Boxing's Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Are Their Best Years Ahead of or Behind Them?

It is every boxer's dream to make the list of the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters list, as it states that you're a top-10 fighter in the entire world. All the time and hard work a fighter has put in his whole life has paid off.

Here are the top 10 P4P fighters and whether or not their best years in the ring are still to come, or are just an afterthought.

10. Miguel Cotto

Junior middleweight Miguel Cotto has had some great fights in his 10-year boxing career.

Cotto (36-2, 29 KO) still has enough in his tank to have a few more good years of fights, and can make some waves beating Antonio Margarito in December.

The fight is a rematch of their first fight in 2008 that was made controversial after Margarito was busted for using illegal wrap on his hands in his fight after Cotto with Shane Mosley—something that many suspect Margarito did in his fight with Cotto after seeing the amount of damage Cotto endured. 

Even though he has it in him to fight at a high level, there aren't any big-time opponents for Cotto to take on, and would have to move up to the middleweight division or drop down to the welterweight division to land a fight with a big name.

If Cotto is willing to move up or down in weight to land a big fight will decide if his best years are still to come, but with that uncertainty, I will have to say his best years are behind him.

9. Andre Ward

Current WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward is one of boxing's brightest up-and-coming stars.

Ward (24-0, 13 KO) has put together a solid professional career after a successful amateur career which culminated in a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The biggest fight in Ward's career is coming up in December against No. 2-ranked super middleweight Carl Froch in the finale of Showtime's Super Six Middleweight Tournament.

With Ward being 26 years old and having some quality opponents to face in the super middleweight division, Ward's best years are definitely on the horizon and still to come.

8. Timothy Bradley

Timothy Bradley, the reigning WBO junior welterweight titlist, has a strong resume built already with wins over such fighters as Lamont Peterson and Devon Alexander.

Bradley (27-0, 1 NC, 11 KO) was also the WBC title-holder but was stripped of his title when he refused to fight Amir Khan, the current WBA junior welterweight champ.

Bradley's next fight is nothing to be excited about, as he is facing a Joel Casamayor—a shadow of his former self—on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight next month.

Of course a fight with Khan would be a great fight and help draw fans, as Bradley is known to have a hard time drawing an audience for his fights.

Bradley's best days are still ahead of him, and he should have a few big fights in the future as long as there are no more snags in negotiations for those fights.

7. Bernard Hopkins

Bernard Hopkins is still one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, despite the controversial TKO ending to his fight against Chad Dawson this past weekend.

The TKO loss Hopkins (52-6-2, 1 NC, 34 KO) suffered will most likely be overturned and ruled a no contest, nullifying the loss on Hopkins' record.

Hopkins is 46 years old and has had a great career beating some big-name fighters. He owns the longest defense of the middleweight title at 20 wins in a row.

Hopkins' nickname is "the Ageless Wonder" and does have a few years of fights ahead of him, but his best days are definitely behind him.

6. Wladimir Klitschko

Current heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko is on a long-time winning streak stretching back to 2004, making it the seventh-longest streak in the history of the heavyweight division.

Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO) has been fighting professionally since 1996, and has seen his fair share of great performances.

With a weak crop of heavyweight fighters at the moment, any fight that Klitschko is involved with will be fairly easy work for him. There are no dangerous fights in his near future.

Even though Klitschko will be dominant in any fight he takes on for the foreseeable future, his best years are behind him and he will go down as one of the best heavyweights of the last 20 years.

5. Juan Manuel Marquez

Juan Manuel Marquez has been a part of some of the bigger fights of the last six or so years and has had a good amount of success in those fights.

Marquez (53-5-1. 39 KO) has been through some battles and given his all in the ring over his 18-year career. It's a testament to his love of the sport that he is still fighting at such a high level.

Marquez's showdown with Manny Pacquiao next month will give us a glimpse of just how much Marquez has left, but after such a long career, Marquez's best fighting is surely behind him.

4. Nonito Donaire

Nonito Donaire is an exciting bantamweight champion and has had an impressive string of fights as of late.

Nine of Donaire's (26-1, 18 KO) last 10 fights have ended by way of knockout. Many more fights ending early are certainly in Donaire's future.

Beginning with this weekend's fight with Omar Narvaez, Donaire will continue his streak of great fights and should continue his successful title defenses for some time, with his best fights still in the future.

3. Sergio Martinez

Current middleweight title holder Sergio Martinez has only one loss in the last 10 years and has knocked out his last three opponents.

The 36-year-old Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO) was the 2010 fighter of the year after beating both Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams.

In his last fight, Martinez was looking a little less motivated against the little-known Darren Barker and woke up at the last minute to knock out Barker in the 12th and final round of their fight earlier this month.

Martinez has been linked with some big-name fighters including fellow pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao, and has enough left in the tank to have some of the best fights of his career still ahead of him.

2. Manny Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao is the most popular boxer out there at the moment and has been on a tear since suffering his last loss in 2005 to Erik Morales, riffling off 14 wins in a row since then.

In those 14 wins there have been some big-name fighters Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO) has faced, including Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito to name a few.

With a few big fights possible in the future, Pacquiao must first beat Juan Manuel Marquez in their rubber match.

There is a real possibility that Pacquiao could lose, seeing how he has struggled against Marquez in the past, but Pacquiao should come away with a win.

Besides the possible mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather that is always looming and a few other big name fighters in the mix, such as Sergio Martinez, Pacquiao's career still has a lot of upside to it.

He has some of the best boxing of his career still to come, despite a political career in the Philippines taking off in the process.

1. Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather has been the most dominant fighter of the last decade and has an unblemished record of 42-0 to go with it.

Mayweather's highly accurate, counter-punching style has taken care of opponent after opponent, helping him dominate that Pay-Per-View ratings every time he fights, with most fans tuning in hoping to see Money May finally fall.

Mayweather looked good after over a year layoff in his controversial KO of Victor Ortiz last month. He showed he can fight when ever he wants, no matter how often, and still shine.

Mayweather has beaten some of the best fighters around, and although he has taken on fewer opponents each year, Mayweather still has many great years of boxing ahead of him.

Of course his potential fight of the decade with Manny Pacquiao would top the list of future bouts for Mayweather.