OK, OK, everybody back to your seats, we’re about to begin the second half of our show. We hope you enjoyed our feature presentation during intermission, ‘Where There’s Smoke, There Usually Isn’t Fire. Because That’s Boxing!!! That’s Boxing!!! The Greatest Hits of Derrick Gainer.’
Now we finish things out by giving out the rest of our K9s.
ROUND OF THE YEAR
1- Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo, Round 10: Nothing like a ho-hum round that features a guy getting knocked down twice, and then seeing that guy get off the canvas to stop one of the best fighters in the game.
Oh, and there was also this little controversy with the mouthpiece too.
2- Tomas Adamek-Paul Briggs, Round 8: Great back and forth action between two hard-nosed light heavyweights.
3- Bobby Pacquiao-Carlos Hernandez, Round 3: Hernandez is decked early but storms back later in the round to turn the tide of their fight that many had ‘Famoso’ winning.
4- Jesus Chavez- Carlos Hernandez, Round 12: These two always empty the bucket when they fight.
5- Cal Brock- Jameel McCline, Round 7: Brock is sent to the canvas early in the stanza and it looks like McCline has taken control of the bout. But Brock would dust himself off, and fight back with vigor the rest of the round to catapult himself to a career-defining victory.
QUICKIE OF THE YEAR (best short fight)
Sechew Powell KO1 Cornelius Bundrage: Nothing like a contest with a double-knockdown and then a knockout – all within the first thirty seconds of the bout.
THE SHAWN MERRIMAN AWARD( for prospect of the year)
1- Vicente Escobedo: Promoted by Golden Boy, he does have some Oscar-like qualities. It’ll be interesting to see him progress in 2006.
2- Chad Dawson: Becoming a player at 160-168. A hard-hitting southpaw trained by Dan Birmingham.
3- Andre Berto: A great blend of speed, power and strength. I’d like to see more, but I’m impressed by what I’ve seen so far.
4- John Duddy: The consummate action fighter, who possesses a big left hook
5- Jorge Linares: Fights in Japan, but this skilled Venezuelan has fast hands and quick feet. Right now he’s a super featherweight, but one day he should grow into a solid lightweight.
Honorable mention: Lamont Peterson, Andre Dirrell, Jason Litzau, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Jorge Paez Jr.
TRAINER OF THE YEAR
1- Dan Birmingham: Seriously, with Winky Wright, Jeff Lacy and now Dawson, when was the last time this guy was in a losing corner?
2- Freddie Roach: He always seems to be in the thick of the game’s biggest events – and he wins more than his share of contests.
3- Nacho Beristain: The flip-side is that while he may be the sport’s best trainer, he could be the game’s worst manager.
THE TEX RICKARD AWARD (for promoter of the year)
1- Gary Shaw: He added to his already impressive stable by signing Manny Pacquiao and Vivian Harris, and he was a part of some of the year’s biggest wins with Wright and Corrales.
2- Bob Arum: Nobody does the quality and quantity of shows like Top Rank does on a year-to-year basis.
3- Main Events: They kept Gatti afloat long enough to get a big payday and did the same with Fernando Vargas, while continuing to develop their young talent.
THE ANISTON-JOLIE AWARD( for best feud)
1- Top Rank-Golden Boy: And to think that Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya once made millions together. Now, they are mortal enemies.
2- Dan Goossen-Shelly Finkel: They’re fighting now over Robert Guerrero, but this animosity goes back to Mike Tyson.
3- Gary Shaw and Arum after the second Castillo-Corrales fight: It’s always fun when two of the game’s power brokers cuss each other out publicly at the post-fight press conference.
4- Willie Savannah-Main Events: And it’s Juan Diaz who’s suffering.
5- HBO/Showtime-Arum: Geez, Arum sure isn’t mellowing out in his twilight years, is he? Depending on the day, he’s either at odds with HBO or Showtime. Currently, it looks like it’s Showtime. But that could change over the weekend.
