By Gav Duthie: If we take him at his word Floyd Mayweather Jnr the greatest fighter of our generation will retire this September. He is the richest athlete in history and he has generated all of this himself. As always though boxing will go on without him as the old phrase goes the king is dead, long live the king. But who will that be? There is a cluster of top class and exciting fighters that could take over from Mayweather. Depending on who they fight and how much the fans follow him who will be the next king of boxing over the next few years.
Current Ring Magazine Ratings
1. Floyd Mayweather
2. Wladimir Klitschko
3. Roman Gonzalez
4. Guillermo Rigondeaux
5. Manny Pacquiao
6. Carl Froch
7. Gennady Golovkin
8. Sergey Kovalev
9. Tim Bradley
10. Juan Manuel Marquez
11. Terrence Crawford
12. Saul Alvarez
At a quick glance of this it is highly probable that Carl Froch (38) and Juan Manuel Marquez (41) will retire rather than fight again. Pacquaio showed against Floyd that he is now on the slide and heavyweight champion Klitschko is 39 but seems to still have the desire.
Marketability
#3 ranked Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez is probably the best lower weight fighter since Ricardo Lopez. Although Gonzalez makes his HBO debut on the Golovkin undercard this Saturday it is hard for a flyweight fighter to become boxing king as there just isn’t enough interest in the weight class. Gonzalez plans to travel through the weights but unless he can get up to 122lbs he will simply be seen as a great small fighter.
#4 Guillermo Rigondeaux can’t get anybody to fight him and time isn’t on his side. At 34 years old he needs to get the big fights sooner rather than later. Leo Santa Cruz, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton clearly don’t want to know and he has tried everything to tempt them. The risk versus reward isn’t worth it to fight Rigo for these guys. He isn’t supported by the main American TV networks and the money isn’t there. He may need to take the plunge and move up to 126lbs to fight Lomachenko to really show his supremacy.
#9 Tim Bradley is in the same predicament. With such a low ko record, 12 from 31 wins he has never really been able to generate a significant enough fan base to be a top level fighter.
The main contenders
It all depends on the fights. For 5 years the whole of the boxing world was obsessed with Mayweather v Pacquiao. Now that we have seen that the biggest fights are probably:
Kovalev v Stevenson
Klitschko v Wilder
Golovkin v Canelo
The next p4p king for me could either be Klitschko, Kovalev or Golovkin. It all depends on these fights. There is a lot of excitement regarding Golovkin at the moment. His record is flawless and his power formidable. He is an extremely active fighter, 3/4 times per year but soon enough fans will expect a big name opponent from the 32 year old. He needs Cotto, Canelo, Froch or even Ward soon if he is to prove himself.
Both Klitschko and Kovalev have the chance to achieve boxing immortality with a complete unification of their respective divisions. Kovalev is number 1 with the WBC and hopefully this fight can be made when Kovalev’s mandatory is out of the way. Klitschko might have a hard time getting Wilder in the ring in 2015. Wilder’s voluntary defence in June is disappointingly set to be B-level fighter Eric Molina. Also in June Akexander Povetkin (#2 heavyweight in my opinion) faces Mike Perez in a WBC final eliminator so Wilder will need to face one of them before the years end. Tyson Fury will be a big fight but Wilder is the big fish.
Wildcard
The only man not on the current list with the talent available to tae the crown is Andre Ward. There is little debating the fact that he is the next best boxer to Mayweather but his promotion and management has been a nightmare at best. He hadn’t fought for over a year because of a dispute with the late Dan Goosen. Upon his passing Andre signed with Roc nation and has finally been given an opponent in Paul Smith for June 20th. Ward is still the WBA super champion but his title will not be on the line against Smith. He is fighting at a catchweight of 172lbs which forces me to ask the question should he not move up to light heavyweight. He has beaten everyone at 168lbs Kessler, Froch, Abraham and there would be little interest/point in him fighting Badou Jack. Possibly the winner of Andre Dirrell-James DeGale might be of interest but thats about it. At 175lbs I think he could beat Kovalev, Stevenson and Beterbiev but Roc Nation needs to show these guys the money and Ward needs to have the motivation.
Final Thoughts
The next P4P king should be Andre Ward but unfortunately the marketing side of boxing is just as if not more important as the sport itself. Floyd Mayweather Jnr made the most of this throughout his career which is normally difficult for defensively minded boxers. Who will really be the next Mayweather, maybe he hasn’t even boxed yet but for me anyway I am excited at what the future holds.
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