Best of Boxing 2008

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Filed on December 31st, 2008 in Best Of..., Boxing, Year in Review ⋅ ⋅

Without further adieu, the time has come to hand out the boxing awards for the year of 2008. This was a fantastic year of boxing, though in my opinion, not quite as good as 2007. With any luck (and from the signs of things, there is some luck) 2009 will be even better than both.

The year 2008 brought us so much, from the rematches (Taylor-Pavlik II, Marquez-Pacquiao II, Vazquez-Marquez III, Holt-Torres I & II) to the big name matchups (Jones-Calzaghe, Hopkins-Calzaghe, Pacquiao-De La Hoya, Cotto-Margarito, Hatton-Malignaggi). There were plenty of candidates for most categories, but I found a way to narrow them all down to a winner. Feel free to disagree, but I think I’ve come up with some solid superlatives.

Fight of the Year

Marquez-Vazquez III

When this fight was signed, you knew it would be a Fight of the Year candidate, since obviously, the first two were. And for the second straight year, lukekohler.com awards these two great fighters with the Fight of the Year award.

Hopefully we’ll see a fourth fight between them, but if not, we’ll always have the first three wars between them to watch over and over again.

Here is a cool video of the 12th round of the third fight, as shot from ringside by a fan. Good stuff.

And the clear Showtime video of that same round:

Runners up:
Adamek-Cunningham
Margarito-Cotto
Casamayor-Katsidis
Marquez-Pacquiao II

Fighter of the Year

Manny Pacquiao (W12 Marquez, TKO9 Diaz, RTD8 De La Hoya)

Not much competition here. In fact, this is the only category that wasn’t even close. Pacquiao went 3-0 in 2008, beating Juan Manuel Marquez in a very close fight, then knocking out David Diaz and Oscar De La Hoya. And he won all three fights at three weight classes spanning 17 pounds. There isn’t a whole lot more that Pacquiao can do in a year, except of course for fighting the best fighter at the weight class he is in at any given time, but I digress.

Congratulations, Manny. I’m not the biggest Pacquiao fan in the world by any stretch, but I give credit where credit is due, and Manny had an amazing 2008.

Runners up:
Joe Calzaghe (W12 Hopkins, W12 Jones)
Vic Darchinyan (D12 Gorres [bad judging], KO5 Kirilov, KO9 Mijares)
Bernard Hopkins (L12 Calzaghe, W12 Pavlik)

Round of the Year

Holt-Torres II, Round 1

There’s not much you can say about a round like this, so just watch it and you tell me how it can’t be Round of the Year.

Runner up:
Marquez-Vazquez III, Round 12

Upset of the Year

Quintana over Williams

As an 8-1 underdog, Carlos Quintana took the fight to the much bigger Paul Williams, effectively counterpunching him and outlanding him. Sure, he didn’t make it out of the first round of the rematch, but on Feb. 9, Quintana shocked much of the boxing world by winning a clear unanimous decision over Williams.

Runners up:
Timothy Bradley over Junior Witter

Upsets in style, not outcome:
Manny Pacquiao over Oscar De La Hoya
Bernard Hopkins over Kelly Pavlik

Knockout of the Year

Edison Miranda KO3 David Banks

There are two things that Edison Miranda is good for. One is knocking people out in brutal fashion. The other is getting his ass kicked by good fighters. Here is an example of the former.

Runners up:
Holt KO1 Torres
Abraham TKO4 Miranda

Event of the Year

Floyd Mayweather Retires

If it were one fight, it would be Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya, for the sheer energy it brought to Las Vegas. But this year, there was one news story that passed them all: The retirement of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Sure, many think he’ll come back, but as of now — he hasn’t. Mayweather retired at 39-0 and pound-for-pound king of boxing. If he does in fact stay retired, then the news of his retirement from June will retroactively be one of the biggest stories in boxing history. You just don’t get boxers who quit too early.

Runners up:
Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya
Hatton vs. Malignaggi (Hatton fans alone put him on the list)
Calzaghe vs. Jones

Prospect of the Year

Yuriorkis Gamboa

As exciting as they come, Gamboa is going to be a fixture on HBO for quite a while. He’s not immune to the occasional knockdown, and certainly has some improvements to make, but he is one hell of a prospect and has jumped into “can’t miss” status when his fights are on television.

Runners up:
James Kirkland (2007 winner)
Alfredo Angulo
The rest of the HBO undercard all-stars.

Comeback Fighter of the Year

Vitali Klitschko

The only question about Vitali Klitschko’s return was whether or not he could stay healthy. When healthy, Vitali is the best heavyweight in the world, a clear notch above his brother Wladimir, who is currently the heavyweight king.

Vitali’s destruction of Sam Peter put a stamp on his comeback, and sent a warning to the rest of the heavyweights that the heavyweight championship runs through the Klitschko household.

Worst Decision of the Year

Nicolai Valuev over Evander Holyfield

Not much to say about this other than the wrong guy won. It wasn’t even close. I think Evander Holyfield has no business in a boxing ring anymore, but he beat Valuev fair and square and deserves his paper title.

Runner up:
James Toney over Fres Oquendo