BoxRec

The winners have been chosen now then, so there is no secret about our choices.
Here is my top ten as to the best 10 British fighters of the last 75yrs.
1.Lennox Lewis, our only undisputed heavyweight champion, regardless of when he fought the best names on his record, he was the recognised top man of the division. And the heavyweight is the pinnacle.
2.Ted kid Lewis, good enough to go to America and beat the best they had.
3.Lloyd Honeyghan, beat the best p4p fighter at the time and made some good defences.
4.Nigel Benn, fought and beat some awesome fighters over in America, had a few slip-ups along the way but came back better.
5.Ken Buchanan, again proved his worth overseas, and did well against a rampaging Duran.
6.Naseem Hamed, very highly world rated featherweight for a while, arguably our best British featherweight ever.
7.Joe Calzaghe, much the same as what I wrote for Naseem, though probably a little weaker argument to be made about his `best British super-middle ever`.
8.Herol Graham highly thought of middleweight who always lost to good champions.
9.John Conteh, never the best in the division, but did make world champion so that counts, and was very popular.
10.Henry Cooper, I would not have really added `our enery ` ordinarily, but, Boxing News being what it is, I could not imagine the popular Bellingham banger being excluded from their top ten, so desperate for those two tickets, here he is at number ten.

It is quite obvious to see, I have rated fighters higher if they are brave and good enough to venture outside of this little Island of ours and fight and win against the best on offer in America.
Some may feel I have been a little generous to numbers 6 and 7, but I feel their dominance on the British scene at least, entitles them to such a high rating.
Randolph Turpin was not included on the back of one excellent win, but excluded on the back of numerous disappointing losses.

does ted kid lewis qualify for this list under the 75 year rule. i could be wrong but i thought he fought around the first world war.
i think i would have found a place for turpin, he beat probably the best fighter of all time when he was on a 91 fight winning streak, and despite problems outside the ring, gave him hell in the return, in fact robinson needed a desperate do or die attack to regain his title.
it wasn`t a lucky one off win, he mixed it with the ATP4P best for 25 rounds and in his autobiography sugar ray talks in gushing tones about randys strength and toughness, even more so than the likes of lamotta and basilio.
some say robinson was past his best when he fought turpin but after randy sugar rays next three fights were a win against bobo olsen, a 3 round ko of rocky graziano and the famous fight against maxim. hardly finished.
randy also beat a pre-marciano cockell too, a feat not to be sniffed at.
i know what your saying about the dissapointing defeats like the first round stoppage loss to mitri in rome, but 8 defeats in 75 contests isn`t a bad record for the day especially considering the emotional turmoil in his private life.

I did not think Ted Kid Lewis would have qualified either, and the question was brought up in BN, but they said he qualified, so he is in.
Ray Robinson started the year out fighting Jake La Motta, and took on 8 different opponents inbetween the Turpin fight, some 45rounds in something like 3 months, so when not in the ring he was in training.
As has been said before, he was probably exhausted, and against a young, fit and strong boxer he struggled.
Though he did stop Turpin in the re-match. And lets not forget Robinson was not as unbeatable at middle as some suggest.
And beating a weight drained Don Cockell whose greatest achievement was getting beat up by Rocky Marciano still does not qualify him.

after he fought lamotta tony, he did have eight fights in a relativley short period but the cramped schedule was no different than his career up to that point.
he fought very regulary anyway
plus the eight fight sequence consisted of w10, ko 1, ko 5, w10, ko 8, ko 6, nd 2 and ko 3 against average opposition on a european tour.
if anything apart from being tired i suspect robinson grew overconfidant and didnt take turpin seriously.
again even when he did in the rematch he struggled to beat turpin.
yeah sugar ray wasn`t unbeatable at middle but as i mentioned two fights after turpin he knocked out rocky graziano in three, still pretty impressive.
and in his next bout he was 3 mins from holding the light heavy title, retiring because of the extreme heat which had seen off the ref, hardly the shot fighter who later lost to the likes of pender and downes.
i concede your point about cockell, after getting beat by randy at 175 a couple of months later he was campaigning at 201.
but i`m sorry to disagree mate, i wouldnt have calzaghe or hamed above turpin.
again turpin beat probably the best fighter to lace up a pair of gloves, whilst calzaghe beat eubank and naz beat kelly.