The stars of tomorrow

It wasn't so long ago that I kept fully abreast of all the comings and goings in Boxing. Who was fighting whom, who looked impressive in his last outing, and which fighters were showing genuine promise and threatening to announce themselves as genuinely world-class p4p fighters over the coming months / years.

A few years ago, I made a number of predictions as to who would be the future greats. Some with relative accuracy (Rigondeaux), some with, at the time of writing, less accuracy (Lara, Lemieux, Gamboa, Korobov), and some I got completely wrong (JuanMa Lopez).

However, I enjoyed watching these young talents, gauging their quality and following their careers with interest. However, over the past year or so, I haven't followed the sport with anywhere neat the same level of attention.
I mean, I still watch the big fights, and have kept a pretty close eye on the British and Irish prospects. However, aside from Lomachenko, whose career I've followed pretty closely for a number of years, I have fallen completely out of touch with the international boxing scene and, in particular, the emerging talent.

So, my question to the highly knowledgeable posters of 606v2 Boxing is this; which prospects are currently getting you excited? Who do you think will be considered a modern great in 2, 3, or even 5 years time?

Well, up until the Commonwealth Games when he was totally undone, I would have said Lee Selby's younger brother, Andrew.

Leo Santa Cruz for me.

Great attitude and a strange style you would think would have been exposed by now but he has done well.

Wipes the floor with Frampton and Quigg imo.

Would love to see a Frampton-LSC fight. Be a cracker, and I don't see it being a done deal either. Quigg gets nowhere though.

How'd you think he gets on with Rigo though, ONETWO?

TopHat24/7 wrote:Would love to see a Frampton-LSC fight. Be a cracker, and I don't see it being a done deal either.  Quigg gets nowhere though.

How'd you think he gets on with Rigo though, ONETWO?

Its a great fight Topski but I think Cruz would have to adjust his style against Rigo. Don't see him walking Rigo down for 12 rounds but if he can use his reach advantage well then I think he has the upper hand. Rigo is fantastic to watch tho, love his style but his chin is a worry and I think Cruz can expose it. They both pose a danger to each other.

I just hope that this division can really take off. I want to see all of them fight each other and resemble the Chacon, Limon, Edwards, Navarte era of the 70's and 80's.

Always been a little impressed by Santa Cruz and would class myself as a big fan of the man, I like Frampton too, if Frampton beats him he's the real deal for me.

While Leo I'm certain goes off as the bookmaker's fancy, who knows what the Belfast crowd might do. Very much a live fight as we still don't know how good Frampton can become. Really is about time the top three or four got it on though.

Herman Jaggery wrote:Always been a little impressed by Santa Cruz and would class myself as a big fan of the man, I like Frampton too, if Frampton beats him he's the real deal for me.

While Leo I'm certain goes off as the bookmaker's fancy, who knows what the Belfast crowd might do. Very much a live fight as we still don't know how good Frampton can become. Really is about time the top three or four got it on though.

Absolutely 

For the sake of boxing this division needs to explode. Boxing fans deserve it.

Doubt the Cruz v Frampton fight will be held in Ireland tho, great crowd but it has to be Vagas for me. Its a big fight in the pipeline. Quigg still has a lot to prove for me.

I really think they need to strike while the iron is hot, especially in the lower divisions where boxers can move divisions easily. Presuming Frampton wins this weekend, there will be no good excuse for them not start facing each other.

No quite right, that's a Vegas fight without doubt. Should be a good fight on Saturday.

There was a lot of talk about Jose Benavidez a few years ago being a future star, very good amateur career and youngest ever golden gloves champion. He does have time on his side but has been a Pro for over 4 years now so should be looking to kick on really. I'm not sure if he is still with Roach or not but a few years ago Freddie said he was dead even in sparring with Khan, not bad for a novice. Another who might be worth a look is Frankie Gomez. Signed by De La Hoya early on, maybe before turning pro, he beat Benavidez in the amateurs and is doing well by the sounds of it. I've not got round to watching him yet but might do so tonight.

On the home front, other than the obvious candidates, when I first saw Eubanks Jr I was really impressed with his style and the zip in his shots. Since then he's fallen a little in my estimations but I'm starting to wonder again now.

Travelled Mazion is making news in the states after scoring an impressive and sickening KO against a nobody early this year. He's a young 6ft+ light welter with only a few fights but all KO wins. It's early days yet and he looks like a mini Wilder to me, hits hard but lacks the fundamentals. Who knows?

If Eubank Jr wants some respect he needs to get it on with BJS sooner rather than later.

Going nowhere otherwise.

There's a bit of buzz down under for Australian Welterweight Jeff Horn. Think he's 8-0-1 at the moment (technical draw because of a head clash, injury or something) but started getting noticed after sparking the usually quite durable Samual Colomban with one punch last year (Colomban had never been stopped beforehand, albeit he was never anything more than a high-quality middler).

Have only seen odds and ends of him so far and he looks a bit raw to me, but he can obviously punch a bit and will get better and more mature as time goes on.

catchweight wrote:I really think they need to strike while the iron is hot, especially in the lower divisions where boxers can move divisions easily. Presuming Frampton wins this weekend, there will be no good excuse for them not start facing each other.

Couldn't agree more, am always wary when promoters and fighters start saying lets wait, let it grow. Too many spanners can get thrown in the works, if Frampton and Quigg both come through their upcoming fights in the next few weeks they will both have belts and will both be ready to fight again at the same time, chuck them in together, massive domestic unification fight, unlikely to get much bigger, but can certainly get smaller.

Perhaps it's going to be Quigg Frampton next if they both come through.

Santa Cruz to face the winner I imagine. Leo feels he doesn't want to move up while there are big fights at super bantam as he feels the fans might think he's trying to avoid them.

Thanks for the responses, gentlemen. I'll be sure to look up all fighters mentioned!

I think the stars of the future are:

Carl Frampton
Leo Santa Cruz
GGG
Demitrius Andrade
Saul Canelo Alvarez

I know some of these are world champs (majority) but going forward 3 or so years I think these will be top top fighters maybe even multiple champs and p4p fighters.

A.Dirrel the ghost who fought Froch and has since gone.....is waste of talent like Odlandir Solis.

Shame.