There seems to be a serious lack of star power in boxing compared to previous generations and many of the current ones are fighters the wrong side of 30 or even 40! Looking back even 10 years ago there were alot more name fighters with more depth in most of the divisons. CW - Toney, Jirov, JC Gomez LHW - Roy Jones, DM SMW - Calzaghe, Ottke MW - Hopkins, Trinidad LMW - DLH, Wright, Vargas WW - Forrest, Mosley, Mayorga JWW - Tszyu, Judah LW - Castillo, Johnson SFW - Mayweather, Corrales, Casamayor, Freitas FW - Hamed, Barrera, Morales, JMM SBW - Pacquiao, Adams, Ayala, Tapia Compared to today. Older fighters marked in blue...who are from the previous generation...U could argue martinez and pacman should be as well. CW - Cunningham? LHW - This content is protected , Pascal, Dawson SMW - Ward, Froch, Kessler MW - Martinez, Pirog JMW - Cotto, Margarito WW - Pacquiao, This content is protected , This content is protected JWW - Bradley, Khan, This content is protected LW - This content is protected SFW - Uchiyama, Fana FW - John, Gamboa SBW - Nishioka, Vasquez jr So is boxing dying a slow death or will new talent start to emerge?
It's the benefit of hindsight, once an era has passed it's easy to pick out the stars. We'll probably look back and say the same things about this era in 5/10 years time.
Don't know about internationally but I think British boxing is going to explode when the next generation of amateurs comes through. So much talent it's unreal. Many of the future stars are probably going to come increasingly from asia rather than the US, it's just the way things are going.
I agree with Skelington I think there are potentially a few "big" stars ready to come out of the uk over the next 10 years
The question isnt so much about the UK. The uk has consistenty had 2-3 world champions at a time and good prospects are emerging now. You had Hamed, Barrera, Morales and JMM around featherweight. Now you still have old man JMM beating everyone. You have old man Hopkins proving hes better than Pascal and Dawson (the so called best LHWs) And at WW-JMW - There was DLH, Trinidad, Vargas, Wright, Forrest, Mosley in the mix. Now? Cotto, Pac and old man Mosley. You could argue Supermiddle is better now. There just seems to be a void and as a result very few big boxing events to look forward to each year.
I hear what you are saying there seems to be a bit of a transitional void atm. What i would say is the lack of an American and in some respects top Mexican names may be damaging the sport. I think the "stars" and i mean on the global scale will come more likely form Europe and Asia over the next decade. Its not hard to imagine a Degale Ward rivalry becoming massive at some point. I think we just need to let things brew for a few years there are few established fighters atm but they are waiting to breakout Ward at SMW Bradley/Khan at LWW Gamboa/Lopez all of these fighters are on the cusp i would say give it a year.
