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This got me thinking, its 2019 now and there appears to be no solid front-runner for 'Fighter of the Decade'. Sure a decade is an arbitrary 10 year time span to use as an evaluation, but think about it:
WARD- Probably was the best fighter during the 10's, but had a big gap with no fights in the middle of the decade when he was not boxing. Retired with over two years to go in the decade, and his win in Kovalev-I is viewed as awfully suspect (not to mention the low blows in Kov-II).
CANELO- Maybe the deepest resume for the decade, but his biggest fights have been against old men past their prime. Most view GGG-I as a gift draw (what would be our view of him if he lost a decision there), and a lot see the rematch as somewhat tainted. Oh yeah, he was suspended for PEDs
GGG- His prime years were wasted not getting big enough fights in a mediocre division, and when he finally does get them the KOs start to disappear. Whether through age or biased scoring he is still 0-1-1 against Canelo so hard to give him a nod for FOTD.
CHOCOLATITO- Similar to GGG he spent most of the early part of the decade picking apart a mediocre division, similar to Ward he hasn't had a big win since the middle portion of the decade. In fact his last big win came before Ward-Kov-I.
LOMA & BUD- Neither really got any meaningful wins until the decade was almost half over. As I wrote earlier its an arbitrary time span, which unfortunately didn't quite fit with their professional accessions; they are the leaders of a group who fall into this category.
FLOYD- Wrong decade, he hasn't won a pro boxing match against a pro boxer since 2015. I could write something similar about Manny.
WARD- Probably was the best fighter during the 10's, but had a big gap with no fights in the middle of the decade when he was not boxing. Retired with over two years to go in the decade, and his win in Kovalev-I is viewed as awfully suspect (not to mention the low blows in Kov-II).
CANELO- Maybe the deepest resume for the decade, but his biggest fights have been against old men past their prime. Most view GGG-I as a gift draw (what would be our view of him if he lost a decision there), and a lot see the rematch as somewhat tainted. Oh yeah, he was suspended for PEDs
GGG- His prime years were wasted not getting big enough fights in a mediocre division, and when he finally does get them the KOs start to disappear. Whether through age or biased scoring he is still 0-1-1 against Canelo so hard to give him a nod for FOTD.
CHOCOLATITO- Similar to GGG he spent most of the early part of the decade picking apart a mediocre division, similar to Ward he hasn't had a big win since the middle portion of the decade. In fact his last big win came before Ward-Kov-I.
LOMA & BUD- Neither really got any meaningful wins until the decade was almost half over. As I wrote earlier its an arbitrary time span, which unfortunately didn't quite fit with their professional accessions; they are the leaders of a group who fall into this category.
FLOYD- Wrong decade, he hasn't won a pro boxing match against a pro boxer since 2015. I could write something similar about Manny.
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