By Lyle Fitzsimmons
There are a couple things I’ve always promised myself.
I barely play golf.
But if I was ever lucky enough to score a hole in one, I’ve vowed to pluck the ball out of the cup, slide the club into the bag and head straight to my car – because it’ll never get any better.
Same goes for bowling.
I consider myself a decent bowler, but If I ever was lucky enough to string together 12 strikes, I’d unlace my shoes, put down my beer and never set foot in another alley.
Problem is, I’ve never followed that advice when it’s come to boxing.
Though I probably hit my high prediction watermark a few years ago when I said – on the eve of 2011 – that Andre Ward would prove to be that year’s best fighter, it hasn’t stopped me from trying to replicate the success in each of six tries since.
And, needless to say, I’ve never been nearly as prescient.
Which once again leaves me with the December task of having to recap the claims I made at this time last year, when I was sure I knew precisely what would happen in 2017.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present Fitz’s Hits and Misses – Edition 7.
Upset of the Year
The 12/16 Pick: Chavez TKO 10 Alvarez
The 12/17 Reality: Sor Rungvisai MD 12 Gonzalez
The Grade: F-minus
If it’s possible to score something even lower than F, I’ve got the perfect candidate.
And though I’d love to suggest it was something medical, environmental or psychological that pushed me toward thinking in late 2016 that Julio Cesar Chavez’s kid would have the stuff to contend with – and defeat -- Canelo Alvarez, let’s go ahead and face late-2017 reality.
It was just stupid.
I was bamboozled by the ex-middleweight champ’s ripped abs, and I didn’t stop to consider that while the physique might have been ready for battle, its inhabitant was still a second-tier guy just visiting Las Vegas to pick up a paycheck for 12 rounds of pacifist “combat.”
Canelo did what he could and what he was supposed to do in shutting out the second-generation wannabe, which left the Upset of the Year marquee open for its rightful inhabitant – Thai southpaw Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, for his dual shocker of post-Mayweather pound-for-pound kingpin Roman Gonzalez.
The mid-March majority decision at Madison Square Garden might not have been a full mandate, but the Southern California rematch six months later was a thrashing so comprehensive that it dwarfs all others in the running for the year’s ultimate surprise.
Knockout of the Year
The 12/16 Pick: Garcia KO 8 Thurman
The 12/17 Reality: Tete KO 1 Gonya
Grade: F
If you haven’t seen it, I suggest an immediate side trip to YouTube.
Because bantamweight title claimant Zolani Tete’s blast-out of mid-November foe Siboniso Gonya was everything that’s both exciting and terrifying about the sport we love.
The right hand landed by Tete was literally his first punch of the fight, and it rendered Gonya unconscious by the time his 5-foot-8 frame timbered backward to the canvas.
The shot landed just 6 seconds into the WBO championship match and it was quickly waved off as referee Phil Edwards’ count reached 4 – making the official time 11 seconds.
It was subsequently christened by Deadspin as the fastest knockout in a major – read: WBC, WBA, IBF, or WBO -- title bout, and the amount of time medical staff took to revive the beaten challenger seemed like a 10-part miniseries by comparison.
And as for my pre-2017 suggestion that Danny Garcia would erase Keith Thurman in highlight fashion… forget it.
Fight of the Year
The 12/16 Pick: Inoue-Gonzalez
The 12/17 Reality: Joshua-Klitschko
The Grade: Incomplete
Well, it would have been a decent fight.
Had a then-unbeaten Roman Gonzalez actually stepped in with Japanese slugger Naoya Inoue in a clash of 115-pound titans, I’m pretty sure we’d have all enjoyed it.
The veteran Nicaraguan and the upstart (by comparison) Asian were on a pseudo collision course that had connoisseurs of the sport’s little men pining for their time in the spotlight.
Clearly, though, Sor Rungvisai had zero interest in watching.
The now-31-year-old scuttled any lingering plans by blasting Gonzalez off the main-event pedestal in September, and created a Fight of the Year vacuum into which big men Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko stepped with their instant April classic at Wembley Stadium.
The unbeaten Englishman rose to prominence with punching power but appeared exhausted and out of ideas when Klitschko had the nerve to get off the floor and start responding with shots of his own. Then, just as it looked like Joshua would follow the trail Mike Tyson blazed against Buster Douglas, he found a reservoir of toughness reserved only for the special.
He was already on par with Deontay Wilder in charisma and titillation, but rallying from the brink to vanquish a future Hall of Famer – something the American claimant still hasn't approached – provides the sort of credibility jolt 1,000 Eric Molina walkovers never could.
Fighter of the Year
The 12/16 Pick: Terence Crawford
The 12/17 Reality: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
The Grade: C
Hey, to suggest Terence Crawford as the top fighter of 2017 is no embarrassment.
He began January as a two-belt champion at 140 pounds and will end December with four belts, having blasted Julius Indongo in three rounds in front of an adoring home-state crowd in August. Add in a 10-round vanquishing of once-beaten contender Felix Diaz in midtown Manhattan and you’ve got yourself a year.
But outside of converting the few who’d suggested the lanky and powerful – but technically vulnerable – Indongo had a chance, the reality is that Crawford to everyone else remains as 2017 ends just about the same as he was when 2016 came to a close.
A pound-for-pound elite, to be sure, but we already knew that.
Same goes for Vasyl Lomachenko, Crawford’s main rival for pound-for-pound supremacy.
In fact, of the high-profile FOTY suggestions you’ll see on this site and others, only guys like Joshua and Errol Spence made a significant jump in terms of perception – the former with his aforementioned thriller against Klitschko, and the latter when he traveled to upset Kell Brook.
Neither, though, experienced the night-and-day transformation of Sor Rungvisai, and that’s good enough to snag the honor in this space.
A one-defense champion at 115 pounds in 2013-14, Sor Rungvisai won 15 straight fights (14 by stoppage) between a title loss to Carlos Cuadras and the March date with Gonzalez, but was given little love from odds-makers who made the 46-0 incumbent a 20-to-1 favorite.
Gonzalez was still a 4-to-1 pick when the rematch came around in September, though the eventual one-sidedness of Sor Rungvisai’s win made it appear he’d been the prohibitive lock.
He may go on to beat Inoue or he may drop his belt to Juan Francisco Estrada in February, but it’s difficult to imagine another 12-month metamorphosis like the one just experienced.
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Weekly title-fight schedule:
No title fights scheduled.
Last week's picks: 2-0 (WIN: Horn, Saunders)
2017 picks record: 95-29 (76.6 percent)
Overall picks record: 917-303 (75.1 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.