Who are the best of the best in the current day? While many of us know of boxing legends such as Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Floyd Mayweather, their time is past, and glory is there for new champions to claim. If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you may know them, but there are so many great boxers, so you may be surprised.
In this post, we are going to explore the greatest fighters of our time, and explain what makes them so. Everyone is unique, with their own technique and fighting style. These are both unstoppable men, who are either unbeaten or with a number of losses you can count with one hand- when matched by another force to be reckoned with. Here comes one from the Western World, One from the East.
How We Are Ranking
While the heaviest athletes are often considered the best and the strongest, since they would destroy anyone substantially lighter than them (often as little as fifteen percent difference in mass is enough to ensure victory), this is where the concept of pound-to-pound comes in.
This is absolutely controversial material, as each person has an opinion on the matter. And rightly so, but since the fighters are now always separated by weight, we can look at their statistics to draw comparison rather than imagine what would happen if somebody fought an opponent almost twice their weight.
“Sugar” R. Robinsos claims the GOAT of all time for a good reason, and he was just a middle /welterweight. The point is not that he would be beaten by Ali or Joe Louis, but rather the opposite. The greatest dominate their class, because of their unmatched resilience, talent, and sheer spirit. Ray is just one example of that. When you see a boxer like that, you will instantly recognize what’s special about him.
Personal opinion is always subjective, and as such we will primarily rely on a few factors: how high on the quality scale do their victories rank, various titles, and achievements, as well as their fighting abilities in terms of talent and skill.
Gervonta Davis
As of 2021, this prominent boxer has zero losses and twenty-four wins to his name. And while that’s impressive, he also won the Featherweight World Titles for three years straight, and now continues to dominate the WBA Lightweight since 2019. This American star is on the rise and a big one. He’s got a lot of haters for reckless behavior and smack talk, but the number of fans is substantially higher.
Floyd Mayweather took him under his wing, into his Mayweather Promotions firm. Davis is all the rage in Atlanta, Baltimore, his hometown. His personal manager, CEO of MP, stated that the best for Gervonta is yet to come. We can expect to eventually see him in the fighting capital of the world, Las Vegas. With a 93% win rate in the amateur league, we know this guy doesn’t like to lose. He is a winner, and he’s set on staying that way.
Gennady Golovkin
Knocking out the opponent in 83% of matches sounds even more accomplished when you say that he won 40 out of his 42 matches. One loss, one draw. Who is he? A Russian middleweight fighter from the distant country of Kazakhstan, he came into prominence when he won the Gold medal at the WAC and placed second next year in the Olympics.
After that, we can see Gennady dive deep into the professional arena. Four years after fighting the best of the best, he got his first World Title and became instantly recognizable for his insane punching ability. The only imperfection on his record is his two fights against Alvarez, his arch-enemy he didn’t manage to beat yet.
A friend of mine from Dubai always confronts me about why I feel Gennady is more skilled than Alvarez. To me, it’s quite clear, as his overall performance is way more dominating. He clearly expressed his opinion on his blog fightroute.com, with an article praising the latter. And while I could agree that he is definitely one of the best fighters, Golovkin would prove he’s the top player if the opportunity comes by.
Lately, some are saying that the GGG (his famous nickname) is not the sport he used to be. Considering that he is nearing the ultimate 40 years old barrier, this may be not so far from the truth. Still, I think he’s got plenty of game in him, as exceptional boxers continue to make headlights past this age.
