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Pound4Pound Dishes Out It's 2008 Awards
By William Trillo Photos By William Trillo & Bret Newton So here we are on the precipice of 2009 and while the "real" boxing experts have already presented their mock awards and Raider fan is still celebrating the victory over Tampa Bay as if they won the Super Bowl because they kept John (Chuckie) Gruden and his Bucs out of the playoffs, I decided maybe this year I should take a shot at the best of the best...so here we go.
Unlike every other "Best Of" list I
am not going to bore you with an abundance of also ran
awards. This is a Best Of the Year
list. Not the top 10 or 20, no honorable mentions and no
runners up, no best spitting of the mouthpiece etc
etc. I don't know about you but trying to read every bio
on every fighter who made these ad infinitum lists left
me not reading many of those lists before I passed out
in a comatose stupor.
Let's start with Fighter of the
year.
It seems that across the board this
award was pretty much a no brainer, and unlike my soon
to be mentioned peer, I don't mean that as a compliment.
It began to occur to me that the lemmings that be all
followed suit and left facts that they themselves
once reported out of the scenario. One writer who shall
remain nameless intro' d his Fighter of the Year with
this brilliant statement. "Picking the winner
this year is as easy as falling asleep on the couch
after a large holiday meal. It doesn’t take much
effort." Nice job my friend, and I am glad to
see all the lemmings take your lead, literally and
figuratively (pun intended).
If any of you had used a little
effort in research instead of stuffing your face full of
Turkey and Pumpkin Pie and falling asleep, (no surprise
there), you might have picked up and article (most
likely yours) that called the Oscar vs. Manny affair a
travesty that never should have been made. Likewise you
might have read articles on how David Diaz was nothing
more than Pacquiao's sacrificial "goat" followed by a
good helping of articles that claimed Juan Manuel
Marquez actually defeated Pacquiao in their rematch and
that he was robbed!
Defeating Oscar De La Hydrated,
pummeling the served up offering of Diaz at 135 and
losing (in the opinion of the "experts") to
Marquez hardly qualifies one for a fighter of the year
nod, at least in my book it doesn't.
So you can give the award to whoever
you want, but after article after article about how the
puny Pacquiao was going to get turned into to powder by
Big Bad Oscar, and then using hardly one sentence to go
over your obvious blunders, (yes that's plural), you
couldn't crawl over each other fast enough to start
sniffing Manny's jock...you all should be ashamed.
Now don't get me wrong here, I love
Manny and what he accomplished this year should not be
taken lightly, but does it earn him Fighter of the Year?
I say no.
My Fighter of the Year Award
goes to WBA 147 Champ Antonio Margarito.
"Tony" started out the year by
destroying the IBF Champ Kermit Cintron, that's
something no other fighter has been able to do. Cintron
is one tough cookie, just ask Walter Matthysse. After
claiming one version of the 147 pound belts Margarito
set his sights on the invincible WBA Champ Miguel Cotto
who was 32 and 0 with 26 big victories by KO.
In a toe to toe battle Margarito patiently and systematically broke down a very tough and now blood covered Champion and forced his corner to throw in the towel after 11 glorious rounds.
Beating Cotto the Great was to me
the biggest victory by anybody this year. Cotto was the
undefeated Champion and Margarito destroyed him, maybe
ruined him...who knows. To me, I give extra weight for
Fighter of the Year to SIGNIFICANT VICTORIES, and
Margrito's one over Cotto trumps anything Manny did this
year.
Okay, let's quickly move on.
Fight of The Year
Cotto vs. Margarito
Nothing came close (see above)
Round Of The Year
Round 12 Lucien Bute vs. Librado
Andrade
Maybe you had to be there...and I
was. This fight for the IBF Super Middleweight bout was
in Bute's adopted home of Montreal Canada. The Bell
Center was filled with over 16,000 Bute fans who were
ecstatic because their man Lucien was going into round
12 with a clear lead on the cards. Only a KO by the
rugged Andrade would save him now.
The round began and Andrade beat
Bute from one side of the oversized ring to the other.
Bute was bouncing off the ropes face first and clearly
out but the inept referee Marlon Wright kept pushing
Andrade away giving Bute safe passage. No amount of
referee help could save Bute as he crumbled into the
corner in the last 30 seconds of the fight. The
electrically charged crowd went dead silent, but Wright
wasn't done yet.
After starting the count late Wright began a count that was as slow as molasses in January and then when he reached six he turned around, stopped his count and admonished Andrade for being out the neutral corner (replays showed otherwise). Wright then turned back around and picked up his count at six again, yes he said six twice, Bute rose to his feet but was only standing because the ropes were holding him up. Wright then grabbed Bute's gloves wiped them on his shirt and the bell rang.
Bute was literally saved by the bell
and a ref named Wright who wouldn't do the RIGHT thing.
Okay, there you have it.
Short, sweet and to the point.
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