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Magazine

Top 10 best British heavyweights

GB may hold three of the four heavyweight titles in this day and age. Daniel Herbert lists the top 10 British heavyweights

BN Staff

24th July, 2016

Top 10 best British heavyweights
Action Images/Richard Heathcote
  1. DON COCKELL

This Battersea man is best known for his valiant ninth-round 1955 world title loss to Rocky Marciano, but before that he had notched some good wins in the USA.

  1. BRUCE WOODCOCK

Like so many British heavies, this Yorkshireman fell short at world level, but he was good enough to round up national, Empire and European crowns in the late 1940s.

  1. JOE BUGNER

Built superbly but without a devastating punch, Joe nevertheless went the distance with Muhammad Ali (twice) and Joe Frazier at his peak.

  1. TOMMY FARR

Renowned chiefly for taking a peak Joe Louis the distance in 1937, this Welshman was a brainy fighter who lacked a hard dig.

  1. BOB FITZSIMMONS

Held the world title from 1897-99 even though he weighed only what would now be super-middleweight. Tough and a hurtful hitter despite his wiry build.

  1. FRANK BRUNO

Big hitter improved his stamina to become world champ (WBC version) at the third attempt, holding it for six months (1995-96).

  1. DAVID HAYE

The Hayemaker peaked at cruiserweight, but in the supreme division he wrested the WBA belt from man mountain Nikolai Valuev.

  1. HENRY COOPER

British champion a record 10 years five months (1959-69), Henry lost his only world title bid to Muhammad Ali on one of his frequent cuts.

  1. TYSON FURY

Love him or loathe him, Morecambe’s fighting traveller dethroned a long-reigning unified champion in his own back yard in Wladmiir Klitschko.

1.LENNOX LEWIS

The big Londoner won 15 world title fights across two reigns as global king, licking Holyfield, Tyson and Vitali Klitschko among others.

This article was originally published in Boxing News magazine

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