The Best Boxers of the Decade

The contact sport called boxing is one of the most entertaining sporting events presently in the universe.

The beauty of boxing is that either win or lose fighters smile to the banks after each bout.

Here is a shortlist of boxers with fantastic  career records in this decade.

Manny Pacquiao 

PAC-man made history in July 2019 with a win over Keith Thurman to become the oldest fighter in history to win a welter weight world title at the age of 41 years.

He had 71 fights, 62 wins (39 KOs), 7 losses and 2 draws. The Boxing Writers Association(BWA) named him fighter of the decade for the year 2000s (2001-2010). He is the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing and also the first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight classes.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The Moneyman holds the record for most world titles held simultaneously - 5 belts ( WBC, WBA, WBO Welterweight titles, and WBA and WBC Super Welterweight titles. Ranked #1 pound for pound by the ring from July 2005, until his first retirement in June 2008, and from December 2012 until his second retirement in September 2015. One of his belts was stripped off him - the WBO 147 pound title, because of his lack of compliance.

He defeated MMA fighter Connor McGregor in 2017 to hold a perfect record 50 wins (27 KOs) in 50 bouts.

Canelo Alvarez

The Mexican super star is a four - division world champion.

He has held the unified WBA(super), WBC, the ring and lineal middleweight titles since 2018, the IBF middleweight title from May to August 2019, and the WBA(regular) super middleweight title since 2018.

He previously held the WBA(unified), WBC and ring light middle weight title between 2011 and 2013. The W.B.C ring and lineal middle weight titles between 2015 and 2018. The WBO light middleweight title from 2016 to 2017 and the WBO light heavyweight title from November to December 2019.

He has had 56 fights so far, 53 wins (36 KOs), 2 draws, 1loss. He  has won awards in each categories.

Wladimir Klitschko 

Himself and his brother held the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles as the undisputed champions from 2011 to 2015. Wladimir lost to Tyson fury in November 2015, which was his first defeat in 23 fights in over 11 years.

In April 2017, the Ukrainian legend lost to Anthony Joshua in London which was his last fight in the ring.

Vitali Klitschko 

The current mayor of Kiev held the WBC heavyweight title between 2003 to 2004 and 2008 to 2012. He had 47 fights, 45 wins and with only 2 losses in his entire boxing career. 

The record books will show him as one of the most dominant champions in boxing history.

Samuel Okon Peter

The Nigerian boxer won the WBC heavyweight title in 2008, after defeating Oleg Maskaev in the 6th round in Germany. His greatest rivals are the Klitschko brothers who defeated him 3 times and he eventually lost his title to Vitali Klitschko in 2008. He had 46 fights, 38 wins and 8 losses to date.

Andy Ruiz

He was an interim IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion after defeating the holder Anthony Joshua in April 2019 but he lost the rematch in December 2019 in Saudi Arabia.

Anthony Joshua

The current IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO inification champion of the world. The Nigerian-born British boxer has fought 25 bouts so far , 24 wins ,21 KOs and 1 loss

Tyson Fury 

In 2015, he won the unified WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles after defeating long reigning world champion Wladimir Klitschko. The victory earned him fighter of the year award and the upset of the year award by the ring. He has 30 fights so far with 29 wins(20 KOs) and 1 draw.

Deontay Wilder

He has been defending the WBC Heavyweight title which he won in 2015. In doing so he became the first USA world heavyweight champion in 9 years, which was the longest in USA boxing history.

The premier boxing champions gave him - knockout of the year award in 2016 /2017.

He has 43 fights so far with 42 wins and 1 draw.

Watch out!

In 2020 Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder might face each other.

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst

Anthony Joshua on the verge of losing his Heavyweight title

Nigeria-born British boxer Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua is on the verge of losing his unified heavyweight boxing championship belt. If this happen, it won't have anything to do with a loss inside the ring but based on him being forced to defend his belt by IBF and WBA at the same time.

The 27year-old Joshua holds the IBF and WBA titles, and both organizations were on board to allow him to defend them in a rematch against former longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko, whom Joshua stopped in dramatic fashion in the 11th round of the leading fight of the year contender on April 29 before 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in London. With the win, Joshua retained his IBF version of the title and won the vacant WBA belt.

Plans were in the works for a Joshua-Klitschko rematch to take place on Nov. 11 in Las Vegas even though 41year-old Klitschko had not fully commit to the bout for which he had a contractual right to. On Wednesday however, Klitschko surprised many when he elected to pass on the rematch and announced his retirement from boxing after a decorated 21-year career as one of the greatest heavyweight champions in history.

With Klitschko out of the way, Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) is now being pressed by the two organizations  to make different mandatory defenses next, if not he would have to vacate one of the belts or be stripped unless something can be worked out.

The IBF gave its blessing to the proposed Joshua-Klitschko rematch several weeks ago but stipulated that if Joshua did not face Klitschko in his next fight, he would have to face its mandatory challenger, Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs), 36, of Bulgaria, whose only loss was by fourth-round stoppage to Klitschko in the 2014 knockout of the year.

On Wednesday, hours after Klitschko's retirement announcement, the WBA also chimed in. It ordered Joshua to begin negotiations with its No. 1 contender (and former interim titlist) Luis "King Kong" Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs), 36, a big-punching Cuban southpaw who defected and fights out of Miami.

The WBA had previously ordered the winner of the Joshua-Klitschko to face Ortiz, but it had signed off on the rematch. With the rematch not happening, it sent both camps a letter ordering the mandatory fight and gave the Joshua and Ortiz camps 30 days to make a deal, or a purse bid will be ordered.

The WBA's letter pointed out that it had originally ordered the winner of the April 29 Joshua-Klitschko fight to face Luis Ortiz within 120 days of the fight. It had agreed to allow the rematch, but with it off the table, the WBA wrote that since the original resolution "95 days of that period have already passed and the fight should take place by Aug. 27. In light of the above, this committee is granting 30 days to negotiate beginning Aug. 3, 2017 and will close at the end of the business day Sept. 3, 2017. The fight should take place by Oct. 31, 2017."

Feelers have it that if Joshua has to pick one belt to keep, Joshua will most likely hang on to the IBF title he won in April 2016 by second-round knockout of Charles Martin and which he has defended three times against Dominic Breazeale, Eric Molina and the aforementioned Wladimir Klitschko. Also, a fight with Pulev figures to be a much easier fight than one against Ortiz, a massive puncher who has been routinely avoided by the division's best.

Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn, has already spoken to Pulev promoter Kalle Sauerland about making the fight and is moving in the direction to finalize that match.

"When the IBF cleared the Klitschko rematch it was under the proviso that if it's not Klitschko it must be Pulev, so we've already got talks in place with Kalle Sauerland," Hearn said to a reporter.

"Part of me is quite pleased we can move forward and draw a line under this. There was always the worry with Klitschko's age that we could announce the rematch and he could get injured in camp, various bits and pieces like that."

Whatever the decision, one thing that is certain is that AJ has come to stay and hopefully will rule the heavyweight category for sometime if his antecedent is anything to go by.