1 Ricky Hatton vs. Junior Witter
Chalk and cheese, both in terms of personality and fighting style, Hatton and Witter teased British boxing fans for years only to never actually meet in the ring. Though mentioned before then, any time after 2005 would have been perfect.
2 Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua
While there is still hope these two will one day come to their senses and do the right thing, for now Fury vs. Joshua remains something of a pipe dream. It also feels as though the best time for it to happen may now have passed.
3 Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook
Khan and Brook did of course finally get together in February 2022, with Brook winning via sixth-round stoppage, but that, if we’re honest, never felt like the real thing. Both were past their best by then and both had been linked for the best part of a decade.
4 Joe Calzaghe vs. Carl Froch
One of the great mythical matchups, a super-middleweight fight between Calzaghe and Froch was never really a realistic proposition given how their careers played out, but had Calzaghe continued fighting beyond 2008, there’s no doubt Froch would have chased him even harder.
5 Tyson Fury vs. David Haye
Scheduled to take place twice, first in 2012 and then in 2013, Haye withdrew from both due to a reported injury. Worth noting, too, that Fury was not a fraction of the heavyweight he would one day become.
Haye and Fury (Action Images/Paul Harding)
6 Chris Eubank vs. Herol Graham
Often avoided, Graham would have liked a chance against Eubank and Nigel Benn, both of whom stole all the limelight throughout the nineties, and was unlucky not to get one given how their careers ran almost in parallel.
7 Johnny Nelson vs. Enzo Maccarinelli
A classic case of “one on the way out and one on the way up”, this 2006 cruiserweight fight between Nelson and Maccarinelli would have been intriguing to say the least. However, Nelson’s ageing body ultimately let him down and the fight had to be scrapped.
8 Carl Froch vs. James DeGale
Much like when Froch found himself arriving too soon to entice Calzaghe, Degale experienced something similar when he became mandatory challenger for Froch at the tail end of Froch’s career. It may have been an ugly kind of fight, but it certainly would have been tasty.
9 Darren Barker vs. Matthew Macklin
There were far too many British middleweights who avoided one another around the time of Barker and Macklin, but these two, in particular, should have settled their differences. They were scheduled to do just that in both 2009 and 2010, but, alas, it never happened.
10 Richard Williams vs. Wayne Alexander
After a brilliant amateur battle in 1995, Williams and Alexander should have also fought as pros, especially when both were riding high at the same time. The ultimate boxer vs. puncher fight, this one, and many other light-middleweight fights between Brits, should have happened between 2001 and 2004.