Is boxing suffering from a lack of depth of elite level fighters right now? Who/ where are the future stars?

Evening all.

Was just looking over how the 606 Top10 P4P rankings have changed over the prior 3 years. It's quite shocking that 7 out of the current 10 still exist in the top 10 today. Only Bradley, who was already on a cusp of a top 10 ranking at the time, Danny Garcia and Rigondeaux (who is a bit of an exception) have broken into the top 10 over the last 3 years.

Is boxing really suffering from a lack in depth of real elite fighters, or is it the case that the current group of the so called elite fighters are simply being matched well by their promotors? Danny Garcia for me still has the jury out on his abilities as I think Khan could probably quite handily outbox him if he improves his defensive frailties.

It most probably does identify a real lack of depth in boxing right now. Outside of the current top 10, I only really foresee Mikey Garcia, Golovkin and Lomachenko making a breakthrough. Saul Alvarez and  Adrian Broner have an outside chance, but I can see them suffering further setbacks down the line.

December 2010

1 Manny Pacquiao. (2013, #8)
2 Floyd Mayweather Jr (2013, #1)
3 Sergio Gabriel Martinez (2013, #7)
4 Juan Manuel Marquez (2013, #6)
5 Nonito Donaire (2013, #10)
6 Juan Manuel Lopez (2013, no entry)
7 Wladimir Klitschko (2013, #5)
8 Bernard Hopkins (2013, #17)
9 Andre Ward (2013, #2)
10 Fernando Montiel (2013, no entry)


December 2013

1 Floyd Mayweather Jr. (2010, #2)
2 Andre Ward (2010, #9)
3 Timothy Bradley (2010, #12)
4 Guillermo Rigondeaux (New)
5 Wladimir Klitschko (2010, #7)
6 Juan Manuel Marquez (2010, #4)
7 Sergio Martinez (2010, #3)
8 Manny Pacquiao (2010, #1)
9 Danny Garcia (New)
10 Nonito Donaire (2010, #5)

How many of the current top ten are living off longevity and past glories though ATG?

Well ward and Bradley were yet to enter their prime years, heavyweight is dire and floyd is a all time great fighter. Pacquiao is also a great fighter but he may count himself lucky to be on the list as is the case with martinez, seems to be there more on past achievements then actual performances

JMM is hanging on because of his KO over manny, there are probably a couple fighters between LWW and WW who would probably beat him if they fought in 2014

While there are no current standouts I thi k the likes of the Garcia's et have shown that there are very good fighters cropping up

Think of Estrada, ioka and Gonzales in the lower weights, Santa Cruz, Frampton etc a little higher, Lomachenko lools exciting, Crawford should school burns, thurman, broner has the tools to be something special, charlo twins, lara could be a late one like Martinez was,  Canelo will come again, groves has shown he can hang at elite level

In fact it doesn't surprise me at all. Most boxers don't peak around 30 anyway for every world class talent that is a p4p star in there early career  like Floyd, Manny, Ward etcoyou have guys like Martinez, JMM, Wlad who had to wait untill later to finally be called elite so there are time for the 20 somethings to be great

It's as a result of the time we live in, a young fighter who shows promise is immediately labelled a hype job who will soon be exposed.

Of the current ring magazine top ten only one of them Alvarez is in his early twenties while six of them are in their mid 30's or older. Like WHU says it's arguable whether Martinez and Marquez deserve such a lofty rating because they both look ripe for the picking. It's not a slight on the younger fighters but a slight on those who regard longevity as the be all and end all.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:How many of the current top ten are living off longevity and past glories though ATG?

It's an open question, but to be honest most of the fighters who remained in the top 10 over the past 3 years, have good/ above average CVs:

E.g.

Mayweather
W vs. Canelo
W vs. Guerrero
W vs. Cotto
W vs. Ortiz

Ward
W vs. Rodriguez
W vs. Dawson
W vs. Froch
W vs. Abraham

Pacquiao
W vs. Mosley
W vs. JMM
L vs. Bradley (disputable)
L vs. JMM
W vs. Rios

Martinez
W vs. Murray
W vs. JCC jr.
W vs. Macklin
W vs. Barker
W vs. Dzinziruk

JMM
L vs. Bradley
W vs. Pacquiao
W vs. Fedchenko
L vs. Pacquiao
W vs. Ramos

Wladimir Klitscko
W vs. Povetkin
W vs. Pianeta
W vs. Wach
W vs. Thompson
W vs. Mormeck
W vs. Haye

Donaire
W vs. Darchiniyan
L vs. rigo
W. vs. Arce
W vs. Niahioka
W vs. Mathebula
W vs. Vasquez Je.
W vs. Narvaez
W vs. Montiel

I struggle to find any other "current" fighter with a similar record over the prior 3 years? Froch would have the best CV outside the top 10 atm. Therefore, to some degree not only longevity but the fact they are still defeating better opposition has kept them inside the top 10 P4P rankings...

That's what we said, they are there because of their record over the last couple years instead of how good they are at this moment in time

If you're going to put in the Bradley loss for Manny as disputable you have to do the same with his win against Marquez.

I don't really see how Martinez is in at the moment. I feel he's beating very average opposition not very convincingly, living off past glories and I think he'll get beat handily by GGG at this stage.

I'd really like to see Ioka get a bit more recognition as he really is something special. He didn't have a massive amateur career but picked up the WBC world title within two years (7 fights) of going pro then unified with the WBA 3 fights later which is the only two titles they recognise in Japan. Since then he's picked up a strap at Light Flyweight as well and defended a few times. It can be hard to tell how good the opposition is down at the low weights but I seriously suggest giving Ioka a watch if you haven't seen him before, it's a shame that the only way you can really get recognition down at the bottom weights is to reign for 5+ years before anyone takes any notice.