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2016 has been overall a pretty disappointing year. But there were some highlights.
Fighter of the Year : Vasyl Lomachenko. This was a close one. You have Carl Frampton in the running and he had a great year beating Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz, but I felt that Lomachenko beat the better opponents and beat them both in much more impressive fashion.
KO of the Year: Vasyl Lomachenko over Roman Martinez. N'Dam had a great KO over Blanco, Gassiev had a great KO over Shimmell, but what separates Lomachenko's KO is the level of opponent and that it was a championship fight in a higher weight class.
Fight of the Year: Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter. There are a lot of choices. Vargas vs. Salido, Yamanaka vs. Moreno 2, but Thurman vs. Porter was the right combination of skill and excitement.
Upset of the Year: David Peralta over Robert Guerrero. Joe Smith over Fonfara was an upset, but in hindsight maybe Joe Smith is better than we thought? Jezereel Corrales might actually be better than Uchiyama, But David Peralta was/is literally a cab driver in Argentina. Robert Guerrero has seen better days but this was a tune up gone very wrong and Peralta unfortunately couldn't build off the upset as he recently lost. So He gets my upset of the year.
Trainer of the Year: Abel Sanchez. Shane McGuigan had a nice year, Mike Stafford had a nice year, but none of them had better years than Abel Sanchez. Apart from Golovkin running through everybody, Murat Gassiev got a big win over Lebedev and is now the IBF CW champion. Denis Shafikov picked up two huge wins over Jamel Herring and Richard Commey, both fights where he was an underdog and has basically resurrected his career.
Promoter of the Year: Eddie Hearn. Probably the only unanimous choice this year.
Breakthrough star: Oleksandr Usyk. Dominated Glowacki in Glowacki's hometown, finished Mchunu and established himself as the best CW on the planet. He'll rule over CW until he decides to move up to HW and rule over those stiffs whenever he feels like it.
Rising Star: Sergey Lipinets. It was between him and Erickson Lubin. I think Lipinents has a lot of potential and he's beaten better opponents.
Robbery of the Year: Maurice Hooker vs. Darleys Perez. I had to think about this one for a bit because I thought Kovalev clearly beat Ward 8-4, 7-5 at worst. I thought Chudinov got robbed against Sturm. But this one takes the cake. I can't really even see how you can give Hooker more than 1 round in this fight. I had it 99-91 for Perez yet somehow Hooker escaped with a draw. Really, really bad decision.
Comeback fighter of the Year: Abner Mares. He's resurrected his career with Robert Garcia. Put on a great performance and pretty much dominated Cuellar. More importantly, got back to his roots.
Do you agree or Disagree? Post your picks as well.
Fighter of the Year : Vasyl Lomachenko. This was a close one. You have Carl Frampton in the running and he had a great year beating Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz, but I felt that Lomachenko beat the better opponents and beat them both in much more impressive fashion.
KO of the Year: Vasyl Lomachenko over Roman Martinez. N'Dam had a great KO over Blanco, Gassiev had a great KO over Shimmell, but what separates Lomachenko's KO is the level of opponent and that it was a championship fight in a higher weight class.
Fight of the Year: Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter. There are a lot of choices. Vargas vs. Salido, Yamanaka vs. Moreno 2, but Thurman vs. Porter was the right combination of skill and excitement.
Upset of the Year: David Peralta over Robert Guerrero. Joe Smith over Fonfara was an upset, but in hindsight maybe Joe Smith is better than we thought? Jezereel Corrales might actually be better than Uchiyama, But David Peralta was/is literally a cab driver in Argentina. Robert Guerrero has seen better days but this was a tune up gone very wrong and Peralta unfortunately couldn't build off the upset as he recently lost. So He gets my upset of the year.
Trainer of the Year: Abel Sanchez. Shane McGuigan had a nice year, Mike Stafford had a nice year, but none of them had better years than Abel Sanchez. Apart from Golovkin running through everybody, Murat Gassiev got a big win over Lebedev and is now the IBF CW champion. Denis Shafikov picked up two huge wins over Jamel Herring and Richard Commey, both fights where he was an underdog and has basically resurrected his career.
Promoter of the Year: Eddie Hearn. Probably the only unanimous choice this year.
Breakthrough star: Oleksandr Usyk. Dominated Glowacki in Glowacki's hometown, finished Mchunu and established himself as the best CW on the planet. He'll rule over CW until he decides to move up to HW and rule over those stiffs whenever he feels like it.
Rising Star: Sergey Lipinets. It was between him and Erickson Lubin. I think Lipinents has a lot of potential and he's beaten better opponents.
Robbery of the Year: Maurice Hooker vs. Darleys Perez. I had to think about this one for a bit because I thought Kovalev clearly beat Ward 8-4, 7-5 at worst. I thought Chudinov got robbed against Sturm. But this one takes the cake. I can't really even see how you can give Hooker more than 1 round in this fight. I had it 99-91 for Perez yet somehow Hooker escaped with a draw. Really, really bad decision.
Comeback fighter of the Year: Abner Mares. He's resurrected his career with Robert Garcia. Put on a great performance and pretty much dominated Cuellar. More importantly, got back to his roots.
Do you agree or Disagree? Post your picks as well.
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