Any list of candidates for Fighter of the Decade—the Boxing Writers Association’s annual award—is usually whittled down to four names: Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez and Andre Ward.
And believe me: There is a heated debate out there among boxing scribes as to who is the most deserving one.
Let’s start with Mayweather, the clear cut star of the decade. Mayweather was already a mainstream megastar in 2010, still riding high off his career-turning win over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. He signed a lucrative deal with Showtime in 2013, broke pay per view records against Manny Pacquiao in ‘15 and made nine figures fighting an MMA fighter with no chance to beat him in ‘17.