Carl Froch Lists His Three Greatest Ever British Fighters

Carl Froch, speaking on his ‘Froch on Fighting’ podcast, was asked to name his three greatest ever British fighters. “The Cobra,” who of course ranks up there amongst the British greats himself, came out with a list that might be somewhat surprising to some fight fans.

“My top three fighters, in order, Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed, and Ricky Hatton,” Froch said.

All good fighters to be sure, but great? Lewis, no doubt, was and is a true great, no problem there. But Hamed and Hatton? Hamed lost the biggest fight of his career, this against Marco Antonio Barrera, and he then vanished from the sport (after one dull decision win of a fight over Manuel Calvo). Hatton, as exciting as he was and as popular as he was, lost the two biggest fights of his career, this when he was stopped by Floyd Mayweather and later by Manny Pacquiao.

Why no Calzaghe? Froch’s icy feud surfaces

But this is Froch’s list and it’s his opinion. One name fans may point to and wonder why he is missing from Froch’s list, is Joe Calzaghe. Froch and Calzaghe have had a, shall a say, frosty relationship for some time, the two still arguing over who would have won if they had fought back in the day. Maybe Froch is still somewhat bitter towards Calzaghe.

Lennox’s legacy and Froch’s criteria for “greatness”

But Froch explained why he holds Lennox in such high esteem.

“When I think of my favourite fighters, I think of fighters I used to love watching, and Lennox Lewis was undisputed heavyweight champ, got knocked out a couple of times as well and came back and avenged them losses. When he beat Mike Tyson, and some of the dust-ups he had……”

Lewis was indeed special, and his resume is quite amazing when we look back: Razor Ruddock, Frank Bruno, Tony Tucker, Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, David Tua, Evander Holyfield, Shannon Briggs, Mike Tyson, Vitali Klitschko, all beaten, with the two losses, to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman, brutally avenged.

It would have been interesting if Froch had been asked to give us a top 10 here, not just a top 3.