It?s that time of year when the annual awards are presented to the top fighters for 2012. 1. Fighter of the Year: There are several candidates, but Argentina?s Sergio Martinez is the winner. Martinez stopped Matthew Macklin in the 11th round at Madison Square Garden?s The Theatre in March, and then posted a unanimous decision over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September. 2. Fight of the Year: Martinez?s victory over Chavez in Las Vegas was something to behold, and also saw the southpaw dropped in the final round. 3. Trainer of the Year: It?s close, but the nod goes to Virgil Hunter, who has in his fold Andre Ward, Amir Khan and Alfredo Angulo. Enough said. 4. Knockout of the Year: Juan Manuel Marquez?s sixth-round blasting of Manny Pacquiao. Few saw this happening, but the Mexican champion?s right hand knew best. 5. Prospect of the Year: With only 11 pro bouts under his belt, Guillermo Rigondeaux, the 32-year-old Cuban walked away with wins over Rico Ramos (KO in the sixth), Teon Kennedy (TKO in the fifth), and Robert Marroquin (UD). Not a bad year. BY: Chip Mitchell 1- Fighter of the year I?m going with Robert ?The Ghost? Guerrero. Here is a guy who was off for like a year. During that time he had surgery to repair a rotator cuff. Then he comes back, skips TWO weight classes, and upsets Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto. That?s Fighter of the Year stuff right there. 2- Fight of the year If N?Dam didn?t get knocked down so many times, I wonder how the fight with Chocolate Quillin woulda went? Oh well, guess I?ll go with Rios/Alvarado (I?). 3 ? Trainer of the year Robert Garcia 4 ? Knock out of the year I know I?m in the minority on this one, but Mikkel Kessler hit Allan Green with this wicked left hook. While you had to watch a replay to see what JMM stopped pacquiao with, there was no doubt of what stopped Green as it happened live. Left hook by Kessler right on the sweet spot. 5 ? Prospect of year I?m going to go with Deontay Wilder. I don?t care if he?s fought mostly tomato cans. You have to be excited. An American heavyweight that is 6′7, young, and 26-0 with all 26 wins via the KO. BY: Albert Alvarez BY: Albert Alvarez 1 -Fighter of the year goes to Nonito Donaire- Hands down, Nonito Donaire is my fighter of the year for 2012. With 4, Yes 4 big victories in 2012 over Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka, and Jorge Arce, that is more than enough in my book to crown Nonito. On top of that, Nonito is also doing the right thing by cleaning up the sport, in taking random blood and urine testing 365 24/7. Both feats to me in this day and age speak volumes. The sport of boxing would be in a much better place if every fighter had Nonito?s train of thought in fighting more than once or twice a year, and by being a real pioneer in taking the necessary steps to put an end to this finger pointing drug problem. 2- Fight of the year for me goes to Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado ? Marquez vs. Pacquiao may more than likely get the award, but if they do, it will only be because they are both household names that fought on a much larger stage. But to me, the toe to toe war that Rios and Alvarado had was on some real torture chamber type of level slugfest. It was 7 blood thirst rounds, and the scary thing is that both fighters wanted to keep fighting to push their fighting wills to the limit. 3- Robert Garcia is my trainer of the year- The man trained Nonito Donaire who will be a finalist or the victor for fighter of the year, he also trained Brandon Rios in his classic war versus Mike Alvarado, also is doing a great job training his little brother, Mikey Garcia, and has improved the skills of Marcos Maidana. I feel that Garcia was a very tough fighter when he fought, and because of that fire, Garcia is able to transfer that fire and ring knowledge onto his fighters. 4 ? Knockout of the year goes to Juan Manuel Marquez knocking out Manny Pacquiao in the 6th round- Danny Garcia had a great K.O. when he made Morales spin when he connected on that left hook bomb. That bomb also shook up Khan?s world, but the right hand that Pacquiao swallowed will go down in history. Marquez landed the killer shot by circling Pacquiao and placing his opponent in position to eat the shot. At that time, there was nothing that Pacquiao could do to move out of the way of that thunderous right hand. 5 ? Prospect of the year goes to Ivan Redkach- This lightweight is a very strong fighter with a bright future. George Groves also gets consideration here, as does Jose Benavidez Jr., Julian ?J-Rock? Williams, and many others. Picking prospect of the year is always very hard for me to pick, but Ivan Redkach takes it for me. I?ll tell you something else right now, and that is that Preston Freeman is already my front runner for this award in 2013.
