by David P. Greisman

Every year at this time of year, I help compile the “State of the Game” section for THE RING magazine, a feature that includes a list of the 10 longest-reigning titleholders in boxing.

This year, I noticed something quite interesting.

Two years ago today, the 10 longest-reigning titleholders were, in order, Wladimir Klitschko at heavyweight, Anselmo Moreno at bantamweight, Marco Huck at cruiserweight, Andre Ward at super middleweight, Takashi Uchiyama at junior lightweight, Sergio Martinez at middleweight, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk at cruiserweight, Omar Narvaez at junior bantamweight, Miguel Vazquez at lightweight and Yoan Pablo Hernandez at cruiserweight.

At this time last year, half of them remained: Klitschko, Huck, Ward, Uchiyama and Hernandez. They were followed by Donnie Nietes at 108, Shinsuke Yamanaka at 118, Guillermo Rigondeaux at 122, Danny Garcia at 140 and Floyd Mayweather Jr. at 154.

At this point in 2016, everyone on the Top 10 list in 2014 no longer has a world title. And only two people from the 2015 list —Nietes and Yamanaka — continue on with an uninterrupted reign in his respective division.

Rigondeaux was stripped of both of his world titles last year and of his RING Magazine title earlier this year; one of the sanctioning bodies recently awarded him its belt in the wake of Carl Frampton vacating his two titles. He remains the lineal champion. Danny Garcia, meanwhile, has begun a new title reign at welterweight.

Everything in boxing is temporary. That’s true for the sporting world anyway, in which every season is a new storyline and few rosters are identical from year to year. In boxing, there are so many world titles available — four apiece in each of the 17 weight classes, so long as we don’t count interim titles and “regular” titles from the WBA in weight classes where it also has a “super” titleholder — that there are so many fighters who can receive attention in a weight class, never mind the other contenders and prospects who are featured on television broadcasts.

Inevitably, nearly everyone loses. Some of those who lose never return to the title picture and are replaced by someone better, or at least someone who came along at the right time. Boxers also may lose their belts because they can no longer make the weight and/or wish to move up a division, or they vacate their titles rather than face certain opponents under certain terms. Fighters don’t fight forever either.

Everything in boxing is temporary, and yet these past two years have been particularly turbulent and eventful.

There are 58 titleholders right now, not including the secondary belts — and not including Canelo Alvarez, who is the lineal and RING champion at 160 but recently ditched his sanctioning body belt. The newest names are Johnriel Casimero, who won a flyweight title on May 25; Ricky Burns, who won a junior welterweight title on May 28; and Tony Bellew, who won a cruiserweight title on May 29.

Of those 58 titleholders, 50 of them won their belts within the past two years. Of those 50, 35 of them won their belts within the past 12 months.

But that’s not all.

Within the past two years, another 30 fighters gained and then lost world titles.

There are 68 major world titles in boxing. In the past two years, there’ve been 80 fighters who won belts.

That’s a lot of turnover beyond just the Top 10, though the Top 10 reflect what’s happened in the rest of the list.

In 2014, No. 10 on the list was Hernandez’s cruiserweight reign, at 32 months. The average reign in the Top 10 was 55.04 months, or more than four and a half years.

In 2015, No. 10 on the list was Mayweather’s junior middleweight reign, at 37 months. The average reign in the Top 10 was 55.5 months, again more than four and a half years.

Those averages are as long as Nietes’ current reign. The averages from 2014 and 2015 are as long as No. 1 from 2016.

In 2016, No. 10 on the list is Vasyl Lomachenko at featherweight, at 23 months (and he is due to challenge for a title at junior lightweight). The average reign in the Top 10 right now is 37.3 months, or a little more than three years.

Even if we are to include Rigondeaux and his continued reign as lineal champion, the numbers don’t change much. He would be at 52 months, making him No. 3 and making junior bantamweight Carlos Cuadras, at 24 months, the new No. 10. The average reign would be 40.2 months.

