By Gerardo Granados: Perhaps the reader will agree with me on this one thing, last January I had high expectations for 2016 boxing year. But again, sadly some of the biggest fights available were held hostage due the unreasonable greed from a couple of Ducks and Divas. None the less, there were plenty brave sons of boxing that kept us interested in Boxing this year that is about to end.
It was not a surprise to see that Danny Garcia chose easy opponents again; but to have avoided a fight against Manny Pacquiao by overpricing himself, was unclear for me. Even Gennady 666 Golovkin caught the cherry picking virus and chose to fight against welterweight titlist Kell Brook.
Also this year we all saw the inexpiable downfall of the once highly promising heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury; the Gypsy King ended the year losing his titles without even having defended any of them.
Manny Pacquiao came back to the ring and looked like if he simply will never age. After a long decade of obscurity the heavyweight division is alive now and next year we could see one of the current belt holders to consolidate as the Champion. Also at the Olympics we witnessed a couple of horrid robberies.
I am glad that this year three of my favorite ring warriors were elected into the IBHOF: Jonny “Mi Vida Loca” Tapia, the “Baby Faced Assassin” Marco Antonio Barrera and the “Real Deal” Evander Holyfield.
Ladies and Gentleman the 2016 Boxingnews24 Awards are:
The infamous mismatch of the year award goes to Saul Alvarez vs Amir Khan, a casual fan dream match, but no serious fight fan could have thought that Khan had a real chance to win.
The robbery of the year goes to Omari Kimweri inexpiable decision win over Randy Petalcorin. Although many fight fans might disagree with the choice and probably would pick the Andre Ward gift decision over Sergey Kovalev due the amount looted in form of three major belts. But trust me; the Petalcorin was by far worst.
The trainer of the year award goes to Shane McGuigan.
Upset of the year goes to the Irish Bomber Joe Smith Jr first round knockout of top light heavyweight contender Andrzej Fonfara. There are many young hungry anonymous lions left out there waiting for their chance to prove that they can beat anyone.
The Knockout of the year award goes to WBC heavyweight Deontay Wilder brutal 9th round knockout of Artur Szpilka. If you missed it, then you should search for it, because you won’t regret doing so.
The fight of the year award goes to Francisco “El Bandido” Vargas vs Orlando “Siri” Salido magnificent battle of attrition. A special mention to the Dillian Whyte versus Dereck Chisora heavyweight epic battle.
The fighter of the year award goes to undefeated Carl Frampton, for unifying the IBF-WBA titles at the super bantam division against Scott Quigg, and also for moving up to the featherweight division defeating WBA Leo Santa Cruz. Special mention to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, for having defended his WBC flyweight title and then moved up to conquer his fourth divisional title against WBC super flyweight Carlos Cuadras.
Maybe there should be a Duck – Diva of the year award, but I rather let the reader chose his favorite.
As always I want to thank all the anonymous fighters who at all the corners of the world put up great fights to please us the fight fans. I want to wish to them, to the award winners and especially to the readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.