WHO IS FIGHTER OF THE DECADE?

Another decade goes into boxing’s history books, but who has been the cream of the crop?

Numerous publications have been asking fans to vote for their fighter of the decade which has created heated discussion and debate.

The ‘Joe Louis Fighter of the Decade’ award is set to be announced at the BWAA awards dinner in early Spring and the 5 names in the running for this accolade are retired stars; Vladimir Klitschko, Andre Ward & Floyd Mayweather and active fighters Canelo Alvarez & Manny Pacquiao.

The only two previous winners of the award since its inception are Roy Jones Jr (1990’s) and Manny Pacquiao (2000’s).

On our recent Instagram Poll, the names above were regularly mentioned as well as Lomachenko, Terence Crawford & GGG but the two who stood head and shoulders above the rest – Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, with the Pilipino pipping it.

Pacquiao became the only fighter ever to hold world titles in 4 decades. However, this does not make him fighter of the last decade. Since 2010 he has fought 16 times, recording 12 wins and 4 losses. His early wins came against; Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosely & Juan Manuel Marquez. Back to back losses followed in a poor 2012 against Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez which made it 2 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw against his fierce domestic rival. Pacquiao showed his resolve after almost 12 months out of the ring to beat Brandon Rios, Tim Bradley in their rematch & Chris Algieri to set up the Fight of the Century against Floyd Mayweather – we know what happened there. The Pilipino recovered again though to beat Bradley for a second time and Jessie Vargas in late 2016. A shock defeat to Jeff Horn resulted in fans calling for him to retire, protect his legacy and avoid humiliation. However he defied all odds to come back again and win the WBA title against Lucas Matthysse, defended 6 months later against a distracted Adrien Broner and then perhaps his highlight of the decade – beating Keith Thurman to become the oldest fighter in history to capture the Welterweight title. His resume speaks for itself, but with a mixture of results over the past 10 years and with winning the FOTD accolade previously, he is perhaps an unlikely winner.

Andre Ward graduated from Olympic golden boy to the pound for pound number one during the 2010’s. Although he only fought 11 times during the 10 years, he retired undefeated with a glowing record of 32-0 (16 KO’s) and held multiple world titles in 2 weight classes. In 2011, he rose to worldwide prominence by winning the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament beating Mikkel Kessler (2009), Allan Green, Sakio Bika, and Arthur Abraham before out-boxing Carl Froch in the final to unify the titles and win the vacant Ring and lineal titles. From there, S.O.G dominated lineal light heavyweight Champion Chad Dawson who was coming off a huge win against HOF, Bernard Hopkins. An injury stricken 2013 eventually lead to a routine defence of his titles against Dominican Edwin Rodruiguez, before another inactive period in 2014 due to issues with promoter Dan Goossen. After a 19 month layoff, Ward finally returned to the ring to take on Britain’s Paul Smith, a fight that he would win before adding Sullivan Barrera to his resume in his debut at light heavyweight. Ward then won his first title at light heavy defeating Alexander Brand (25-1) to claim the vacant WBO international title which set up a mouthwatering clash with one of the most feared men on the planet, Sergey Kovalev. A controversial win for Ward after being sent to the canvas in 2016 lead to a rematch 7 months later where he shocked the world by stopping the fearsome champion in the 8th round. It was his final and best performance of a fine career.

Wladimir Klitschko fought 13 times over the last decade retiring from the sport in 2017 holding the record for the longest cumulative heavyweight title reign of all time – 4,382 days as world heavyweight champion. Klitschko was ranked as the world’s best active boxer by BoxRec in November 2014 in an era where he and his brother Vitali, dominated the heavyweight division. Notable wins included Britain’s David Haye, Tony ‘The Tiger’ Thompson and three undefeated fighters in a row – Alexander Povetkin, Kubrat Pulev and Byrant Jennings. In an unprecedented 28th heavyweight world title appearance, the Ukrainian champion suffered a huge upset loss to Tyson Fury in 2015 which was his first defeat in 23 fights covering an 11 year span. A rematch never materialised and so Klitschko’s final fight came in 2017 against unbeaten Brit Anthony Joshua for the WBA, IBF and vacant IBO world titles. Klitschko lost via TKO stoppage in round 11 after a high drama war which went onto win Fight of the Year.

Perhaps the favourites for the award are Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather. Since losing to Floyd in 2013 at the age of 23, Canelo has arguably gone on to have the best 2nd half of the decade out of any fighter beating Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, GGG, Daniel Jacobs & Sergey Kovalev. The controversy over contaminated meat which contained traces of Clenbuterol does taint his reputation amongst some boxing fans. Floyd on the other hand remained undefeated and retired in 2015 after his win against Andre Berto with a record of 49-0. Notable wins from 2010-2015 included Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz, Miguel Cotto, Canelo, Marcos Maidana and Pacquiao. A highly anticipated super fight with UFC superstar Connor McGregor tempted Mayweather out of retirement in 2017 to make his final appearance as pro and take his record to 50-0. The only thing holding Mayweather back is his lack of activity for half of the decade whereas Canelo’s career blossomed during this period and this is what could sway the votes.

Who do you think deserves the FOTD accolade? Have your say!