Who will be named fighter of the decade for the 2010s?

Prediction and honorable mentions

It is hard to make a definitive decision with nine months remaining in the decade, but I will do some predicting with my hypothetical vote. If Canelo Alvarez defeats Jacobs in May (which he is favored to do), and then follows that up with another win over Golovkin in September (which is believed to be the plan) then the vote would go to Alvarez for fighter of the decade.

Again, this vote is contingent upon Alvarez winning two very difficult fights, either of which he can lose.

Andre Ward and Floyd Mayweather would both have strong arguments, but Alvarez’s resume favors over both, if he does indeed end the year with wins over Jacobs and Golovkin.

Ward won the Super Six tournament, and, after a period of inactivity, came back to defeat the boogey man of light-heavyweight, Sergey Kovalev, twice. The only reason he may not win is because he had the previously-mentioned two-year period of inactivity, and retired with two-and-a-half years left in the decade, while still very much in his prime (his last fight was the most impressive win of his career).

The fact that he is even in the conversation while not fighting for nearly half of the decade is truly a testament to how good Ward was.

He may have been a better boxer than Alvarez, and his best wins may be just as good if not better than Alvarez’s, but Alvarez simply has more of those quality wins.

If he continued to fight, and did not lose, he would still be pound-for-pound No. 1, and likely be the front-runner for fighter of the decade.

Mayweather would also have an argument, and at the time of writing this is probably the favorite, but his resume would not stack up to Alvarez’s if Alvarez wins out.

Are wins over Mosley, Cotto, an old Pacquiao, Maidana two times and Alvarez (albeit a young Alvarez) better than wins over Trout, Lara, an old Mosley, an old-ish Cotto, Jacobs and Golovkin two times?

The above question is close, and it’s easy to lean Mayweather, but the above question does not paint the whole picture. When comparing the rest of their fights in the decade, the advantage goes to Alvarez. I’ll take wins over Angulo, Kirkland, Khan, Chavez Jr and Liam Smith over Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero, Andre Berto and Conor McGregor.

Mayweather is unquestionably an all-time great, and at absolute worst he is the second-best fighter of his era (with the only person you can argue for being Pacquiao). But his 2010’s were not as great as his 2000’s. He had a some very big wins, but also his fair share of cherry picks.

Sure, he was (and frankly still is) the face of boxing, and at times looked unbeatable, but his resume would just not be quite as good as Alvarez’s would be in this scenario.

Additionally, while not his fault, Mayweather will have been inactive for nearly half of the decade. From 2016-2019, he had just one fight, and it was against McGregor, not necessarily something fans will remember when thinking of Mayweather’s legacy.

Of course, this all would change change if Alvarez were to lose to Jacobs, or beat Jacobs and then lose convincingly to Golovkin. Either of those could give Mayweather the all-decade edge.

Also, if the rumored Pacquiao-Thurman fight does happen, and Pacquiao won, a strong case could be made for him, even with four losses this decade. His wins would be good enough to overlook the losses, and it is worth noting that of the four, only two are viewed by the majority of fans as legitimate losses (although the opinion of the fans does not count for a fighter’s record).

Most feel that Pacquiao was robbed against Bradley and Horn. However, a loss is a loss, and neither of those fights were great performances by Pacquiao. He left the door open for both opponents to hang around. Four losses is hard to overcome when compared to the other men on this list, especially when one of the four came to another nominee.

Honorable mentions (record in decade):

Manny Pacquiao (11-4, 1 KO): If not for the previously-mentioned four losses, he likely would be a front-runner for fighter of the decade. His wins over Margarito, Mosley, Marquez, and Bradley twice have to at least put him in the conversation. And while many will say only two of his losses are legit, a loss is a loss and it is not like Pacquiao was up by 10 rounds in his first fight against Bradley or against Horn. There have been worse decisions.

Gennady Golovkin (20-1-1, 19 KOs): ‘GGG’ was one of the most dominant middleweight champions ever, however his resume is hurt by being in a weak division in his prime, as well as being avoided by some big name fighters. As good as he was during his incredible knockout streak, he only fought in one weight class, and while not entirely his fault, he never became undisputed in the division he dominated. Terrence Crawford fought in a similarly-weak division, but was able to become undisputed, as well as win titles in two other divisions. Also, Golovkin’s best win is against Daniel Jacobs, and while that is a great win, there are no other wins of that caliber. This is why scoring matters, because if either (or both) of the fights with Alvarez went his way, this entire discussion would be different.

Wladimir Klitschko (11-2, 7 KOs): Wlad’s prime was more in the 2000’s, but for the first half of the decade he was still the heavyweight champion of the world, and a historically dominant one at that. However, his reign only lasted until 2015, before suffering a shocking loss to Tyson Fury and later losing again to Anthony Joshua in 2017 in one of the defining fights of this decade. Ending your career on two losses is not so bad when both men went on to be two of the three best heavyweights in boxing.