IN recent years, selecting box ing’s Fighter of the Year has been more anti- climatic than highly anticipated. Normally one fighter stands out (i.e.: Ricky Hatton in 2005, Manny Pacquiao in 2006). Not this year. The media outlets and organizations that monitor boxing have several deserving candidates to select from, including a trio that has helped make 2007 a bounce-back year for the sweet science.
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR.
All he did was win two mega-hyped fights that did record pay-per-view numbers. Through HBO’s 24/7 and Dancing With the Stars, he brought boxing to primetime. He beat De La Hoya in a split decision, and his 10th-round knockout of Hatton earlier this month was a dramatic ending to the year’s best promotion.
MIGUEL COTTO
Puerto Rico’s newest superstar packed the Garden for two of his three wins in 2007, knocking out Zab Judah in a bloody battle last June and out-pointing Shane Mosley in a hard-hitting chess match last November. Both bouts are nominated as Fight of the Year.
KELLY PAVLIK
The Ghost rose out of Youngstown, Ohio, and scored three wins-all by knockout-in 2007. Behind a powerful right hand he went from contender to world middleweight champion, dropping Jermain Taylor in the seventh-round in Atlantic City last September.
Joe Calzaghe, Juan Diaz, Cristian Mijares and Ivan Calderon also had notable years. But Mayweather, Cotto and Pavlik helped give boxing a pulse again.
It is still not the sport of our fathers. There are too many bad undercards, not enough good fights for free, and there’s still no captivating heavyweight champ. But there were enough intriguing matches to pull boxing off its deathbed. With more than 50,000 witnessing Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler in Wales and the MGM Grand selling out in a half hour for Mayweather-Hatton, interest in the sport was up.
