The Joy of Six: all-British heavyweight boxing rivalries

This was the first time two British boxers contested a version of the world heavyweight title, but the buildup turned ugly with a two-word insult: “Uncle Tom”. Lennox Lewis denied using the slur but Frank Bruno insisted it came from inside Lewis’s camp and it increased the bad blood between the aloof WBC champion and national treasure Big Frank.

The fight took place in the early hours of the morning, outdoors at a rainswept Cardiff Arms Park and as Lewis struggled to get going, Bruno bossed the early exchanges, rocking Lewis with a right hand. The heavy-handed champion finally caught Bruno with a big left hook in the seventh round and his follow-up salvo inevitably led to a brave, bloodied Bruno being stopped on his feet. Lewis went on to prove himself the best heavyweight of his era but Bruno actually got his hands on the WBC title two years later, beating Oliver McCall at a jubilant Wembley. “I’m not an Uncle Tom,” a tearful Bruno sobbed post-fight. “I love my people. I’m not a sellout.”

A rivalry that started with a near-glassing in Germany and ended with a fight held at Upton Park, but licensed by the Luxembourg Boxing Federation. When David Haye interrupted the post-fight press conference after Vitali Klitschko had outpointed Dereck (now Derek) Chisora in Munich, it was to try and goad the older Klitschko brother into fighting him. The volatile Chisora was unamused by the hijack and confronted the intruder, resulting in Haye chinning his fellow Londoner with a right hand, which happened to contain a glass bottle.

After the melee that followed, Haye hot-footed it out of Germany before the authorities could catch him, while Chisora was arrested but released. Inevitably, the fight was on but as neither man had a