The big drop is largely because of the dropping of a big man: Wladimir Klitschko, who had been titleholder for nine years, seven months and six days — 115 months in all. But the ends for Huck, Ward and Uchiyama in particular were also significant.

But that’s just the numbers. Let’s talk about the real world.

In the real world, there are no teams to which the old guard and new guard belong. This is an individual sport, with allegiances due only to sharing trainers or managers or promoters or friendships.

In the real world, many of the familiar names of the recent past still remain viable contenders. Ward moved up to light heavyweight and will soon challenge titleholder Sergey Kovalev. Garcia moved up a division and has a title at 147 now. Klitschko and Huck have lost their titles only within the past year and will get chances to regain them. Tim Bradley, long on many an observer’s list of the top boxers in the world, wasn’t great enough to beat Manny Pacquiao but can now return to seeing how he measures up against others who may merely be very good.

Familiarity helps lead to popularity. Longtime stars help bring casual viewers in. They attract more attention than those newer to the scene and still on the rise.

But everything in boxing is temporary. There have to be new faces.

So in the wake of Mayweather and Pacquiao retiring, Canelo Alvarez is trying to inherit the role of the top pay-per-view attraction.

And in the wake of Mayweather’s and Pacquiao’s retirements, the welterweight division is able to sort out and find the new leader of the pack. Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter will be part of that in June. Perhaps soon, too, will Kell Brook and Jessie Vargas.

The same can be said of super middleweight, which lost Ward to 175 and Carl Froch to retirement. James DeGale and Badou Jack will fight a unification bout later this year. Gilberto Ramirez just ended Arthur Abraham’s latest stint as an on-again, off-again titleholder.

If Klitschko loses his rematch to Tyson Fury, then heavyweight will fully turn to being a competition between Fury, Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua and Luis Ortiz, with others potentially joining in.

Cruiserweight is no less exciting now than it was when Hernandez, Huck and Wlodarczyk had titles, not with Denis Lebedev and Krzysztof Glowacki and a “Fight of the Year” candidate in the division seemingly every year.

We’re years beyond a a need to talk about Nonito Donaire vs. Abner Mares at featherweight, but there is plenty to be said now about Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton.

Four years ago, too few of us knew of Gennady Golovkin, who’s become an impressive attraction in a relatively short amount of time. More of us are learning about the sensation that is Roman Gonzalez, the flyweight champion dominating in his third weight division. Light heavyweight’s two kings, Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, ascended in summer 2013. Terence Crawford wasn’t even introduced to wider audiences until he stepped in as a late replacement for an injured fighter on a March 2013 HBO broadcast.

The Top 10 list of the longest-reigning titleholders in boxing isn’t a list solely of the best fighters in boxing. It can exclude those who challenge themselves in new divisions. It can include some who fight rarely, or who rarely fight other top opponents.

But look back at that list from 2014: Klitschko, Moreno, Huck, Ward, Uchiyama, Martinez, Wlodarczyk, Narvaez, Vazquez and Hernandez. Look at the list from 2015: Klitschko, Huck, Ward, Uchiyama, Hernandez, Nietes, Yamanaka, Rigondeaux, Garcia and Mayweather. Those are largely high-quality names.

This year’s list doesn’t quite match the quality, but it also isn’t shabby: Nietes, Yamanaka, Lebedev, Golovkin, Juan Francisco Estrada at flyweight, Stevenson, Kovalev, Kohei Kono at junior bantamweight, Carlos Cuadras at junior bantamweight and Vasyl Lomachenko at featherweight. Feel free to include Rigondeaux in there as well.

The cream inevitably rises to the top. There’s been a lot of change in this list, and a lot of change in boxing as a whole. Yet the revolving door that is boxing isn’t just allowing old names to exit. It’s inviting plenty of new names in, and some of them will be quite welcome to stay for a while.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com