By Manuel Perez: In a bit a wacky voting, Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) was voted as fighter of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and an even worse selection was Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs who came in at number #2 in the misplaced voting. There’s not many reasons I can think of to give Pacquiao the fighter of the year, because after all, who did he beat?
His 8th round stoppage victory over Oscar De la Hoya in December 2008 wasn’t all that impressive because De La Hoya starved himself to make the 147 pound weight limit, which he hadn’t fought at in years. At 36, fabulously wealthy, only a part time boxer and whom had come into the fight having lost three out of his last six fights, Oscar was in no position to be considered much of a threat to Pacquiao.
I don’t care that De La Hoya was a four inches taller than Pacquiao, the fact remains De La Hoya has been on the decline for the past five or six years now and you couldn’t expect him to beat a top level fighter in any division at this point in his career.
De La Hoya made things worse by dieting strictly to make the weight, and came into the fight in a weakened condition and in no position to fight hard on that night. In Pacquiao’s other wins of 2008, he defeated David Diaz by a 9th round stoppage in June to win the WBC lightweight title.
That win wasn’t so impressive, because Diaz had struggled badly against a badly faded Erik Morales to win a controversial 12-round unanimous decision in August 2008. I saw the fight and had Morales winning by a couple of rounds at the minimum. So, that win can be excluded as well from Pacquiao’s big triumphs in 2008.
That leaves only his very, very controversial 12-round split decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in March 2008. I see that as one of the worst decisions in 2008, because Marquez was by far the better fighter on that night and appeared to win by at least two rounds, possibly three.
Pacquiao was out-boxed throughout and other than a knockdown, Marquez dominated the entire fight. Since that fight, Marquez has asked Pacquiao repeatedly for a rematch but hasn’t had any luck in getting Pacquiao to fight him again.
As for Calzaghe, he did little in 2008, beating two 40-year-old former boxing greats in Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. The win over Jones can immediately be dismissed because he’s been over the hill since 2004, losing to Antonio Tarver twice and Glen Johnson before meeting up with Calzaghe in November.
And, the win over Hopkins is less credible as well, one because it appeared to many unbiased boxing fans that Hopkins won the fight and two, at 43, Hopkins is clearly way past his prime and not the same fighter he once was. Now, if Calzaghe had beaten someone like Kelly Pavlik, Chad Dawson, or one of the top super middleweights like Carl Froch, I’d give him my vote in a second.
Beating Hopkins and Jones doesn’t prove anything, however, only that Calzaghe waited until they were old before he decided to fight them.
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