By Chris Williams: The voters at RingTV have selected WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire as fighter of the year for beating past their prime fighters Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce, as well as Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and little known Jeffrey Mathebula. Of course, the voting is open to anyone and we have no way of knowing whether the results were skewered by tons of Donaire’s Filipino fans voting for him from the Philippines. It’s not as if a committee sat down and selected Donaire based on his accomplishments compared to the other fighters.
The voting thus far is as follows:
Nonito Donaire – 57%
Juan Manuel Marquez – 25.1%
Andre Ward – 5.8%
Danny Garcia – 4.1%
Carl Froch – 2.4%
Adrien Broner – 2%
Robert Guerrero – 2%
Brian Viloria – 1.3%
I’m sorry but I can’t give the Fighter of the Year for 2012 to Donaire based on empty wins over old codgers, recently knocked out opposition and obscure paper champions. Those are some of the emptiest wins I’ve seen from a world champion, and I congratulate his promoter Bob Arum for putting Donaire in with those guys instead of the quality fighters at super bantamweight like Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Arum has put Donaire in with everyone but the guys he should be fighting. I call that careful match-making and I can’t give Donaire the Fighter of the Year with wins over those kinds of fighters. In fact, Donaire doesn’t rate on my list. He doesn’t even make the #10 position because you’ve got to have some quality wins and Donaire just doesn’t have them.
If Donaire fights some quality fighters in 2013, like Rigondeaux and Mares, then I’ll consider him for my 2013 list, if he beats them. I don’t see that happening because I don’t think Arum will match Donaire against those fighters and if he does, Donaire will likely get knocked out.
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