ANDRE WARD. He towered over the competition this year in defeating Arthur Abraham and dominating Carl Froch in the finals to emerge as Showtime?s Super-middleweight tournament champion.
He now proudly wields the WBA and WBC diadems.
Our very own Nonito Donaire Jr. comes in as a close second with his scintillating knockout of Fernando Montiel, which also merits our knockout of the year award, and a win over Omar Andres Narvaez.
The Narvaez bout was lackluster as the Argentinean regrettably fought scared and was content to coast along for 12 one-sided rounds and avoid getting knocked out.
That probably robbed Donaire of an opportunity to cap off a great year with another highlight reel knockout, but that?s the way the fight game goes.
Speaking of avoiding knockouts, Shane Mosely rode on his bike after getting knocked down in the second round to escape Manny Pacquiao?s wrath. The reigning pound-for-pound king had to settle for a dominant unanimous decision win.
The Pacman had an opportunity to stamp his superiority over rival Juan Manuel Marquez later in the year, but unfortunately the third encounter produced another hotly debated verdict.
PINOYS. Several other Pinoy fighters performed well last year as Philippine pro boxing registered another solid year.
Brian Viloria defeated Julio Cesar Miranda to win the WBO flyweight crown. He followed that up with an impressive TKO win over Giovanni Segura.
Brian was so accurate in that fight that Segura started growing a second head by the fourth round, yet the ref allowed the gruesome bout to continue till the eighth round.
