By Rizwaan Zahid
of
www.ringsideboxingshow.com
Fighter of the year so far? Let's examine the candidates:
Fernando Montiel
The bantamweight champ has been nothing short of brilliant
so far, adding the WBC bantamweight title to his WBO title
in his last fight Rafael Concepcion. So far the 31 year old
has fought three times this year but only eight rounds,
thanks to him knocking out each of Ciso Morales, Hozumi
Hasegawa and the aforementioned Concepcion. He may be small
but he brings a punch and he brings entertainment.
By far one of the most underrated entertaining fighters in
the sport today.
Wladimir Klitschko
Unlikely candidate? Perhaps. But
Wladimir is a fighter who’s taken on all comers. He may not
be as entertaining as any of the other nominees, but he has
fought and beaten the best. Sasha Povetkin and David Haye
find excuses for not making a fight with Wlad, and Wlad has
fulfilled two mandatories already this year and plans to
make a voluntary defense later this year. Depending on who
it is, and if Wlad wins (and how), he may be the first
heavyweight able to capture the prestigious award since the
96-97 wins by Evander Holyfield.
Andre Dirrell
Should the fight between himself and Andre Ward happen this
year and Dirrell wins and moves on to the Super Six Finals,
Dirrell will have definitely earned the fighter of the year
award. He outboxed Arthur Abraham and impressed many by
knocking down the iron chinned Armenian. Dirrell is already
in such a difficult tournament and defeating two fighters
who were previously undefeated and looking invincible is
definitely impressive.
Sergio Martinez
Should the fight between himself and Paul Williams come off,
and Martinez comes away with the victory this time, he will
definitely receive the majority of votes for fighter of the
year. He’s already beaten the middleweight kingpin Kelly
Pavlik and bloodied his face up in the process. Pavlik’s
face looked like a kid who didn’t know how to use a shaving
razor with cuts all over his face.
Paul Williams walked away with a victory against Martinez in
their first encounter, and it was a great fight and very
difficult to score. What makes a great fighter even greater
is beating the best, all while being entertaining. And hey,
the HBO money and spotlight doesn’t hurt either.
Should he beat Williams he will have two great wins within a
year at the age of 35.
Fun fact
Three fighters who won the
fighter of the year award in the 2000’s were 35 and up
(Bernard Hopkins-’01, James Toney-’03, Glen Johnson-’04).
Seems like the new trend now. But we will wait and see if
that will carry over into this decade.
A guarantee (or should be):
Neither Mayweather or Pacquiao deserve the fighter of the
year award. Had they fought each other, whoever prevailed
would’ve been a shoe in. Mayweather with all his legal
troubles and vacation time won’t be fighting this year.
Pacquiao will be fighting Margarito (at a catch weight for
the 154 title. Yeah, you read it right), and even if he’s
able to stop Margarito, he wasn’t all the impressive against
another stablemate Joshua Clottey. True, Clottey didn’t
bring much either, but the opponent definitely wasn’t a top
opponent, and that is what truly makes a fighter of the year
candidate.
2010 is slowly coming to a close. For those in the colder
areas of the world, the leaves are changing colors and the
temperature is dropping while the jackets and sweaters are
coming out. For those in the warmer areas… well, I envy you.
But regardless, the next three months
should be more entertaining then the last nine months has
been for boxing fans. The fighter of the year award is
anyone’s to nab, and with the many major fights falling
through the winner this year will have truly deserved it.