A truce with Arum is about as tenuous as peace between the Bloods and the Crips.
6- Chris Byrd-Don King: And get this, Judd Burstein has been on both side of this debate.
7- The Marquez brothers/Beristain-Top Rank: Pretty soon this award will be named after Arum.
THE MARTIN LUTHER KING AWARD (free at last, free at last!!!)
Manny Pacquiao: Finally free from the funny accounting of Murad Muhammad (ahem, allegedly), Pacquiao now has a peculiar problem – what does he do with all this extra money in his pocket?
THE JAMIE FOXX AWARD (breakthrough performance of the year)
Winky Wright: Some expected him to defeat Felix Trinidad, but not many forecasted such a dominant performance. After that type of outing, Wright can no longer be ignored.
THE JIMMY HOFFA AWARD( for mysterious disappearance)
1- Juan Diaz: Seriously, it wasn’t too long ago that he was perhaps the busiest young fighter in the game. Just yesterday, as I was eating my Wheaties, I saw him on my milk carton.
2- Juan Manuel Marquez: Can you believe he might be going to Indonesia to fight Chris John?
THE RAFAEL PALMEIRO AWARD( for a failed steroid test)
1- James Toney: Now, wouldn’t it be funny and ironic if he started doing commercials for Viagra like Palmeiro?
THE 2005 ORANGE BOWL AWARD( for the year’s biggest high-profile blowout)
Floyd Mayweather TKO6 Arturo Gatti: USC bludgeoned Oklahoma by a score of 55-19, but I’m not sure that game was quite the one-sided a shellacking as the one the ‘Pretty Boy’ administered to Gatti.
THE CARRIE AWARD( for worst homecoming)
Cory Spinks: Well, at least his intro with Nelly was memorable before he lost his welterweight titles to Zab Judah in St. Loo.
THE PATRICK CHARPENTIER AWARD( for worst WBC mis-mandatory)
Mzonke Fana: The worst thing about it? It was on pay-per-view!!!
THE BILL WALTON AWARD( for chronically injured big man)
Vitali Klitschko: I lost count, how many of his bouts in 2005 were postponed before he called it a day?
THE GHANDI AWARD( for non-aggression)
1- Audley Harrison: Fights like his against Danny Williams will have the AMA no longer calling for the abolition of boxing.
2- Ian Gardner: To his credit, he showed in his KO loss to Chad Dawson that he can at least breakdance.
THE MARIAH CAREY AWARD( for comeback performer of the year)
1- Ike Quartey: While he may not be the ‘Bazooka’ of old, he’s still a threat at 154 pounds.
2- Joe Mesi: I know he didn’t have any fights inside the ring, but his doggedness in getting back his boxing license was admirable. We all pray that we don’t end up regretting that decision, though.
3- Nate Campbell: Before he moved up to face ‘Kid Diamond’ in October, he was on the verge of getting a ‘Madonna’, with back-to-back losses to begin the year.
THE MICHAEL CARBAJAL AWARD( for most exciting little fighter)
1- Jorge Arce: His bouts are ‘reality-TV’ at it’s finest. Never a dull moment.
2- Brian Viloria: A 108-pounder that hits like a featherweight.
THE ANTI-LUIS DE CUBAS AWARD( for best interpreter)
Ricardo Jimenez: Can you believe it? A guy that is truly fluent in both English and Spanish, doesn’t make up his own answers, and gives thoughtful responses that really reflect what the subjects are saying.
That’s Jimenez, who handles much of the PR work for Top Rank and their Latin fighters.
THE JERSEY JOE WALCOTT AWARD( worst referee)
Enrique Falu: He completely botched the Miguel Cotto-De Marcus Corley bout. He lets that fight go for one more minute, and there’s no controversy over Cotto’s win.
THE SOCCER AWARD( for most boring bout)
1-Dominick Guinn Draw 10 Friday Ahunanya: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
2- Chris Byrd W12 DaVarryl Williamson: YAAAAAAWWWWWWWWNNNNNN.
