Andre Ward and The 10 Most Promising Young Fighters Of 2010
You could almost argue that most men have an instinctive nature to notice a gorgeous 25-year-old woman as if it were written in their DNA to do so. Sometimes a woman that might fit this description is standing next to a man old enough to be her grandfather—with a smile from ear to ear.
She isn’t taking grandpa on a field trip from the nursing home, they are “in love.”
While there are many happy marriages that last well into the golden years, the sport of boxing isn’t always as forgiving. Rarely do fighters have careers that last past the age of 40 years old and an even smaller amount of boxers have a successful career at that age.
As Bernard Hopkins attempts to make history by becoming the oldest Champion in the history of boxing this weekend when he faces Jean Pascal, there may be more people interested in when Saul Alvarez’s next fight will take place.
You can’t blame grandpa and you can’t blame fight fans for looking to the future more than celebrating fighters, like Hopkins.
Here’s a look at 10 of the most promising fighters in boxing.
Notable Mentions
1 of 11
Demetrius Andrade (22 years old) 11-0 8 KO’s
Sadam Ali (22 years old) 11-0, 6 KO’s
Jorge Linares (25 years old) 30-1 19 KO’s
Notable victories over Oscar Larios and Rocky Juarez
Andrade and Ali both have a ton of potential and have exciting styles at the moment. They both need to look at stepping up their level of competition but they’re being moved along at a safe pace and getting good exposure. Both fighters seem to have a high ceiling.
Jorge Linares was a titleholder at 126 pounds and touted by many as a fighter with real breakout potential. With a lucrative contract with promoter Golden Boy Promotions waiting in the wings, Linares was knocked out.
If you’ve seen him fight, you’d agree that he has all of the tools needed to be an excellent fighter but the knockout still looms over his head and reputation. Time will tell if the knockout was a fluke (and his team has said that he probably shouldn’t even have taken the fight because of a head injury related to sparring before the fight) or if his 73 second knockout loss to Salgado is something we’ll see again.
At his best, he’s a can’t-miss fighter and I’d love to see him fight in a meaningful fight again soon.
10. Brandon Rios (24 Years Old) 26-0, 19 KO’s
2 of 11
(Notable victories over Omri Lowther and Anthony Peterson)
Brandon Rios is like a young bull with his strength and straight forward style. He walks through punches to land his own and usually gets the best of his opponents because they simply cannot back him up enough to keep him from keeping forward.
His style could be described as a train running downhill and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before it runs over whatever is in his path.
His best win was against Anthony Peterson, who resorted to hitting Rios below the belt more than five times which prompted the referee to stop the fight. Rios would’ve surely knocked Peterson out and Peterson was looking for a way to not have the fight end in a knockout.
Rios took almost no time to recover from the illegal blows and explained that if he takes time off to recover, it gives his opponent time to recover from the beating he’s putting on them so why wait?
He could be a huge star amongst Mexican-American fans and he reminds me a lot of Fernando Vargas with his personality who was a huge star in his own right. Coincidentally, Vargas was in his corner for his fight with Peterson and they both trained in Oxnard, California.
His style also resembles that of Antonio Margarito whom he also trains with in trainer Robert Garcia’s gym. While Margarito’s best days may be behind him, he could certainly offer great advice to Rios from his experiences in the ring.
Rios also brought some negative attention to himself by mocking the disease of Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach. A video surfaced of Margarito and Rios mocking the trembling nature of Parkinson’s disease before Margarito’s fight with Pacquiao. Like it or not, it may have actually made him more popular with Mexican and Chicano fans.
9. Ruslan Provodnikov (26 Years Old) 17-0, 11 KO’s
3 of 11(Notable wins over Javier Jaregui and Emmanuel Augustus)
Provodnikov has become a staple on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. He resembles Kostya Tsyzu in style and looks. They both have a similar defense though Provodnikov is more of a work horse than a technician and he really wears his opponent down.
