Sometimes boxing fails to deliver enough Fight of the Year or Fighter of the Year candidates by the end of the year, but there is seldom a shortage of spectacular knockouts to choose from.
This was especially true for 2011. Fans were treated to a number of breathtaking KOs that were televised in various parts of the word, and the first strong candidate of 2011 ? Nonito Donaire?s second-round TKO of Fernando Montiel ? was the runaway favorite of RingTV.com readers, who voted the sensational stoppage the Knockout of the Year.
Donaire?s explosive bantamweight title-winning performance received 78.1 percent of the vote, leaving the other worthy candidates, which included Nobuhiro Ishida?s first-round stoppage of James Kirkland in April, in its dust.
Ishida-Kirkland, which received 9.2 percent of the vote, was a shocking, almost surreal outcome to a fight that was expected to be a blowout for Kirkland. The other candidates ? Lucian Bute?s fourth-round KO of Jean Paul Mendy (4.6), Gary Russell Jr.?s opening-round blitz of Heriberto Ruiz (3.6), Ola Afolabi?s first-round annihilation of Terry Dunstan (3.1), and Henry Lundy?s sixth-round blasting of David Diaz (1.5) ? were highlight-reel examples of one-punch knockouts.
However, no single knockout performance of 2011 carried the significance of Donaire?s victory over Montiel on Feb. 19.
