By Chris Williams: A lot of boxing fans are picking WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire as the 2012 Fighter of the Year for his victories over Toshiaki Nishioka, Jorge Arce, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jeffrey Mathebula. I don’t see those victories as being enough to give Donaire the 2012 award. In fact, I have Donaire at number #6 on my list behind #1 Juan Manuel Marquez, #2 Danny Garcia, #3 Robert Guerrero, #4 Andre Ward, #5 Carl Froch.
Juan Manuel Marquez’s victory over Manny Pacquiao was more than enough for him to earn the Fighter of the Year for 2012, because that victory was so stunning. The way he knocked Pacquiao out cold in the 6th was just incredible. He also knocked Pacquiao down in the 3rd round with a beautiful right hand. I believe that Marquez absolutely deserves the top spot from that victory. It was too huge of a victory for him not to get the award.
Danny Garcia, the IBF/WBC light welterweight champion, deserves #2 for his big win over Amir Khan. He knocked Khan out in four rounds in an impressive performance. Garcia also defeated Erik Morales twice this year and those were decent wins, but the Khan victory was enough to give him the #2 sport.
You see it’s about quality not quantity when measuring who should be the number #1 fighter of the year for 2012. I’m sorry but I don’t rate Donaire’s victories over a shot Jorge Arce and Nishioka as meaningful victories, and I wasn’t impressed with how Donaire fought in his wins over little known Jeffrey Mathebula and former WBO super bantamweight champion Vazquez Jr. He looked awful in both fights, so I had to push Donaire way down in my rankings.
It’s more about who Donaire didn’t fight this year than who he did fight. He didn’t fight the two best fighters in the super bantamweight division in Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux, and it was completely strange the way that Donaire was trying to sell a shot Nishioka as being the best fighter in the super bantamweight division before he fought him.
Donaire was receiving tons of criticism for not fighting Mares or Rigondeaux, and his answer to the critics was that Nishioka was the best fighter in the division in his mind. That gave a lot of boxing fans the impression that Donaire didn’t want to fight those guys, because how could you pump up a shot fighter like Nishioka as the #1 fighter when it was clear that his best days were far behind him.
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