Four of the top 10 fighters in the April Yahoo! Sports boxing rankings are under 30 years old and have a combined record of 96-1 with 57 knockouts. Related Links More from Kevin Iole (US) Date set for Klitschko-Haye
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Andre Ward (23-0), ranked seventh and Timothy Bradley (27-0), a spot behind him at eighth, are each 27. Nonito Donaire (26-1), who is fourth, is 28 and Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0), who enters the rankings at 10th, replacing Juan Manuel Lopez, is 29.
There are several other fighters of note who are under 30, such as Paul Williams (29), Giovani Segura (29), Lopez (27), Andre Berto (27), Abner Mares (25), Anselmo Moreno (25), Victor Ortiz (24), Amir Khan (24), Mikey Garcia (23) and Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez (20).
The sheer numbers of them are a signal that, despite the frequent cries of the uninitiated, the sport is healthy and faces a bright future.
Ward, Bradley, Donaire and Gamboa are likely to be in or around the Top 10 for several years, and clearly, the group of the other 10 fighters figures to be in the hunt for Top 10 pound-for-pound spots for at least the next five years, if not more.
Bradley is the youngest member of the Top 10, about six months younger than Ward. But Ortiz, a man who received just one vote out of the 32 cast from boxing writers and broadcasters around the world, may soon take that spot.
Ortiz took a lot of abuse prior to his fight on Saturday with Berto, in which Ortiz won the World Boxing Council welterweight title with a unanimous decision in a hellacious back-and-forth battle. Ortiz was derided as soft and as a quitter, but Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya, who has been predicting greatness for Ortiz for years, said the criticism hurt because it hit close to home.
?You can?t blame people for what they were saying about him, because they saw his actions up there in that ring and he gave them reason to question him,? De La Hoya said. ?He has the power and the speed and the ability to box. The only thing missing was the determination.
?With young guys, you just never know when all of a sudden it?s going to come together. Sometimes, it doesn?t. But sometimes, like on Saturday with Ortiz, all of a sudden they figure it out and then they gain confidence and go on a roll. It?s like in golf. Once a guy gets that first win, he is tough to beat and racks up a few more.?
De La Hoya said he rates Manny Pacquiao the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, because Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not active. If Mayweather were active, De La Hoya said, he?d have Mayweather first. He said Donaire and Sergio Martinez also belong in consideration for the top spot.
But he said not to be surprised if Ortiz is in the running for that spot in the not-too-distant future.
?Victor was tired of people talking about him and calling him a quitter,? De La Hoya said. ?He got fed up with it and decided to do something about it. That?s what you want to see in a fighter. Now that he has done that and proven to himself, you?re going to see the natural talent come out and he?s going to get better and better. When I talked to him after the fight, the first thing he said to me was that he made a lot of mistakes. That?s important because he knows now what he needs to do.
?It?s exciting to me because boxing has so many young guys who can fight and we can put them together and make all of these great fights. As boxing fans, it?s good for us because we know there are a lot of super fights ahead of us.?
And with that, let?s take a look at the updated rankings. As a point of information, Mayweather will not be eligible for next month?s poll because he will have been inactive for more than 12 consecutive months.
Rankings:
1. Manny Pacquiao
2. Sergio Martinez
3. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
4. Nonito Donaire Jr.
5. Juan Manuel Marquez
6. Wladimir Klitschko
7. Andre Ward
8. Timothy Bradley
9. Lucian Bute
10. Yuriorkis Gamboa Kevin Iole / Yahoo
