Lennox Lewis is hailed as one of the greatest British fighters of all time, but when asked to name the top three Britons of the last 25 years, ‘The Lion’ made some notable omissions. 

Lewis defeated every opponent of his career, avenging both of his two career defeats by way of knockout as he halted each of Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman to reclaim the heavyweight throne, thus becoming a three-time ruler of the division.

In an interview with Froch on Fighting, Lewis declared himself as the best British boxer of the last quarter-century, but refused to include any other heavyweights, instead opting for a pair of super-middleweight rivals in Carl Froch and Joe Calzaghe.

“I am definitely up there. Yeah, give me number one, I want to be number one, please. 

“Oh, you [Carl Froch]! You are in there, buddy. 

“Third, he [Joe Calzaghe] has to be in there. That is my buddy, he is a top fighter, for real.”

Froch boasted wins over the likes of Mikkel Kessler, George Groves and Arthur Abraham and became a three-time world champion, but never got his shot at Calzaghe, who vacated his WBC super-middleweight title to avoid a fight with ‘The Cobra’ in 2008, favouring a more lucrative move up to the light-heavyweight division.

Calzaghe remains as the longest-reigning super-middleweight world champion of all time, retiring with an iconic undefeated record after 46 professional bouts and scoring legendary wins over Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. as a 175lber in the final two outings of his career.