Tsyzu had great power in both hands and Provodnikov has good power in both but he appears to be a heavy handed fighter and his punches seem to have a thudding power that seems to sap the energy from his opponents.
Typically, fighters with good amateur records are not always good body punchers, but the same cannot be said for Provonikov. He strikes his opponents wherever there is an opening. His tough and fan friendly, offense-first style is definitely fun to watch but he has a high ceiling. Keep your eye out for him.
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8. Vanes Martirosyan (24 Years Old) 28-0, 17 KO’s
4 of 11
(Notable wins over Kassim Ouma, Joe Greene, Michael Medina)
Martirosyan is a tough kid and has good skills with a good work rate, however, his best wins were not exactly fights to get excited about.
Why is he on this list, you may ask? He still has a high ceiling and at six feet tall fighting at 154 pounds with good power, he’s going to be a force in the division if he can put it all together in terms of talent, size and power.
He has some good experience now and he’s fought in front of some decent sized crowds, including his fight with Green, which took place on the Miguel Cotto/Yuri Foreman undercard in Yankee Stadium this year.
Top Rank had designs of heavily promoting him until his poor performance against Green, but if/when he picks it back up and has another solid victory, you may see him again on HBO in a good fight.
7. Fernando Guerrero (24 Years Old) 20-0, 16 KO’s
5 of 11
In a division without many big names, Guerrero doesn’t have any real names on his resume at the moment, but he’s done exactly what you’d like him to do against his opponents.
He needs to be in a meaningful fight soon even though the division is slim of quality opponents.
He is a skillful fighter with really good power and speed and he’s gritty. He’s building up a good fan following and he’s been featured on TV a handful of times already. Showtime and ESPN have noticed that this kid could have some star power if he continues mowing down opponents the way he has been.
6. Miguel “Mikey” Garcia (23 Years Old) 24-0, 20 KO’s
6 of 11(Notable wins over Cornelius Lock and Oliver Lotchi)
Garcia has some serious star potential and his promoter Top Rank has taken notice. The brother of trainer and former IBF titlist Robert Garcia, Mikey comes from a boxing family and it shows.
He has good punching power and stays patient but he puts his punches together well. He will fight southpaw at times and it’s only a matter of time before you see him on a larger stage.
He just turned 23 years old on December 15, 2010 and with knockout wins over the durable Cornelius Lock and Oliver Lotchi, he should hopefully be able to secure a fight against one of the other fighters at Featherweight like Chris John, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Juan Manuel Lopez or Bernabe Concepcion.
5. Abner Mares (25 Years Old) 21-0, 13 KO’s
7 of 11
(Notable win over Vic Darchinyan and a draw with Yonnhy Perez)
Mares had a great fight with titlist Yonnhy Perez, but came away with a draw. He was invited to Showtime’s Bantamweight Tournament with a chance to potentially fight Perez again if he could get past Vic Darchinyan.
I don’t think people expected Mares to do so well if it ended up being a rough fight. However, Mares suffered the first knockdown of his career and dealt with a nasty cut for most of the fight yet fought well enough to earn a decision.
He’ll move on to face Joseph Agbeko in the tournament final however he is tremendously skilled and it’s great to see him get some exposure. He was once trained by the Mexican legend Nacho Beristain and he was a Mexican Olympian. His pedigree shows and he also has exhibited a toughness that fight fans may not have expected out of him.
4. Saul Canelo Alvarez (20 Years Old) 35-0, 26 KO's
8 of 11
Notable wins over Lovemore N’Dou, Carlos Baldomir and Jose Miguel Cotto
Alvarez is already a huge star in his native Mexico and after signing with Golden Boy Promotions, they could very well turn him into an international superstar.
Golden Boy has never taken a fighter from the start of their career to a championship but they’ve found Canelo on the cusp of fighting for a title already. He has the most fights of any fighter on this list and he’s only 20 years old! Not many 20 year olds are selling out stadiums in any sport.
The young, fair skinned, freckled, red-headed Mexican has a fan friendly style and he’s been rocked on more than one occasion but he keeps his composure and usually ends up knocking the other fighter out.
