It’s appropriate that the vote for Round of the Year should happen on Christmas day, as 2011 certainly was a year of “give and take.” From the inhuman resilience of Porpramook-Yaegashi to the last-second turnaround of Concepcion-Marquez, fighters around the world gave generously of their leather and provided a multitude of three-minute memories for fans.
In the end, though, the contest came down to two candidates.
RingTV.com readers selected the first round of James Kirkland vs. Alfredo Angulo as the winner with 43.2 percent of the vote, followed by the sixth round of Andre Berto vs. Victor Ortiz at 35.8 percent. Rounding out the poll results were the opening round of the first fight between Luis Concepcion and Hernan Marquez (9 percent), the ninth round of Lamont Peterson vs. Amir Khan (7.5 percent), the first round of Brandon Rios vs. Urbano Antillon (2.9 percent), and the eighth round of Akira Yaegashi vs. Pornsawan Porpramook (1.7 percent).
Both Kirkland-Angulo and Berto-Ortiz featured fighters trading knockdowns, but it was perhaps the backstory that clinched it for the winner.
Kirkland, a much-heralded junior middleweight working his way back into the pro ranks after a year-long prison term, had suffered a shocking first-round defeat against relatively non-threatening Nobuhiro Ishida in April. Since then, he had reunited with trainer Ann Wolfe and chalked up a couple early KO wins, but the stigma of “exposed” hung over him and the boxing world’s loss of confidence showed in the betting odds.
Angulo was heavily favored to win by the press, but there were questions about his readiness, given that his activity that year had amounted to one minute and thirty-four seconds of work.
