This decade had 2 ATG's. Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev. Maybe Oleksandr Usyk too, but my gripe with him is he never fought another great fighter in their prime. Even though Briedis and Gassiev are very solid, but they are not great. Hopefully the 2020s produce more guys willing to chase greatness.
Eh, at this point I might have Canelo top 100 P4P all time (I'm torn between him, Ward and Del a Hoya), so he's by my definition an ATG. Usyk, Gonzalez and Wlad are also great at their respective divisions imo. What great fighters did Kovalev beat in their prime?
Andre Ward. And I'll go to my grave saying that. So there is not point debating me otherwise because I cant be convinced otherwise.
2000s were worse above all in the HWs. I save Lewis, Vitali, Wlad, Povetkin and Rahman. The rest is to be forgotten...few level fighters and a lot of dirty promoters.
I actually thought it was a solid decade. The HW division became interesting for the first time since the 1990s, you had a couple of aging superstars in Maywether and Pacquaio still having some great moments, ATGs in Ward, Usyk and Canelo, a superfight at MW, the WW division had talent and depth, a shocking upset of a HW champion, more boxing on more screens, the functional end of King & Arum casting a shadow over the sport (mostly), etc, etc.
I don't view either of those as all time greats. Hall of famers yes, but for me ATG needs to be saved for the elite of the elite. How many real world class wins does Kovalev have? Cleverly? Campillo? Pascal? Chilemba? 50 year old Hopkins? Alvarez? That's only half a dozen or so and only a one weight champ. Doesn't reach the bar for ATG status for me. Yeah he got jobbed against Ward but even so... As for loaded dice Ward, he did a good job in establishing himself as top fighter in one weight class, but the guy had the deck stacked in his favour so much every time that I can't consider him among the true legends of the sport. The disgraceful head butting of Kessler, the elbows and low blows, every fight on home soil with homer referee and judges, the flat out refusal to even consider neutral officials for the Kovalev rematch...
What do you mean “produced in this decade”? If you mean “made their debuts in this decade”, then Ward and Kovalev don’t classify. If you mean “peaked in this decade”, then I’d put Lomachenko, Canelo, Golovkin, Usyk, winner of Wilder/Fury, Chocolatito, Donaire, Tim Bradley and Estrada ahead of Kovalev as far as ATG status goes. (There might also be a case for Crawford, Mthalane and Yamanaka as well)
Decade's P4P Top 20 based on significant wins, not hypothetical ability 1.Mayweather: Mosley, Cotto, Canelo, Pacquiao 2.Pacquiao: Margarito, Mosley, Bradley x3, Thurman 3.Gonzalez: Estrada, Yaegashi, Sosa, Viloria, Wangek 4.Donaire: Montiel, Narvaez, Nishioka, Arce, Darchinyan 5.Golovkin: Jacobs, Canelo x2 6.Canelo: Trout, Cotto, Jacobs, Kovalev 7.Kovalev: Cleverly, Hopkins, Pascal x2, Ward 8.Ward: Bika, Abraham, Froch, Dawson 9.Usyk: Glowacki, Huck, Breidis, Gassiev, Bellew 10.Joshua: Whyte, Breazeale, Klitschko, Takam, Parker, Povetkin 11.Lara: Williams, Trout, Canelo 12.Inoue: Narvaez, McDonnell, Donaire 13.Rigondeaux: Donaire 14.Martinez: Pavlik, Williams 15.Klitschko: Haye, Povetkin, Pulev 16.Estrada: Viloria, Wangek 17.Lomachenko: Russell Jr, Linares 18.Crawford: Gamboa, Khan 19.Nietes: Sosa, Ioka 20.Yamanaka: Darchinyan
Gary Russell Jr was faster than anybody that ever landed on Canelo, and it`s the way Loma beat him, he dominated, he dominates all his fights now far more than Canelo does, who relies much more on covering up throwing far less leads (now) and countering, I don`t think Canelo was that convincing v Kov, not many shots were landed before the impressive KO, Loma is far more creative offensively and uses a probing lead like nobody else, he is something special, while Canelo is far more beatable despite being very good in his own right.
He didn't lay the belt down at the feet of his mandatory. That among many other things, disqualifies Canelo from ATG status.