Boxers Most Likely to Succeed Floyd Mayweather as Pound-for-Pound King
Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. will make the (advertised) final start of his illustrious career Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas against Andre Berto.
A million words have been written on why this fight is beneath a fighter of the caliber and standing of Mayweather, so we won't waste your time with any more of that here.
Mayweather has consistently remained on message that fight No. 49 will be the final one of his career, and, love him or hate him, his exit stage left from the fighting portion of the sport will leave a large gap at the top.
His presence, after all, made filling out pound-for-pound lists so easy over the better part of the last decade. There was always legitimate debate about No. 2 through 10, but the same man always occupied the throne.
No debate. No argument.
Welcome to our little slice of the post-Floyd boxing landscape.
Let's start by taking a look at the five men who have the best chance of succeeding him as the sport's top dog.
Terence Crawford
1 of 5
The Boxing Writers Association of America and ESPN named Terence Crawford the Fighter of the Year for a 2014 campaign that saw him go to Scotland and take a world title from Ricky Burns and successfully defend it twice in his backyard.
Crawford's pair of wins in Omaha (the first world title fights in Nebraska in decades) were emphatic thumpings of former world champ Yuriorkis Gamboa and Ray Beltran, who was absolutely robbed in his own road challenge of Burns the previous year.
Crawford possesses the elite type of hand speed and boxing intelligence you'd look for in the successor to Mayweather, who has made a career out of doing those two things light-years better than anyone else and has sneaky punching power and precision.
Crawford's biggest problem is that he hasn't taken that next leap after a stellar 2014.
He's fought only once this year (a devastating knockout of Thomas Dulorme this April in Texas) and will be back in the ring for his second and likely final start of the year against Dierry Jean in October.
Neither of those foes is particularly overwhelming, and it's a shame that Crawford, who has the talent, skill and big personality to become a big star and major presence in the sport, has spent more time on the shelf than in the ring in 2015.
Hopefully, he can secure something lucrative and game-changing in the year ahead.
Manny Pacquiao, perhaps?
Canelo Alvarez
2 of 5
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is one of those fighters who belong in a different era.
The guy is a throwback, willing to face anyone and daring himself to be great by taking on the challenges that far too many fighters in today's game avoid.
Canelo has already been in there with Mayweather, and while he lost a decisive decision (or what should've been one) he proved that even at his young age he's not the type of fighter to have things handed to him. He wants to earn his keep and prove that he can be one of the elite talents, not just in the sport but in the boxing history of his boxing-crazed homeland of Mexico.
He earned the Mayweather fight by taking on and beating Austin Trout, who was surging after a dominant win over Miguel Cotto but was considered too high-risk and low-reward for upper-echelon fighters.
Since the deflating Mayweather loss, Canelo has taken three tough fights in a row, wrapping dominant knockouts of murderous punchers Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland around a decision over Erislandy Lara (possibly the most avoided fighter in the game today) that he earned by simply outworking his man.
Canelo has a chance to snag his defining moment when he faces Cotto for the lineal and WBC Middleweight Championships November 21 on HBO pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
With Mayweather maintaining that he will retire after his fight with Berto Saturday night, that could be the chance for Canelo to take his rock-star personality and elite skill and become the type of mainstream boxing sensation that only comes around so often.
He could be the next Oscar De La Hoya, who was the transcendent star who paved the road for Mayweather.
Andre Ward
3 of 5
There are two indisputable facts about Andre Ward.
The guy has no marketability whatsoever, but he's one of the best (if not the best) pure technical boxers on the planet.
Ward occupied the No. 2 spot behind Mayweather on most, if not all, pound-for-pound lists before he abruptly put the brakes on his own career and spent the better part of two full years fighting in court rather than in trunks and gloves.
And that's a damn shame because Ward is easily a top-five fighter in the sport on his worst day, even if his style doesn't exactly leave fans clamoring for more.
Ward finally returned in June after nearly two years with a new promoter (Roc Nation Sports signed him after Dan Goossen passed away and his company settled lawsuits filed by the fighter), easily handling Paul Smith.
That win isn't going to turn any heads all by itself, but Ward now operates in a different boxing world than when he left it a couple of years back.
Carl Froch retired, which removed any chances of a rematch between the two best 168-pound fighters in the game, but the emergence of Sergey Kovalev and Gennady Golovkin in the two neighboring divisions should leave Ward with opportunities to revive his career and reclaim his pound-for-pound stature.
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Roman Gonzalez
4 of 5
Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez already rates as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the lower weight divisions, so it's plausible that the Managua, Nicaragua, native trades that in for a more significant designation once Mayweather fades away from the scene.
Gonzalez spent a good portion of his career as a hidden gem. He was the type of fighter whom people "in the know" would talk about incessantly but that few (because he wasn't appearing on HBO or Showtime) had seen unless they shuffled over to YouTube.
That all changed when a public groundswell gave HBO the reason and incentive to bring him on board.
Gonzalez, a three-division and current WBC flyweight champion, heralded his arrival on HBO with a two-round shellacking of former world champion Edgar Sosa in May on the Gennady Golovkin vs. Willie Monroe Jr. undercard.
The speed, precision and power with which Chocolatito put together his punches was scary and left the fans demanding more.
And they'll get it.
Gonzalez will defend his championship against Brian Viloria (in one of the most exciting fights that could be made in boxing today) on the GGG-David Lemieux undercard in October.
Co-featuring an HBO PPV?
That's not bad for a guy who wasn't even on the network last year at this time, and it's a testament to just how high his ceiling could be, particularly if the network suits are all-in on his potential.
Gennady Golovkin
5 of 5
Golovkin is boxing's equivalent of an atomic bomb.
He drops in and destroys absolutely everything and everyone unfortunate enough to be in his path.
GGG has gone from obscure middleweight belt holder to the man most fans and media consider the division's true standard bearer in just a bit over three years since his HBO debut in 2012. It's not terribly difficult to rise up the pound-for-pound ranks toward stardom when you hit like a mule and have knocked out your last 20 opponents—most in brutal, cringe-worthy fashion.
Seriously, there probably isn't enough money lying around to convince me to take just one of his best shots. Not from a guy who has knocked out 91 percent of his opponents.
Cotto vs. Canelo is clearly the higher-profile fight, but, as argued by yours truly, the winner will emerge as just the second-best 160-pound fighter on the planet behind the winner of Golovkin vs. David Lemieux on October 17 at Madison Square Garden.
Golovkin will enter as a heavy favorite (with good reason) as he dips his toes into the PPV waters for the first time, but Lemieux is a hell of a puncher in his own right. The fight could well end up as this fight generation's "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler vs. Tommy "Hitman" Hearns.
That iconic middleweight showdown lasted only two-plus rounds but is widely considered one of the most exciting fights in history.
Golovkin and Lemieux have the power and styles to produce something of a repeat, and should GGG emerge from that fight with the people's (if not lineal) middleweight championship, his knockout streak intact and a foot in the door of PPV, he'll have the best claim to Mayweather's throne.
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites.
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