“Braveheart’s” Top Five Favorite Fighters of All Time…
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart (Who else would it be by?)
My mission… And I chose to accept it … was to list my top 5 boxers of all time and explain why they were in that list… When “Bad” Brad sends you a mission …
Having read “Bad” Brad’s beautiful tribute to his father, it struck me, as I was looking to find the 5 fighters who would keep me up at night, that they each had a personal whispering campaign going on in my head… They each had a personal reason as to why they were in there. So here they are and here’s why… And this is any era, any weight…
5. Muhammad Ali…
Was there ever a top 5 of boxers that would leave the Louisville Lip out?
The Rumble in the Jungle, the Thriller in Manila… where do you stop? My love affair with the sweet science began with Ali and is all thanks to my father. When Ali fought I was allowed to stay up late to watch the black and white grainy images or when all we had was the radio, listen to the pictures being painted by words.
My father loved the radio and had been involved in some way with radar and radio during the war. Our nights spent trying to get the best signal from wherever Ali was fighting, as well as sharing the moment together are memories which I shall cherish forever.
I would like to make plain and clear this is Ali the fighter and not Ali the man we are talking about. There were too many incidents of Ali being the catalyst for racist aggression, unfair name calling and reprehensible behavior, for him to be a role model. And yet now we have iconic status for one of the best, if not THE best boxers of all time.
People tend to forget how quick Ali was for a heavyweight. Even as a child I could marvel at it. His hand speed was phenomenal and he charmed his way into our living rooms, through our airwaves and danced on our hearts as we embraced his quickstep, marvelled at his waltz and enjoyed the merry dance he took us on annually, monthly, daily… floating and stinging with ease…
I have a former world champion who lives at the end of my street – no kidding!
Jim Watt became the WBC lightweight champion at a time of great political turmoil. It was the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and his fame was cemented through succeeding Roberto Duran and winning at home, in the Kelvin Hall, in Glasgow where he stopped Alfredo Pitalua. Watt then went on to defend that title, in Glasgow no fewer than 4 times before he lost it to Alexis Arguello in Wembley.
If Watt showed anything it was just how daft the idea of being undefeated can be when you are looking at potential world champions. Watt became world champion with no fewer than 7 losses on his record. It included a massive all Scottish fight with Ken Buchanan that was to herald the new, taking over from the old guard. Buchanan is only 3 years older but had more bouts on his clock. Buchanan had left his copy of that script at home and he won the British lightweight title that night. Many years later the Willie Limond/Alex Arthur showdown was to echo the Buchanan/ Watt fight though neither Limond nor Arthur have yet to gather world honors like Watt and Buchanan did.
You have to remember that, in 1979, being a Scottish sport fan was a little like being ISIS’s press guy – a hard sell. We had been to the soccer world cup in Argentina in 1978 and with the best squad we had ever going to a World Cup finals, only to come trundling back with our tails right between our legs. We had boasted that we might win the World Cup but returned with nothing. The expectation had been built up so high that the inevitable fall was hard for us all to bear. Enter the southpaw who would change all that.
What Watt also managed to do over those two years, as well as bring back some pride, was something similar to what was done by Barry McGuigan did in Belfast years later – unite two warring factions – the Protestant and the Catholic. Even fighting, as he did, in the stadium of Glasgow Rangers did little to dampen that fact. It is true that some found it hard to accept but when the first bell went we were all Jim Watt fans, we were all Glaswegian against the world. When Watt won, the party stretched beyond the small hours of the next morning. Many fans went on a Watt diet – they lost days on it!
That unity through sport was what makes a small nation show its big heart and once Jim had retired, we lost some of that unity until our football team picked it up again and made us disappointed once again.
3. Joe Calzaghe…
46 fights, no defeats and 1 win over Chris Eubank,SR. – when he won his first world title – who can argue past the Welsh fighter who also beat both Roy Jones, JR. and Bernard Hopkins in his final two fights at light heavyweight. Every time Joe entered a ring you expected one outcome and even in his final two fights – when he had to come off the canvass to win on both occasions, the belief of this guy’s sheer boxing ability was absolute.
He came, he saw and if you lost your concentration he dropped you on your ass. The one thing that makes this story is the fact that he was trained by his father; Enzo Calzaghe. In his own right, Enzo was some character. Hitchhiking to the UK as a young man, he fell in love and decided to stay. When Joe showed some aptitude for boxing, Enzo learned the ropes and got into it with his son. After a while Enzo was being sought by others and after a strange career that was all drift and no substance, Enzo found a vocation – boxing and his son Joe.
And what a combination – more lethal than anything he threw in the ring, Joe and Enzo became a force that conquered the world and stayed in charge for 10 whole years. Of course for me winning his world title against Chris Eubank, SR. was thrilling but the next 10 years were equally enthralling. We had Kessler, Lacy, Bika and the rest but they all fell at the altar of a true champion.
