by Josh McCrohon @JoshMcCrohon572017 has been a great year for the world of boxing. Some unpredictable events have happened this year such as Floyd Mayweather coming out of retirement to have a 12 round fight with current UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor, which went to the 10th round. Some streaks continued to grow such as BJ Saunders extending his 24-0 to 26-0 by the end of the year. Some boxers just improved such as Chris Eubank Jr. and some just show you why they are the best, like Anthony Joshua. So, without further ado, let’s see who the best boxers are of 2017. Disclaimer: These are all my opinion and also there aren’t any women boxers included, not because of their ability, but simply because I don’t keep up to date. Honourable MentionsWladimir Klitschko: Although Klitschko is one of the best boxers in the world today, he has had a terrible 2017. In April he got knocked out by Anthony Joshua and while that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great boxer, his loss does effect his 2017 and this list is the best boxers of 2017. God, I hope he understands. Zolani Tete: You might not recognise the name but you’ve most likely seen the viral clip of him knocking out Sibnoiso Gonya in the first round which went a whopping 11 seconds. Tete is the current WBO Bantamweight Champion and is scheduled to defend his title in early 2018. I look forward to a big 2018 for this man! 10. Andre WardAndre Ward is one of the greatest boxers today (that’s why he’s on the list) and might even be higher had he not recently retired from the sport with his last fight being against Sergey Kovalev this past June. Ward retired at the age of 33 and announced his shock retirement on his official website: “I am leaving because my body can no longer put up with the rigors of the sport and therefore my desire to fight is no longer there” 9. BJ FloresIn my opinion, Flores is incredibly underrated. Flores made his boxing debut in the year of 2003 where he’d beat Dallas Lane via TKO in the first round but that was 15 years ago - what has he done now? 2017 has been a decent year for Flores as he picked up 2 wins, the first being against Jeremy Bates in the first round and the second being in June as he defeated Nick Guivas in the 6th round. What will 2018 hold for BJ Flores? Time will tell. 8. Tony BellewWell here he is, The Haymaker slayer himself, Tony Bellew. His 2018 is already partly set in stone as he is scheduled to battle it out with David Haye for the long awaited rematch in May. Bellew has only fought once this year and that was against Haye who doesn’t make this list. If Bellew has have fought Haye last month as originally booked and won again, there would be no doubt that he’d be higher on the list. It’ll be interesting to see where Bellew stands on this list next year... I wonder... 7. Saul “Canelo” AlvarezCanelo impresses me as a boxer every time I see him. He has had two brutal fights this year; the first he had was in May and was against Julio César Chávez Jr. which Canelo won after the 12th round whilst in his 2nd fight of the year, he drew with Gennady Golovkin. Canelo is a machine and his record shows that. He has an outstanding record of 49 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss which came to Floyd Mayweather in 2013. I can already see that 2018 is going to be a good year for the boxer known as Canelo and the future is bright for this 27 year old. 6. Chris Eubank Jr.Chris Eubank Jr. gets a lot of hate which I don’t understand. He is a good boxer who has improved massively this year and I would go as far as to call him the most improved boxer of the year. Eubank has won all 3 of his fights this year and is already scheduled to fight next year. He has a big future ahead of him as he approaches 2018 and I’m sure he’s going to do just as well as he did this year. 5. Carl FramptonI’ve got a bucket list. Fighting Frampton is surprising not on it, in fact it’s nowhere near it, which is pretty standard for most of the planet’s population. Frampton has had a good year of boxing with two fights. He lost his first in January which wasn’t the best of starts let’s be honest - that loss was to Léo Santa Cruz via a majority decision. Frampton bounced right back though in November where he TKO’ed Horacio García in the 10th round. 2017 wasn’t the best of years for Frampton but he still had a decent year. 4. Caleb TruaxThis is the man who dominated James DeGale this month. He won near enough every round in the fight and was just incredible to watch but that’s not the only fight he won this year. Truax also beat KeAndre Leatherwood by TKO in the 10th round - What a year it’s been for that man. 3. BJ SaundersBilly Joe Saunders has had a decent year this year; he’s fought twice, both fights were late 2017 and he was 2 for 2 at the end of the year. His first fight was against Willie Monroe Jr and he won due to a unanimous decision. Saunders’ second fight was against David Lemieux which Saunders won again due to unanimous decision. If only someone had done a round by round analysis of this fight... 2. Anthony JoshuaJoshua is a machine. The man is 20-0 and has ran through everybody in his 2017 path. He somehow beat Wladimir Klitschko which isn’t an easy task and also defeated Carlos Takam - also not too easy. What’s next for Anthony Joshua? Well that’s a separate blog article. 1. Gennady GolovkinGolovkin is the pound for pound active fighter in boxing today, no competition. “He’s not that good” says I’ve had people say to me. Well let me just point out that he is the current unified WBA (Super), WBC, IBO and IBF Middleweight Champion. He has 33 wins, 0 losses and 1 draw - he is a tank. People call him Triple G because of his name but I think it’s time to call him the Quadruple Champ! Golovkin beat Daniel Jacobs to unanimous decision in March and drew with Canelo in September. Golovkin was the best boxer of 2017 and will most likely be the same in 2018 aswell. ’ve been Josh, that was boxing and those were my thoughts for the Boxing year of 2017. I wish you a happy new year and I’ll see you next time.
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