OK, folks? you can stop with the e-mails, text messages and phone calls.
Though it?s been a hectic stretch of wrapping gifts, entertaining family members and cavorting around a happily snow-free Florida with my sleep-deprived 2-year-old, I?ve managed to work in some time to tend to requests like this one that have been pouring in since November became December:
?C?mon Fitz, enough with the campaigning for a big Hopkins-Pascal rematch in your hometown, just give us your friggin? picks for the end-of-year awards.?
Lest another week?s delay turn into an essay for an insult-heavy blog jockey or a punctuation-sopped missive from a message-board tough guy, here are my sought-after picks for the best of the year gone by? wrapped in a big red bow with wishes for a happy 2011 ? in lieu of a shiny Lexus.
Ladies and gentlemen, it?s the 2010 BoxingScene.com edition of ? FitzHitz and Misses.
Envelopes, please:
Fighter of the Year ? Sergio Martinez The slick Argentine was more qualified for ?Bridesmaid of the Year? honors in 2009, after a 12-month stretch in which he?d drawn with Kermit Cintron in a junior middleweight stinker in February, and lost close to Paul Williams while auditioning to be Kelly Pavlik?s successor during a middleweight-sized winter storm in Atlantic City 10 months later.
But after a year that brought 12 spirited April rounds against Pavlik and one thudding November left to Williams? head, the 35-year-old celebrates the new year with a Madison Square Garden main event on his plate and an outside chance at landing well-deserved big fights at 160 against welterweight climbers or super middle dropouts.
That said, his biggest 2010 accomplishment comes via neither a 160-pound title nor a pay-per-view rise, but rather from achieving the seemingly impossible? detouring the Pacquiao Express for the year?s biggest award.
(Big) Fight of the Year ? Marquez KO 9 Katsidis Because a four-round prelim in Newark or a 10-round walkout in Sacramento may have been a life-changing apocalypse of violence for those who actually saw it, this category has been parenthetically altered to take into account those fights contested on a world scale or with a title at stake.
And to these eyes, none filled the bill better than Marquez-Katsidis at the MGM Grand.
Fought with the WBA and WBO lightweight belts on the line, the scheduled 12-rounder featured close-range exchanges from the start, including the surprising specter of Marquez ? a heavy favorite ? dropped on the seat of his pants in the third round.
The problem for Katsidis, it seemed the adversity woke the champion up and prompted him to not only survive the round, but begin establishing control from that point forward until ultimately halting the game Aussie at the 2:14 mark of round 9.
Next up for Marquez ? a continuing quest for Pacquiao III.
Next up for Katsidis ? a career?s worth of Tylenol.
Elevator of the Year (Going UP) ? Juan Manuel Lopez It?s not as if the 27-year-old Puerto Rican began the year mired in the sport?s basement, but he was the subject of whispers with the word ?overrated? after 2009 ended with a far-closer-than-expected 12-round defeat of Rogers Mtagwa in a WBO super bantamweight title bout in October in Manhattan.
But back in New York just three months later, Lopez clicked the ?up? button and copped his second weight class championship with a seven-round punchout of Steven Luevano for the WBO?s featherweight crown. He climbed a few floors with a dramatic two-round TKO of Bernabe Concepcion back home in Puerto Rico a few months later, then approached the penthouse with an eight-round overthrow of vet Rafael Marquez atop a Las Vegas PPV in early November.
Expect a determined Lopez challenge for the year?s top award for 2011, if he?s able to continue the rise in an expected 126-pound showdown with fellow up-and-coming champion Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Elevator of the Year (Going DOWN) ? Floyd Mayweather Jr. It?s not as if a dominant win over a former multi-division champion like Shane Mosley makes a year a complete waste of time, but given where 2010 began and where it?s ending for Mayweather, the precipitous plummet shoe certainly fits.
Rather than a career-defining match with a multiple belt-collecting Filipino, the fighter once known as ?Pretty Boy? instead exits the calendar with a series of big events that include a heavy-duty domestic abuse charge and a subsequent torrent of petty scrapes with policemen, security guards and seemingly everyone but the gloved, goateed foe whose opposition once looked imminent.
The biggest possible victory for ?Money? in 2011 ? avoiding significant jail time for his dalliances.
?C?mon, You?re Not Really Serious?? of the Year ? Williams-Cintron It was intended as a name tune-up for Williams, but turned into abject nonsense upon its impromptu ending in the opening minute of the fourth round.
It?s a stretch of athletic proportion to claim ? as two judges did ? that Williams won either three or four rounds in the aborted match, but such reasoning picks up a despicable scent when coupled with an attack on an admittedly emotional, but always brave competitor.
Past or no past, it defies sensibility to think ? in a split-second?s time ? Cintron devised a plan to land a solid punch on Williams, spin him to the ground and fly over him to the ring floor to escape continuation of a fight he?d controlled from start to finish in the eyes of a third judge.
Make no mistake, I agree with Lou DiBella?s assessment of those claiming Kermit concocted an escape.
?I think they?re *ssholes,? he said.
A few late gifts and some requests for 2011 1.) David Haye? OK, tough guy, ditch the funny T-shirts and actually show up this time. 2.) Shane Mosley? When May 7 comes, fight like 2001 ? not 2011. 3.) Antrob? In whatever order you choose: Get a clue. Get a job. Get a life. 4.) Kelly Pavlik? Get yourself clean. Get yourself healthy. Get yourself back. 5.) Nate Campbell? Enjoy your retirement, champ. Thanks for being Mr. Cooperative. 6.) Andre Ward? Finish the job and reap the rewards. 7.) Timothy Bradley? See No. 6. 8.) Chevelle Hallback? I demand a rematch. 9.) Ray and Tommy? It?s been 30 years, but thanks again for the biggest fight of my life. 10.) Bernard Hopkins? For cryin? out loud, let me be right once, will ya?
Last week?s picks: 3-0 2010 picks record: 106-29 (78.5 percent) Overall picks record: 171-54 (76.0 percent)
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him at www.twitter.com/fitzbitz.
