The year begins in boxing with more questions than answers, particularly when it comes to the sport’s biggest stars.
Is Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley III in the cards, or merely in Mosley’s dreams?
Will Lennox Lewis come out of hiding and fight again?
Is the “Mad Muncher” himself, Mike Tyson, finally finished as a fighter? Does anyone really care?
What does Manny Pacquiao do for an encore? Against whom?
What is in Marco Antonio Barrera’s future? A comeback, or law school?
Locally, there are plenty of questions, too.
How long will “Jesse” James Leija keep it going?
What does the future hold for young prospects Oscar Diaz, Gabriel Elizondo, Erik Rodriguez and Danny Flores? Will they finally step up in competition?
And will Raul Martinez become the first San Antonian to make the U.S. Olympic boxing team?
We should begin to get some answers soon. But before we can look ahead to 2004, let’s look back at 2003.
Here’s one judge’s scorecard for the year:
Fighter of the year: Not an easy choice. There’s no shortage of candidates, from James Toney and Roy Jones Jr. to Joel Casamayor and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
But Pacquiao gets the nod from this corner. His demolition of Barrera in November at the Alamodome certainly was the performance of the year.
