Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Entering the decade as ‘Money’ Mayweather, Floyd was unbeaten in forty professional bouts and unless you’ve all lived on the moon for the last decade everybody knows that Floyd ‘retired’ after fifty fights, fifty wins.
Floyd started the decade facing off against ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley in a bout that had been in the making for the whole decade prior. Mayweather went on to face and beat Miguel Cotto, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Marcos Maidana twice before cementing his status as the best fighter of the decade by beating Manny Pacquiao. Initially retiring after beating Andre Berto in 2015, Mayweather was enticed back into the ring by UFC legend, Conor McGregor, to surpass the undefeated record of Rocky Marciano. Whispers still circulate to this day that Floyd will be returning from retirement.
Andre Ward.
The ‘Son of God’ makes it into our list marginally behind Mayweather for the fighter of the decade. Ward started the decade competing in the Super Six tournament where he dispatched Allan Green, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch whilst also beating Sakio Bika in between the Green and Abraham fights.
Ward went on throughout the decade beating Chad Dawson, Paul Smith, Sullivan Barrera amongst others before twice getting the better of the most feared man in boxing, at the time, Sergey Kovalev. Retiring unbeaten and holder of two Ring magazine belts in two different weight classes, only the second person to do it ever after Joe Calzaghe.
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Today’s kingpin of boxing, ‘Canelo’ is still only 29-years-old but it has felt like he’s been around 100-years. The only loss on his record came inside the decade and that was to the top of our list, Floyd Mayweather and there is no shame in that. Alvarez went on to beat the likes of Matthew Hatton, Ryan Rhodes, Shane Mosely, Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan on his way to becoming a four-weight world champion where we most recently saw him conquer the light-heavyweight division by beating Sergey Kovalev. There was of course the controversy of the obtaining of a draw against Gennadiy Golovkin before the Russian.
With age on his side we will continue to see ‘Canelo’ compete well into the next decade as he enters 2020 as the pound-for-pound number one fighter.
Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez.
Perhaps a surprise inclusion for some. However, twenty-three wins, nineteen by stoppage, four-weight world champion with wins over Akira Yaegashi, McWilliams Arroyo, Brian Viloria, Carlos Cuadras and Juan Francisco Estrada who is widely regarded as the man at super-flyweight today.
Although Gonzalez suffered defeat twice at the hands of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who is ranked highly in the pound-for-pound rankings, it doesn’t see him miss out on the Pro Boxing Fans, top five fighters of the decade list.
Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin.
Triple G came into the decade as part of the ‘who needs me club’. With little reward on offer to face the risk of Golovkin, Gennadiy found himself getting by against average opposition at best. Until the top promoters started sniffing around him all of a sudden ‘GGG’ had dispatched of Matt Macklin, Martin Murray, Gabe Rosado, Daniel Geale, Willie Monroe Jr and David Lemiuex inside two years.
Now midway through the decade the established world star was getting the fights he wanted, needed and deserved. After beating Kell Brook and Danny Jacobs, the Kazakhstani was seemingly robbed of a win against ‘Canelo’ Alvarez getting just a draw before their second bout put to bed the outcome as ‘GGG’ lost his first, and only, bout of his career. Since then he has bounced back with a couple of wins including this year defeating Ukrainian, Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a 2019, fight of the year contender.
Honourable mentions:
Vasyl Lomachenko.
‘Hi-Tech’ undoubtedly the greatest boxer of this generation narrowly misses out on making out list after fifteen fights with one loss.
Terence Crawford.
A second honourable mention goes to Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford. An impressive unbeaten record of thirty-one fights inside the decade, ‘Bud’ misses out on making the list due to the level of opposition he has fought as the elite fighters at 147lbs don’t want none of that smoke.
