1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. - 35 2. Manny Pacquiao - 33 3. Sergio Martinez - 37 4. Nonito Donaire - 29(will be 30 this year) 5. Juan Manuel Marquez - 38 6. Andre Ward - 28 7. Wladimir Klitschko - 36 8. Timothy Bradley - 28(will be 29 in a few months) 9. Bernard Hopkins - 47 10. Yuriorkis Gamboa - 30 11. Miguel Cotto - 31 12. Lucian Bute - 31 13. Vitali Klitschko - 40 14. Orlando Salido - 31 15. Abner Mares - 26 Interesting that only 3 of these guys will be in their 20's by the end of the year. The over 30 crowd is dominating boxing.
Shame to see boxing at it's lowest point at the minute. Something needs to be done about the amateur system in every country.. Just isn't churning out the stars and exciting fighters it used too
Yeah, that's something I want to look at. I don't think this is normal. I think one reason though is because fighters nowadays only fight twice a year. I think that might be helping to extend some careers.
The amateur systems are generally fine. The trouble is that, almost as soon as anyone of promise turns pro, they're whisked away to some obscure corner of the mediaverse where they have a paywall built around them. 98% of the other media outlets aren't in on this little scheme and so devote less and less coverage, turning the whole thing into an increasingly-obscure niche enterprise, preventing youngsters from decent exposure to either stellar techniques or high-profile enthusiasm.
I'd say that part of the reason for the average age being in the 30's is that fighters don't fight often enough. When you only fight twice a year its going to take a lot longer to build up your record. Guys like JMM, Hopkins, Martinez, etc have been having big fights for years while others like Mares, Gamboa, Ward, etc haven't had the same chance yet and by only having one or two meaningful fights at most a year the older guys are going to continue to make up most of the pfp lists.