{"id":554982,"date":"2026-04-28T11:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T11:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554982\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T11:52:07","slug":"former-champion-says-he-ranks-above-lewis-and-calzaghe-as-the-greatest-british-fighter-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554982\/","title":{"rendered":"Former champion says he ranks above Lewis and Calzaghe as the greatest British fighter of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to discussing the greatest British fighters of all time, Lennox Lewis<\/a> and Joe Calzaghe are often the first two names that spring to mind.<\/p>\n

Both of them defeated every man they faced in a professional ring, while also becoming dominant world champions in their respective divisions.<\/p>\n

At heavyweight, Lewis was crowned the undisputed king in 1999 following his unanimous decision victory over Evander Holyfield, who many felt he deserved to outpoint earlier that year.<\/p>\n

Calzaghe, meanwhile, made an astonishing 21 world super-middleweight title defences before moving up to 175lbs and ending his decorated career with a record of 46-0 (32 KOs).<\/a><\/p>\n

But while many would place these two at the very top of an all-time British boxing list, there are others who argue that Prince Naseem Hamed deserves the No.1 spot.<\/p>\n

The Sheffield stylist claimed his world featherweight title in 1995, dethroning Steve Robinson with an eighth-round stoppage on away soil.<\/p>\n

Eight consecutive defences then led him to a six-knockdown thriller with Kevin Kelley<\/a>, culminating in a stunning fourth-round triumph for Hamed at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

After that, \u2018Naz\u2019 halted the likes of Paul Ingle and Augie Sanchez with solid performances, before suffering his only defeat, against Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera, in 2001.<\/p>\n

Still, it was a phenomenal career that is fiercely celebrated and revered among boxing circles, with Hamed telling talkSPORT<\/a> that he should be regarded as the best champion in British boxing history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly believe that I am the best fighter from this country and the best British boxer that\u2019s ever lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most would argue that Lewis and Calzaghe deserve to be placed above \u2018Naz\u2019 in a list of such nature, though the three of them are certainly among the very best of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to discussing the greatest British fighters of all time, Lennox Lewis and Joe Calzaghe are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-554982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}