Boxing Stars Who Will Face the Most Pressure in 2016
Out with the old, in with the new.
As boxing’s captivating 2015 campaign winds down to its final days, Bleacher Report takes a gander at which of the sport’s stars will face the most pressure in 2016. Unlike last year, 2016's cadre of celebrity fighters will no longer include longtime pound-for-pound supernova Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather is retired now, and with longtime nemesis Manny Pacquiao likely set to do the same soon, boxing is undergoing a changing of the guard.
New faces will be counted on to shoulder the load as boxing’s torchbearers. Mayweather was fantastic at it. Pacquiao will keep up his end of the bargain for as long as he keeps fighting. But can a host of up-and-comers get the job done alongside him?
Bleacher Report presents the five boxing stars who will face the most pressure in 2016.
Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs)
1 of 5
The Pressure: Boxing needs a young star, one who captivates the masses just as much as he does the hardcore boxing fans. It’s what Mayweather did and what Pacquiao did throughout his career, too. But boxing needs a new face, and Alvarez would be the best fit. He has the fight-crazed nation of Mexico behind him, the star-makers over at HBO, a mentor who’s been there and done that in Oscar De La Hoya and an exciting fighting style to boot.
What’s at Stake: More eyes than ever were on boxing last year thanks to Mayweather-Pacquiao. But as long as the public waited to see that fight, it didn’t make it any more appealing to watch. Boxing’s appeal is the beauty of its contests. At its best, it is art, savagery and geometry all rolled into one. Mayweather-Pacquiao was some of those things but not all. Alvarez needs to remind the world how good boxing can be.
Prediction: Call me an optimist, but I think Alvarez is the guy to take boxing into a brighter future. He’s fun to watch, confident, compelling and seems to get better every time he steps into the ring. The 25-year-old will make good on his potential and become the new face of boxing.
Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs)
2 of 5
The Pressure: Crawford is already considered one of the better fighters in the sport. He appears to be pound-for-pound elite, and while Alvarez might never live up to Mayweather’s pure boxing brilliance, Crawford actually might. But here’s the thing: He hasn’t proved nearly as much yet as his handlers would have us believe. Yes, he looks fantastic. But Crawford will need big fights against top-level competition. While he was lineal lightweight champion, his junior welterweight achievements so far are sanctioning organization novelties rather than legitimate lineal world championships.
What’s at Stake: Crawford seemed to come out of nowhere, something that’s easy to do as a fighter hailing from Nebraska. But HBO brass spent all of 2015 positioning Crawford as elite. Now he needs to prove it against the best junior welterweights in the sport.
Prediction: Crawford will remain undefeated in 2016, but fight fans will begin to tire of the level of his competition. He won’t get the Pacquiao fight he craves, and instead of seizing the junior welterweight world by storm, he’ll languish in a handler-imposed limbo.
Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs)
3 of 5
The Pressure: Golovkin is a knockout machine, an undefeated and unified middleweight titleholder who is already hailed by some as one of the greatest middleweights ever. The praise isn’t unwarranted. Golovkin has demolished every top fighter he’s ever faced, and it seems from the outside looking in that the 33-year-old from Kazakhstan has a difficult job of getting other top-flight middleweights in the ring with him. But future historians won’t care about that. If Golovkin is truly one of the best middleweights ever, he needs to become lineal champion and clean out the division.
What’s at Stake: Already 33, Golovkin needs to simultaneously make big money and carve out his legacy. While younger fighters go into 2016 with a greater margin for error, Golovkin is badly in need of big-money fights against fellow fight game superstars. Finding his way into the ring with Alvarez, who is the lineal middleweight champion of the world, should be Golovkin’s top priority in 2016.
Prediction: Golovkin will never track Alvarez down. Either he or the Mexican will lose, change weight classes or simply look elsewhere for easier fare. It will hurt Golovkin more than Alvarez, but GGG will pick up the rest of the middleweight straps to make the best of a bad situation.
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Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs)
4 of 5
The Pressure: If Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series is going to take over the world of boxing, the ambiguous managerial/promotional entity will need a star to emerge from its stable in 2016. The most likely candidate to successfully separate himself from the field is undefeated welterweight Thurman. There’s a lot to like about the 27-year-old. He’s a power puncher who can bang with the best but is also equally adept at skillfully boxing his way to victory. He’s an exceptional athlete with a gravitating personality.
What’s at Stake: Without Thurman becoming a star, PBC’s future would seem bleak. The bouts have been a mixed bag so far, and if there’s one thing that’s been true about the sweet science over the course of its long history, it’s that it is driven by star power. If Thurman can't make good on his potential, PBC might find itself on the ropes.
Prediction: The good news (for PBC fans) is that we’ll finally see Thurman against some of the other solid welterweights also managed by Haymon. The bad news? Thurman will take a loss against Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia or Errol Spence Jr.
Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs)
5 of 5
The Pressure: WBC heavyweight titlist Wilder is under a huge amount of pressure to prove he, an American heavyweight, belongs among the top heavyweights in the sport. With Tyson Fury’s upset over longtime lineal champion Wladimir Klitschko, the field is wide-open. Fury, Wilder, Anthony Joshua and Luis Ortiz all have the ability to become the next great heavyweight king. As the only American, and with no other on the horizon, Wilder has a huge amount of weight on his shoulders to succeed.
What’s at Stake: If Wilder can’t capture the lineal heavyweight title, Americans might as well concede the best heavyweights in the world no longer hail from the ol' red, white and blue. Wilder needs to get this thing done because America.
Prediction: He does it. Wilder keeps knocking folks out and takes over heavyweight boxing as the best in the business. He creams Fury, destroys Ortiz and enjoys a thrilling trilogy with Joshua. All this brings heavyweight glory back to Uncle Sam and keeps PBC in the fight game for years to come, too. (Hey, I told you I was an optimist.)
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