Predicting Boxing's 5 Biggest Stars in the Next 5 Years

Five years from right now, Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be 42 years old and just a couple months away from reaching the age of 43.

Mayweather will most likely be retired by then, but that moment may come even sooner, as the pound-for-pound king has talked about retiring after his next two fights when his Showtime deal expires.

Also in five year,s Manny Pacquiao, Wladimir Klitschko and Juan Manuel Marquez will be well over 40 years old. Andre Ward will be 35, Timothy Bradley will be 36, Gennady Golovkin will be 37 and Miguel Cotto will be 38 years old.

The point I'm making by saying all that is the biggest stars of today at the box office, and on the top pound-for-pound list, will either be retired or past their prime and about to retire in five years. Unless they get a dose of "alien blood" from the ageless Bernard Hopkins, of course.

So who makes up the next group of rising stars to take their place?

My approach for this list was to rank the guys who would become the biggest stars in the sport and not necessarily the best boxers in the game.

These guys could become both box office/Pay-Per-View draws and make the top pound-for-pound list, but in my opinion the biggest stars are the guys who can draw the biggest audiences and not necessarily the guys with the most talent.

I'm using the word star in the sense of being the most famous and lucrative, not the most talented.

Good examples of the difference between biggest star and most talented come from the NFL with Johnny Manziel and Tim Tebow. Both were or are gigantic stars, but one quickly fell out of the league completely while the other is backing up Brian Hoyer; most talented and biggest star aren't the same thing.

5. Gilberto Ramirez

Heavy-hitting super middleweight Gilberto Ramirez has star potential and major box office draw written all over him. The rising Mexican prospect is already 29-0 with 23 knockouts at the age of 23, as he—like Canelo Alvarez—turned pro as a teenager.

Top Rank Promotions Vice President Carl Moretti—via Dan Rafael of ESPN—seems to believe strongly in the future potential of the young Ramirez, saying, "He has charisma, he has popularity in Mexico, he's in a good weight class, and he has a very crowd-pleasing style. It all adds up to a high ceiling."

Obviously potential just means it's something he hasn't done yet, but Ramirez appears to have all the tools necessary to become a major star.

Moretti hit the nail on the head: Ramirez is in a division that usually sells well, he fights an entertaining style and of course has a very supportive group of fans behind him as possibly Mexico's next top boxing star.

The only thing he needs is bigger wins against bigger opponents to reach that next level.

4. Felix Verdejo

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The 21-year-old Felix Verdejo is a terrific young prospect who is only scratching the surface of his potential both in the ring and his ability to sell.

Verdejo has been fighting at lightweight but at 5'9'' could have the frame to support more weight with a possible move all the way up to welterweight—recently a more lucrative weight class than 135 pounds.

Verdejo fights with an exciting style with five knockouts in his last six fights and 11 overall during his perfect 15-0 start to his career.

Dan Rafael of ESPN put Verdejo on his list of top prospects going into this year and sees star potential in the young fighter.

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The 2012 Puerto Rican Olympian turned pro in December 2012 and quickly established himself as the island's No. 1 prospect. He's an exciting boxer-puncher with Felix Trinidad-like charisma, which has already made him a popular attraction. He has a chance to be a major force.

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Before his career is over, Verdejo has a chance to move past every boxer on this list except for maybe the fighter I have ranked at the No. 1. spot. After all, in five years he'll only be 26 and still very much in his prime.

3. Danny Garcia

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Danny Garcia's star won't shine as bright as the next two boxers' on this list, but he does possess tremendous talent and promising potential as a product to sell to the fans.

Really, the main thing holding the 26-year-old Garcia back recently has been his opposition, like matches against Mauricio Herrera and Rod Salka in 2014. With better opponents in 2014, Garcia might have already reached a higher level than his current status.

Garcia fights with an exciting style, is supremely skilled and has many interesting options available to him at 140 or 147 pounds to make great fights; he and his team just have to decide to take them instead of easy paydays.

He probably won't ever reach the level where every fight he has is on PPV like Mayweather or Pacquiao, but I'd pay to see him face Adrien Broner, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman or several other top fighters at junior welterweight or welterweight.

Garcia will be more dependent on the quality of his opponent to make his fights PPV-worthy than the next two guys on his list, but don't be shocked if he headlines several PPV cards over the next three to five years.

2. Adrien Broner

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Adrien Broner is a great example of what I mentioned on the intro slide: I don't think Broner will be a top pound-for-pound fighter in five years, but he will be one of the sport's top five stars.

Much like his role model—scary thought—Floyd Mayweather, Broner is a guy who fans love to hate. He's perceived as arrogant, overrated, perhaps a little lazy and not as good as he's capable of being.

Those qualities—true or false—won't do much for his chances of reaching the Hall of Fame, but they can help him sell matches. Broner is very talented, but more importantly he's able to cut a good promo and build hype for his matches with his antics.

Oddly enough, I've always found in the entertainment business people who hate you will tune in more than the people who love you. I believe that to be true in radio—where my experience is—and more people have bought the average Mayweather fight than the average Pacquiao fight, so there must be something to that theory.

Box office and TV success are often more about the show than the actual talent on display, and Broner is all show. Creating controversy like he does won't ever help him win a match, but again, it might help him sell one.

With Mayweather on the way out and Canelo Alvarez moving to HBO, who is the next big PPV star for Showtime? I see only one answer in their near future, and that boxer is Broner.

1. Canelo Alvarez

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This one was easy.

After Mayweather and Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez is already the sport's third biggest star, and he's only 24 years old, so in five years he'll still be under the age of 30 and in his prime.

Even at his young age, Alvarez has had his last three fights on PPV—headlined two of them—and is on the verge of landing another mega fight with the rumored match against fellow star Miguel Cotto.

Alvarez fights an attractive offensive style, has a charming personality and of course has a huge base of Mexican boxing fans behind him. He appears to be the next Oscar De La Hoya in terms of a fighter the Mexican fanbase rallies behind to help generate massive TV and box office numbers.

Forget five years from now. Alvarez might only be a year or two away from becoming the sport's biggest star.

Follow me on Twitter for more boxing analysis and round by round scoring of big fights: @sackedbybmac