He has considerable power which you’d have to figure would only improve in the next few years as he grows into his body. He knocked out the normally iron-chinned Carlos Baldomir in spectacular fashion on the Mosley/Mora undercard.
He needs to improve his defense and he still has some technical flaws but hopefully Golden Boy helps him improve. He could be a special fighter.
3. Devon Alexander (23 Years Old) 21-0, 13 KO’s
9 of 11
(Notable wins over Andriy Kotelnik, Juan Urango, Junior Witter, Demarcus Corley)
Devon Alexander has been heralded as maybe the best prospect since Floyd Mayweather Jr., but his promoter, Don King, has done a terrible job and he hasn’t been nearly active enough.
He’s only recently been shown on national TV, but he’s definitely shown flashes of brilliance. He dominated Junior Witter to pick up his first title and had an excellent performance against Juan Urango, including an incredible uppercut that knocked Urango down.
However, he struggled against Kotelnik in his first big fight in front of 10,000 fans in his hometown. Other notable fighters in the 140 pound division such as Marcos Maidana and Amir Khan seemed to have easier fights against Kotelnik than Alexander did. Was this because he was nervous about putting on a good show or something more?
We’ll need to see the best Alexander in the ring on January 29, 2011 when he faces Timothy Bradley for Junior Welterweight supremacy. If he can beat Bradley, his stock will go way up and a fight with Amir Khan would be in the near future. He could be a huge star if he can put it all together.
2. Amir Khan (24 Years Old) 24-1 17 KO’s
10 of 11
(Notable wins over Marcos Maidana, Marco Antonio Barrera, Andreas Kotelnik, Dmitry Salita, Paulie Malignaggi)
Khan has been a star in his native England since bringing home the Silver Medal from the 2004 Olympic Games at the age of 17.
He was on the fast track to super stardom until he was knocked out by Breidis Prescott. The black cloud, otherwise known as having a weak chin, has plagued Khan despite the fact that he’d put together good wins against Barrera, Salita and a wipeout win against Kotelnik.
He’d also thoroughly dominated Paulie Malignaggi in his first fight in the U.S. on HBO but people still thought he was avoiding his mandatory challenger Marcos Maidana, a man with great punching power.
Fight fans believed he was avoiding a fight with Maidana at all costs because of his suspect chin. Khan has been working with famed trainer Freddie Roach and he was now confident he could handle Maidana. We got an explosive fight and potential fight of the year when they faced each other on December 11, 2010.
Khan fought well and dominated in parts of the fight but he also looked like he may be on the verge of being knocked out. You can’t fault Khan despite what people believed about his chin since his loss to Prescott for having a tough time with Maidana. He has a 90 percent knockout ratio and he caught Khan with several hard shots but couldn’t put him down.
While people expect that Khan’s chin could cause him to be knocked out again, he has a ton of talent and until someone can knock him out, he is fighting very well and a showdown with the Alexander/Bradley fight awaits him.
1. Andre Ward (26 Years Old) 23-0 13KO’s
11 of 11
(Notable wins over Mikkel Kessler, Sakio Bika, Edison Miranda, Allan Green)
Andre Ward was somewhat of a dark horse entering the Super Six Middleweight Tournament. His best win was against Edison Miranda which was impressive but wasn’t exactly a win that excited the world of boxing.
Fast forward a year and a half and Ward is the favorite to win the tournament. He thoroughly beat Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green and took a fight out of the tournament against Sakio Bika and beat him easier than most people including Joe Calzaghe had.
Ward has shown dexterity, toughness, speed and right smarts to outclass his opponents. As the last Gold Medal winner for the United States in boxing, from the 2004 Olympic Games, he could be the brightest star in this group of young fighters.
He’s 26 years old and entering his prime yet he’s rarely lost a round since joining the Super Six. He has good following in the Bay Area and that may quickly grow if he’s able to win this tournament then face Lucian Bute.
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