us Cornish have only got Bob Fitzsimmons, although to be fair he was Bob Fitzsimmons

[Pugilist-specialist]

Wincobank

[Wake up call]

All of the above Manchester, Sheffield, London which you would expect.

To me Leeds & Birmingham always underperformed for the sizes of the cities.

Liverpool the current up & comer. A lot of prospects coming through.

It goes in cycles. Sheffield's era is mainly built off the success of Brendan Ingle's gym. One big name fighter from a region boosts the whole area as it makes kids think they should get down the gym and give boxing a go.

Leeds has been terrible at producing boxers of late and in part that might have something to do with it being a faster growing, more affulent city than Sheffield, Liverpool etc. Also it is been more influenced by other sports than most cities. It has a top division side in both codes of Rugby (the only place outside of London that does) plus (until recent years) a big football following.

However, give it five years and I think Leeds' boxing scene will be rocking. Look at the amateurs, Damo Jones won the ABAs this year even though it was his first season as a senior, Qais Ashfaq is the youngest member of Team GB, Jack Bateson has won everything there is to win as a junior and then the likes of Connor Loftus, Billy Pickles, Jack Daniel, Ishkham Lone have all won national titles. Josh Warrington and Adil Anwar will reach British level in the next 18 month. Gary Sykes is only from down the road.

[damianhucker1]

East London seems to have done well through history.

I wouldn't have East London as the hotbed of British boxing. It certainly had it's time but I would say South London equals it with ease. East London (and the York Hall) are the hotbed of British boxing because people from there tells us this is so.

You have to split the game into amateur and pro - the amateur game then I would say Liverpool and Birmingham. The pros - obviously London has to be there as that is where most if not all big time boxing took place at up until the mid 1980s but Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff and Belfast and you may or may not believe it - Nottingham are the main pro boxing cities. (in that order)

What are you basing this on ? not gonna argue it as im a nottingham man , just curous what made you come to that .

[keithmoonhangover]

Ha'way lads, it's got to be Sunderland. We've had Billy Hardy and errrrrr, well Billy Hardy.

[boxer111]

Blackwood is much smaller than Merthyr and has produced Robbie Regan, Joe Calzaghe and Gavin Rees

also nathan cleverly is from the blackwood 4 world champion's from a small town tha takes some beating

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

East London seems to have done well through history.

I wouldn't have East London as the hotbed of British boxing. It certainly had it's time but I would say South London equals it with ease. East London (and the York Hall) are the hotbed of British boxing because people from there tells us this is so.

You have to split the game into amateur and pro - the amateur game then I would say Liverpool and Birmingham. The pros - obviously London has to be there as that is where most if not all big time boxing took place at up until the mid 1980s but Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff and Belfast and you may or may not believe it - Nottingham are the main pro boxing cities. (in that order)

What are you basing this on ? not gonna argue it as im a nottingham man , just curous what made you come to that .

Historically - a lot of big fights were staged in Nottingham during the 1950s and early 1960s.

[billy nelson]

glasgow,bonnie scotland!

[LeedsLad]

All of the above Manchester, Sheffield, London which you would expect.

To me Leeds & Birmingham always underperformed for the sizes of the cities.

Liverpool the current up & comer. A lot of prospects coming through.

It goes in cycles. Sheffield's era is mainly built off the success of Brendan Ingle's gym. One big name fighter from a region boosts the whole area as it makes kids think they should get down the gym and give boxing a go.

Leeds has been terrible at producing boxers of late and in part that might have something to do with it being a faster growing, more affulent city than Sheffield, Liverpool etc. Also it is been more influenced by other sports than most cities. It has a top division side in both codes of Rugby (the only place outside of London that does) plus (until recent years) a big football following.

However, give it five years and I think Leeds' boxing scene will be rocking. Look at the amateurs, Damo Jones won the ABAs this year even though it was his first season as a senior, Qais Ashfaq is the youngest member of Team GB, Jack Bateson has won everything there is to win as a junior and then the likes of Connor Loftus, Billy Pickles, Jack Daniel, Ishkham Lone have all won national titles. Josh Warrington and Adil Anwar will reach British level in the next 18 month. Gary Sykes is only from down the road.

Leeds has always underperformed in boxing terms..... but really the city is football/rugby league through and through. The rugby union side can't draw crowds to be honest.

If the ground wasn't such a bitch to get to/from, I'd wager a fair amount that the rugby league side would match the attendances of United for the most part.

[whiskey]

I'd say Canada.