By Chris Williams: Boxingnews24.com has selected Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) as the 2012 Fighter of the Year award for his HUGE 6th round knockout win over boxing’s cash cow fighter Manny Pacquiao. That alone is enough to give Marquez the award, as beating the #2 fighter in boxing is a big accomplishment, much bigger than what the other candidates accomplished.
Here are Boxingnews24’s top 5 picks for the 2012 Fighter of the Year
#1 Juan Manuel Marquez
#2 Robert Guerrero
#3 Andre Ward
#4 Danny Garcia
#5 Carl Froch
Marquez fought well against Pacquiao and knocked him down in the 3rd round with a big right, and then weathered a brief storm in the 5th and 6th before putting his lights out in the last seconds of the 6th round with a right hand that he put everything into. The shot put Pacquiao down on his face on the canvas for 2 minutes.
In addition to his impressive win over Pacquiao, Marquez also defeated Sergiy Fedchenko earlier this year by a 12 round unanimous decision. It was a great fight for Marquez because he was able to dominate a reluctant fighter who did little more than try to survive the 12 rounds against the tough Mexican warrior.
A fighter that didn’t make Boxngnews24’s list was WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire. We felt his wins over past their best fighters Jorge Arce and Toshiaki Nishioka wasn’t much of an accomplishment given how past their best both of them were when Donaire fought them. We also felt that Donaire’s wins over Jeffredy Mathebula and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. weren’t important enough wins to make the list because Mathebula was considered an unknown paper champion in the minds of many boxing fans, and Vazquez Jr. had been recently knocked out by Arce.
None of them wins were good enough to see Donaire as having accomplished anything other than beating the guys that were carefully selected by his promoters at Top Rank. Hopefully, next year Donaire can make the list if he’s matched against Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux and he beats them. I’m not counting on that happening though.
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