His decade as boss was one which I watched with increasing awe. Who could fail to be impressed by this guy who just didn’t know what the word defeat tasted like. A fellow Celt this was THE guy of the time and we loved him for it.
Having retired he has struggled to find a niche. He was never natural in front of camera so punditry was out and acting lessons have not resulted in big money transfers to Hollywood but for us boxing fans he shall always be that sure thing…
2. Nigel Benn…
The 1990s were the decade of the super, super middleweights. In the UK it meant you were a dandy or a fighter. You were for Eubank, SR. or you were for Benn. Sporting rivalry for my generation between British athletes was a new and rare thing. We tended to breed single champions 
Boxing was to provide the UK with a similar contrast when this guy called Eubank arrived with a monocle! It was the late 20th Century – who knew they still made monocles?! And jodhpurs! And the guy didn’t have a horse! Then there was the “Dark Destroyer”.
Once again that typical British psyche kicked in for me. Benn was the less seductive and more straightforward. He was the guy who turned up, gave a good account and left. Explosive, exciting and brash – we loved him.
His rise was rapid and by his 22nd fight he was taking on Michael Watson, losing for the first time in his professional career. The fight was broadcast in the States and Benn went over to fight three times on the way to winning the WBO middleweight title in 1990. Stopping Iran Barkley in the first round of his first defense, he then bowed to the inevitable – a match up with Chris Eubank, SR.
Benn was stopped in the 9th and many of our hearts were broken; but Eubank deserved the win. Benn then went on a three-year quest that ended in Italy in 1993 when he won the WBC super-middleweight belt by stopping Italian Mauro Galvano, he then beat Nicky Piper to defend it, then took on a rematch against Galvano which was won before the, other, inevitable rematch – against Eubank. It arrived in Manchester in 1993. They both fought hard and well but it ended in a draw…
The draw was as much of an anti-climax as it was deserved and the greatest boxing rivalry of the early nineties came to an end. It ended without a win for Benn but he retained his WBC title and defended it another five times. Included in that run was his fight with Gerald McClellan which ended up with McClellan with mobility issues and nearly completely blind. Benn has kept in touch and raised cash for McClellan’s medical bills.
Now a fervently committed Christian, Benn was back in the UK a week or so ago – to see his son, Conor – make his professional debut. Benn and son busted some moves to remind us that it was not just the Eubank’s who can make a stage their own and the dynasty is set to continue – Nigel has said he is open to Benn – Eubank III. At their age I hope not but deep down, I know Benn could destroy him… I do …
1. Benny Lynch…
Lynch was the greatest fighter Scotland ever produced. He is also the best cliché that could be used to describe a nation. A fighter, veteran of 119 fights with only 14 losses, he was the envy of the world. He was the pinnacle of a nation. Fighting in stadiums in the 1930’s his legendary status was confirmed when he became the world flyweight champion in 1936. Fighting in Cathkin Park, Glasgow, the home of the first Scottish professional football club to ever go out of business, his ghostly presence haunts the place now as trees and bushes try to hide a massive part of Scottish sporting history. Tragically most Scots would not know that he ever existed. Born during the end of the First World War, he was to die not long after the Second World War.
Lynch was, like me an addict; unlike me he was never dry long enough to stay alive. In 1946, aged just 33, this former world champion who had fought at Anfield, Shawfield and in every public house that would take him in Glasgow died of malnutrition induced respiratory failure. Like a Glaswegian cliché, this hardy fighter had drunk himself into oblivion, often fighting for money to pay for his drink. That he was such a tragic figure just hangs over the sport but should not obscure a man who in the 1930’s was whipping the rest with ease.
He won the British, European and world titles in 1935 in a historic fight in Manchester against Jackie Brown. Brown went down eight times before the fight was stopped in the second round!!! Lynch became the undisputed world flyweight champ in 1936 when he took on and beat the Filipino Small Montana who was reckoned by those on the other side of the pond to be the best – Benny showed him and them who was boss.
Lynch did not lose his title – he forfeited it on the scales. In 1938, against American Jackie Jurich he was over. Lynch still went on to stop Jurich in the 12th round to create the mould of tragic Scottish sports stars…
This was not the fun I hoped it would be – it was better! All my boxers are retired. They belong to another era, another time. Of the boxers that are fighting now honourable mentions go to Amir Khan, Willie Limond as well as Tony Bellew, Brian Rose and David Haye. From the past and from my ain country, it’s Ricky Burns, Ken Buchanan and Evan Armstrong (I went to school with his son, Evan Armstrong…)
And so, I wonder if you have a similar list you wouldn’t mind sharing with us… right here …. Right now….?
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