Boxers Whose 2014 Success Will Not Continue into 2015
Success is a fickle thing in boxing.
It can come and go from one fight to the next and even from one punch to the next.
Here we present five professional fighters who have had high levels of success in the ring during 2014.
They're all current or former world champions.
And each one is going to have a hard time replicating their 2014 success in the new year that begins in just a few days.
Why?
Read on to find out.
Danny Garcia
1 of 5
Danny Garcia is the unified junior welterweight champion. He holds the WBC and WBA titles, along with The Ring Magazine belt, which confers to him official sanction as the man to beat in his particular weight class.
His success in 2014 was built upon a questionable, home-cooked decision and a woefully, possibly dangerously, overmatched opponent.
Garcia took his show on the road to Puerto Rico, the land of his parents' birth, in March, winning a majority decision from the awkward Mauricio Herrera in a fight that at best was a bad night and at worst, well, a pure sham.
Making matters worse, Garcia’s encore performance of the year at the Barclays Center was so putrid, so unbelievably bad, that the sanctioning organizations didn’t even want the money that would come to them for sanctioning such a disgraceful display as a title fight.
Garcia nearly removed the noticeably smaller Rod Salka’s head from his shoulders with a blistering second-round knockout, but the fight meant absolutely nothing in the larger picture.
So why is Garcia on this list?
His star took a bit of a beating over the past 12 months. He went from the guy who stared down the barrel and took a hard-fought decision from Lucas Matthysse in Las Vegas, to the guy who needed home cooking to beat Herrera and was spoon-fed a dangerous mismatch.
Garcia has some serious talent, but these type of nonsense fights need to stop and fast. They’re inexcusable with so much talent in his weight class and just north at 147 pounds.
Seriously, why the heck are you fighting Salka with guys like Lamont Peterson, Matthysse, Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana and even Manny Pacquiao hanging around?
Not saying he can't compete with or even beat many of those guys, but people are going to forget about him in a hurry if he doesn't step up soon.
Miguel Cotto
2 of 5
It’s painful putting Miguel Cotto on this list.
Last year at around this time, yours truly was prognosticating, against the prevailing wisdom, that the Puerto Rican legend would be successful in his challenge for the middleweight crown against Sergio Martinez.
Cotto hasn’t made any decisions about his future fight plans, though Canelo Alvarez has reportedly agreed to terms on a blockbuster fight for May 2, but it’s hard to see him sustaining his remarkable 2014 into next year.
Canelo is a lot younger and fresher than Martinez.
A lot of the same people who picked Martinez to win because he was bigger, faster and stylistically superior to Cotto are the same ones who, in the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking, washed their hands after the fight and pointed to Maravilla's bum knee as the exclusive reason they all got it wrong.
Was he the same fighter? No, but Cotto still had to walk in there and win the fight.
Doing the same against Alvarez, while possible, won’t be nearly as easy.
And should he get by that fight, a showdown with Kazakh wrecking ball Gennady Golovkin could loom later in the year.
Or at least it should.
And, no disrespect to Cotto, one of boxing's great warriors, but that could be the end of the line.
Adrien Broner
3 of 5
Adrien Broner just doesn’t learn, does he?
Humble just ain't in this guy's DNA.
The Problem rebounded from a drubbing at the hands of Marcos Maidana last December, the first loss of his professional career, with a pair of ho-hum, cherry-picked victories in 2014.
Carlos Molina was a comeback opponent and nothing more, a light-hitting foe who hadn’t fought in 18 months.
Emmanuel Taylor was a step up from Molina but still another light hitter who hadn’t ever risen above the level of fringe contender and was soundly thrashed by Chris Algieri seven months prior.
Broner apparently is in the mood for a spectacular leap in competition level, per Boxingscene.com, recently calling out Maidana and Manny Pacquiao.
This type of bluster really isn’t anything new from Broner. He’s always been a brash personality willing to allow his words to outpace his fists, but he is a three-division world champion.
And that does still count for something, even in the days of watered-down championships.
Broner seems to really dig a big fight next year, and he could probably even win one against the right guy, presuming he takes things seriously and doesn’t believe his own hype again.
Maidana?
We saw that show once, and Chino, even with a pair of losses, had the better year. Broner had his moments in their fight last December, but with the chips down, the Argentine closed the show.
Pacquiao?
Let’s not even go there.
It’s one thing to enjoy success against the Molinas and Taylors of the boxing world, but it’s quite another to do it against the very best.
Broner should find that out the hard way if he gets his wish.
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Carl Froch
4 of 5
This is not a criticism of Carl Froch.
No sir.
The Brit is one of the more underrated stars in boxing today, and his 2014 featured a spectacular knockout of pesky rival George Groves in front of something like 80,000 sets of eyes at London’s iconic Wembley Stadium.
Froch’s big problem is a lack of compelling places to go next and the availability issues surrounding the opponents who do make sense.
The 37-year-old has no interest in facing mandatory challenger James DeGale, but instead has locked his sights on a career-defining fight in Las Vegas, the boxing capital of the world.
Nothing short will do, but Froch could find himself the latest victim of boxing’s cosmic power struggle between manager to the stars and want-to-be stars Al Haymon and Bob Arum’s Top Rank promotional outfit.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is the man Froch wants, and why not?
The Mexican former champion has high name recognition, a big fanbase and, quite frankly, Froch should beat him.
What’s the snag you say?
Chavez Jr. is mired in a legal battle with Arum over the status of his contract.
Top Rank claims that Chavez Jr. still owes them one fight under the deal, while the fighter, who recently signed with Haymon—the oil to Arum’s water—feels he can take his show anywhere he wants.
So off to court we go.
Froch’s trainer recently stated that his guy was so set on a Vegas finale that he believed he’d retire if it doesn’t happen.
If past history is any indicator of the legal battle about to be fought, Froch might not want to hold off on his vacation plans, because Chavez Jr. could be indisposed for a bit while all these legal machinations are sorted out.
Leo Santa Cruz
5 of 5
Leo Santa Cruz is quite possibly the most exciting young fighter in boxing.
He comes forward, throws punches in bunches and overwhelms opponents with his aggression and high volume.
Santa Cruz took down former world champion Cristian Mijares in March before ending the year with a pathetic mismatch against former sparring partner Manuel Roman on the Mayweather-Maidana 2 undercard.
He’s another one of those guys who is getting old quick because of poor opponent selection.
Roman was literally drawn from the Santa Cruz camp and had absolutely no hope, something that became apparent about six seconds after the opening bell, of being competitive, much less winning.
Young fighters get a pass to a certain extent while they work their way up the ranks, but Santa Cruz has been a world champion for nearly a year-and-a-half.
He’s slated to be the co-featured bout when Bermane Stiverne defends his WBC Heavyweight Championship against Deontay Wilder on Jan. 17 in Las Vegas.
His opponent?
TBA.
With only three or so weeks until that bout, you shouldn’t expect an opponent that’s much above the level of Roman.
Hopefully that’s the last time we need to say that, and Santa Cruz gets in there with a live dog later in the year.
He says the right things about wanting guys like Carl Frampton and Guillermo Rigondeaux, but as of now that type of fight hasn't materialized.
It will need to in the coming year, or Santa Cruz could find his success fleeting indeed.
No more badly faded former champions or old sparring partners, please!
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