By Charles Brun: Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is seldom mentioned by fans when they rate the best British fighters of all time. Fury hasn’t done a whole lot during his career to put him at the #1 spot as the best British fighter of all time.
Fury’s dad John Fury says he not only feels that he’s the best heavyweight in the current era, but also the best British fighter ever.
What makes it hard to agree with John is there have been quite a few talented fighters in the history of boxing from the UK, and Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) isn’t one that comes to mind when you rank them. To place Fury at #1 of all-time in the UK, that’s evaluating a lot of the greats that have come before him.
These are some of the superb British fighters from the past:
- Lennox Lewis
- Ricky Hatton
- Joe Calzaghe
- Nigel Benn
- Chris Eubank
- Carl Froch
Fury is a good fighter, but you’d have to argue that he’s NOT the #1 fighter in the history of British boxing. I would rate Fury below the fighters mentioned above.
Joe Calzaghe was a far better fighter during his career than what we’ve seen from Fury. The speed the overall talent of Calzaghe puts him head and shoulders above Fury.
Calzaghe’s wins over Mikkel Kessler, Chris Eubank, and Bernard Hopkins easily outshine the victories that Fury has won during his career. Fury’s best wins have come against 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder.
Klitschko was an excellent fighter earlier in his career, but he looked shot by the time Fury fought him. Bryant Jennings, a fringe contender at the time, gave Wladimir all kinds of problems in their fight in 2014. That fight showed that age was starting to rear its ugly head with Wladimir.
There are many more that could make the list, but these are sufficient for comparison purposes.
“My boy is not only the greatest heavyweight in the world right now but the best British fighter ever,” said John Fury to Frankwarren.com.
Having seen Lennox Lewis in action, it’s impossible for this writer to rate Fury ahead of him. The prime Lewis that destroyed Donovan’ Razor’ Ruddock and Andre Golota would have likely made easy work of this version of Fury that we saw in his last fight against Deontay Wilder.
Fury is a good fighter, but he would have nothing to hold Lewis off of him. With Fury’s slapping shots, Lewis would slice right through him to score a quick knockout. Lewis would very likely destroy Fury in one or two rounds if he fought him in his prime. It wouldn’t be pretty.
We haven’t even established that Fury is the best heavyweight in Britain in this era. Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois, Dillian Whyte, and Joe Joyce would have to be viewed as serious threats to Fury. More than a few boxing fans believe that Joshua is just too complete of a fighter for Fury to deal with, and this a knockout waiting for him.
