Year End Awards: Not The Ones You'll See From The Professionals

This is the last day of 2008. Tomorrow will be the first day of 2009. This marks the first year of The Boxing Geek. I hope it will be the first of many. I have mistakes to learn from and improvements to make, and I need to commit to a more regular posting schedule. Yet I am happy with what I have started to accomplish as well.

So this is my very first yearly awards entry. Some of these are straightforward. Others are more off the wall. Enjoy, feel free to complain.

Fight of the Year: Tomasz Adamek W12 Steve Cunningham (This was not the most hyped fight of the year, the most watched fight of the year, the biggest money fight of the year, or even the fight whose resolution made me happiest. I admit, I thought Cunningham won by two points. Yet this was an amazing fight, for a legitimate world championship, broadcast on free cable. Both men fought to win from beginning to end, with Cunningham skilled and busy and Adamek patient and powerful. I'd honestly rather see these guys fight a second time than any other pair I saw fight this year. Even more than Vazquez-Marquez IV!)

Fighter of the Year: Antonio Margarito (Other men may have had bigger fights or won bigger victories, but Margarito beat two alphabet titlists and went from being the alleged 'most ducked welterweight' to being the number one welterweight in the world and a pound-for-pound fighter. Now he just needs to fight rematches with Paul Williams and Joshua Clottey.)

Comeback of the Year: Bernard Hopkins (Vitali Klitschko's heavyweight return wasn't something that tremendously impressed me. He came back from retirement, he beat a pug I never thought much of, he won an alphabet title that meant nothing. He has signed to fight David Haye, but I am skeptical that he won't be forced back into retirement by another training injury. Vic Darchinyan's KO of Cristian Mijares impressed me and totally blew me away, and deserves honorable mention. Yet Darchinyan had not been completely dismissed as a fighter in the manner Hopkins had, nor was he a 43 year old man whipping the pants of a man nearly twenty years his junior. Besides, I admit it, I like Hopkins. The loud, dirty-fighting, pragmatic old bastard has my respect as an individual and a boxer. Unappealing style or not, he may be the last complete American fighter for a very long time. Think on that.)

Worst Decision of the Year: Tomasz Adamek W12 Steve Cunningham (This is a tough one. My scoring disagreed with the judges on the winners of several of the fights I watched and wrote about this year, but this one is the most egregious in my eyes. Yes, Adamek knocked Cunningham down three times, each in a different round. However, he was losing one of those rounds completely when he scored the desperation knockdown and I only had him winning one round in which he did not drop Cunningham. I have the other eight rounds to Cunningham: he boxed better, he was busier, and Adamek did not work for a full three minutes in any round. Worst of all, judge John Stewart gave the fight to Adamek by a whopping six points in a fight with a one to three point margin of error in Adamek's favor at best. Cunningham dominated rounds ten through twelve, and won rounds one and three quite solidly. Adamek slightly topped that by knocking Cunningham down three times and winning one round without a knockdown. Adamek did not simply put in the work to sweep the remaining three rounds. On my card, in fact, Cunningham swept them.)

Least Controversial Controversy of the Year: Lucian Bute W12 Librado Andrade (Yes, I know this fight has been beaten around from pillar to post and Marlon Wright has been called the worst referee in history. That said, Bute beat the count. Yes, he leaned on the ropes during the long count and he took all the time he was given. But he was up, off the ropes and ready on a count of 9 and leaned back against the ropes when it was clear the count was going to be long. When Wright returned to the count, he got off the ropes again. Wright wasted time in getting Andrade back to his corner, and whether Andrade needed to be put back in his corner is questionable, but Bute beat a standard ten secound count. The Showtime broadcast team had a conniption over nothing, and Ivan Goldman just happens to be from Los Angeles and his hometown opinion clearly is coloring his perceptions. Most of the other serious writers in boxing have shown more discernment. Wright should never referee a world championship again, the fact that there even was a controversy is all his fault... but Andrade did NOT knock Bute out.)

And that's it.

See you next year.