By Manuel Perez: Now that we’re getting close to the end of 2009, some of the popular magazines and what not will probably be selecting a ‘Fighter of the Year’ award for 2009. Well, knowing how much of a big deal was made out of Manny Pacquiao’s win over Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton in 2009, some of them might think about giving the award to Pacquiao. Personally, I wouldn’t even consider giving that award to Pacquiao. If they want to give the award to someone, they need to give it to Amir Khan.
I didn’t believe in him before, but I think he did a great job of coming back from a 1st round KO loss to Breidis Prescott last year and winning the World Boxing Association title with 12 round decision over Andriy Kotelnik. Now that’s showing me something. I can’t give the fighter of the year award to Pacquiao for beating up a weight drained Cotto and Ricky Hatton, a fighter that has appeared to have lost his ability to take a punch.
They’ll give someone the award, but I wouldn’t give it to Pacquiao for those measly wins. I don’t even know why Cotto was selected as an opponent in the first place. If you know that Cotto has had some problems in losing a knockout to Antonio Margarito and then had to go life and death with Joshua Clottey, why on earth are you fighting him? Why wasn’t Shane Mosley, Paul Williams or someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr. selected if Pacquiao wanted to fight a welterweight.
I never did get excited about the Cotto-Pacquiao fight because I knew what we had here with this fight. You take a guy that was nearly beaten into the turf by Margarito, then make him fight at a catch weight, and as a result you’ve got a fighter that is not only weaker because he’s having to strip off more weight than unusual to fight, but you also have someone who might not have fully recovered from his loss last year and his brutal fight with Clottey.
If I had like that, I’d probably never lose a fight in my life. I know this is how boxing is run, but I’m not going to reward a fighter by selecting them as ‘Fighter of the Year.”
If Pacquiao had stepped it up and fought Mosley, Mayweather or Paul Williams, I’d be more than happy to crown Pacquiao the king sh-t fighter of 2009, but he didn’t, did he? What I saw was Pacquiao facing Cotto, who was torn limb from limb by Margarito and looked like crap against Clottey. How can you fight that guy so soon after those two brutal fights and think it’s a big deal if you beat him, especially when you thrown in a catch weight that Cotto had to fight at.
I’m sorry, I can’t give my vote to Pacquiao for fighter of the year for 2009. My selection goes to Khan, who proved a lot in my eyes.
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