Another year has come and gone, and oh what a year it was. Myself, I think boxing had a good year, some quality scraps and unforgettable moments in and out of the ring, and we can only hope that ‘07 will ring in more excellence than the year before. Boxing had some breakouts, take outs, and a few fake outs, but it survived one more year. Who had that defining moment, what was the most entertaining throw down, what decision made you cringe, which star do you want to see more of and who do you want to go away? What about KO’s, we had some great ones, so which knockout do you still feel when you think about it, which fight made you think to yourself, “did that just really happen?”, and who was the best of ‘06?
Doghouse decides!
Fighter of the Year
Manny Pacquiao Seek find and destroy was Manny Pacquiao’s motto in ’06. While you will get some that will say Larios and Morales weren’t at their best, no one could say that they ever saw the likes of Morales humbled like he was at the hands of Pacquiao. Pacquiao sought recognition and found it by not just beating, but destroying whomever has been put in his path. Great year for the Pac Man. – Rob Scott
Runner up: Miguel Cotto This one was close for me. My other candidates were Manny Pacquiao, Wlad Klitschko, Floyd Mayweather, and Shane Mosley. Mosley, Mayweather, and Wlad only had 2 fights so that left Manny and Cotto. Manny exploded this year with hype. His year was impressive but I feel Morales is an extremely faded fighter, especially at that weight. Larios was kayoed in 3 by Israel Vazquez and Manny couldn’t finish him. I think Cotto finally stepped up and is ready to join the boxing elite. I don’t think Quintana was a star but Cotto destroyed him. Like I said, this was a close one for me but I give it to Cotto even though Manny will likely win overall. – Jeremy Valdez
Fight of the Year
Somsak Sithchatchowal vs. Mahyar Monshipour This brutal, gut wrenching, toe-to-toe action filled fight is probably one of the least seen candidates. Monshipour gets dropped in round one and the fight is on like Donkey Kong. Featuring terrific ebb and flow this one will keep you glued to your computer screen all the way to the TKO finish. You don’t have to know who these guys are to appreciate the beautiful brutality of this super bantamweight title fight. Thank You Tube we are able to see the fight. – Gabriel Montoya
Runner Up: Manny Pacquiao vs. Eric Morales II
Honorable Mention: Lamon Brewster vs. Sergei Liakhovich
KO of the Year
Calvin Brock vs. Zuri Lawrence Zuri can make any fighter look bad at times, very unorthodox style, but when Brock finally landed that deadly blow, man Zuri looked just that, dead! Wow, what a knock out! – Benny Henderson Jr.
Runner Up: Wladimir Klitschko vs. Calvin Brock
Honorable Mentions: Manny Pacquiao TKO10 Eric Morales, Daniel Ponce De Leon KO1 Sod Looknongyangtoy
Biggest Upset
Carlos Baldomir vs. Zab Judah What made Carlos Baldomir’s win over Zab Judah the upset of the year wasn’t infallibility on Judah’s part. We’d seen the chinks before. In spite of having only one defeat in his last twenty outings and in spite of a knockout percentage that was increasing over the same period, Baldomir was fighter with nine losses and a thirty percent knockout rate overall. Carlos Baldomir didn’t fit the script.
The first half of the fight was what was expected as Judah took an early lead. But after hurting Judah badly and continuing his aggression for the remainder of the bout, a close decision, Judah’s WBC belt and upset of the year belonged to Carlos ‘Tata’ Baldomir. – Jess E. Trial
Rising Star
Andre Berto He has size, power, speed, combo punching, and good instincts. His defense is suspect and he has other flaws that I can see, but he can fix those and has the chance to be a huge star. – Jeremy Valdez
Runner up: Chad Dawson
Honorable: Peter Quillin, Alexander Povetkin
Most Overlooked
Humberto Soto
Runner Up: Antonio Margarito
Honorable Mention: Emmanuel Augusts
Most Overrated
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Boxing fans the world over loved Julio Cesar Chavez. The man is an all time great, and is the godfather of Mexican boxing. Attempting to fill his father’s shoes is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., 29-0 (22), is one of the most talked about young prospects in the welterweight division. While it is true that JC Jr. is a solid prospect the attention he receives compared to other solid prospects like Julio Cesar Garcia, 40-2 (34), and Zaurbek Baysangurov, 15-0 (12), is undeserved. JC Jr. has defeated some ok guys, but Garcia and Baysangurov have defeated the kind of fighters that should get you noticed. We should all keep an eye out on the young JC Jr., but we should really pay attention to Garcia, 19, and Baysangurov, 21, who have shown themselves to be true talents. – Julian ‘Crown J’ Kasdin
Runner Up: Jason Litzau, Jeff Lacy
Honorable Mention: Antonio Margarito, Jermain Taylor
Worst Decision
We have a tie!
Samuel Peter vs. James Toney I look at that fight and in my opinion there was no way on earth Peter got the nod over Toney, they both had their moments, but nothing was defining. Sam should send the judges a thank you card for that one. – Benny Henderson Jr.
Vernon Forrest vs. Ike Quartey Quartey obviously won this fight, and to be honest it wasn’t really difficult to score. But somehow, as seems to be the case in boxing, the judges were perhaps incompetent, corrupt, or a mix of both, as somehow they scored the fight for Forrest. It was such a bad decision Quartey got the big fight with Winky Wright as a reward, almost as if the decision wasn’t taken seriously. – Vikram Birring
Runner up: Zahir Raheem vs. Acelino Freitas
Honorable Mention: Jermain Taylor vs. Winky Wright Well readers, among Doghouse Boxing’s elite I was the only writer who felt that the Jermain Taylor vs. Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright bout was the worst decision in 2006 according to our recent poll amongst ourselves. I mean it was obvious (at least to me) that the fight was declared a draw so that Taylor could maintain his dominance in the middleweight division and keep his status as champion. I feel that Winky sat down more on his punches and really grinded it out with Taylor and held his own against the current middleweight champion in Taylor’s arena, even enough so to edge out a close decision. Wright was banged up in his own right (no pun intended), but the champion didn’t really look much better himself. I realize I’m going to catch a ton of flack over this viewpoint, but I have to go with my heart on this one and choose honesty over public opinion. Obviously the fight could have gone in either man’s favor, I just thought in my humble, non-expert opinion that ‘Winky’ Wright should have walked away the victor that night in Memphis. And there will be those who will say that in order to take a championship away you have to show dominance over the current champion. What the heck happened to Hopkins then? There I said it. – Jason Petock
Naoufel Ben Rabah vs. Juan Urango I’m very tempted to list the Taylor-Wright draw as the worst call by ringside officials but there is no doubt that fight was close. A fight that didn’t look close at all to this observer was Naoufel Ben Rabah versus Juan Urango telecast by ESPN back in June. Urango got the win for what was largely a night of missing punches and ineffective aggression. On that night it was Ben Rabah’s hand that should have been raised in victory. Ironically, boxing may win out in the end because the win for Urango paved the way for his January 20th bout with Ricky Hatton, which should be a slugfest. – Alex Pierpaoli
Coyote Duran’s in the Doghouse Award: Referee Laurence Cole And come on, we know why!
Well there it is! The writers of Doghouse Boxing gave their thoughts on the best of the best of 2006! You might not agree, then again you may, but one thing is certain: ‘06 was a good one, and we can only hope 2007 will be better. From our family here at Doghouse Boxing we wish your family a very prosperous and safe New Year, and we thank you all for making Doghouse top of the crop!
God Bless, The ‘Big Dog’ Benny Henderson Jr.!
