By Mark Vester
The three fighters leading the the way on most lists for "fighter of the year" honors are Manny Pacquiao, Joe Calzaghe and Antonio Margarito. The three mentioned fighters made the strongest statements in 2008.
Pacquiao, with three big wins in the year, is the frontrunner to land the honors. He was selected as the fighter of the year by Boxing Writers Association of America for 2006. Manny will more than likely win again for 2008. His March rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez was a close, fight of year contender, that saw Pacquiao win the WBC super featherweight title. Although a lot of observers thought Pacquiao was lucky to pull out a split-decision to win, he redeemed himself in June by moving up to lightweight - dominating and knocking out David Diaz for the WBC's lightweight crown.
On December 6, Pacquiao did the unthinkable by moving up again, this time by two weight divisons [147-pounds] to dominate and stop the much larger Oscar De La Hoya in eight rounds. Even the few who picked Manny to win were shocked with the one-sided nature of the fight, and even more shocked with De La Hoya being battered until he was unable to come out for the ninth round.
Margarito had two big wins in 2008. A November unification rematch with Joshua Clottey never took place for a variety of reasons. A third fight in year, especicially a win over Clottey, would have made him a stronger contender in the race. Early in the year Margarito knocked out Kermit Cintron in a rematch to capture the IBF welterweight title. In July, he knocked out previously undefeated Miguel Cotto to win the WBA welterweight title. The Cotto win was a major upset in some circles and saw a proposed De La Hoya-Cotto fight go up in smoke. The win made Margarito a major player in the sport and earned him a lot more respect in Mexico and the United States.
In 2008, Calzaghe finally crossed over to American soil for two major fights. One on the East Coast and another on the West. He put on a lackluster performance to win a close decision over Bernard Hopkins in April, and later beat an old Roy Jones Jr. in one-sided November clash. Calzaghe could have fought a lot better competition in November than Jones. For Calzaghe the Jones fight was all about money and adding another big name to the resume.
I don't agree with Calzaghe even being among the top three in the running. Vic Darchinyan did a lot more in 2008 and made a much larger impact in the sport. After starting the year off with a draw against Z Gorres in a give and take fight, he became the first undisputed super flyweight champion with one sided knockout wins over Dimitri Kirilov and Cristian Mijares. The knockout of Mijares shocked many. At the time Darchinyan was a heavy underdog and Mijares was viewed as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport.
Honorable mention goes to Chad Dawson, who won decisions over Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver in 2008 - making a big enough impact for HBO to throw a big money two fight deal in his direction.
Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko gets a mention as well. Wlad fought three times in 2008, but his competition was not exactly spectacular and the fights were not pretty to look at. He unified the WBO/IBF titles with an ugly decision over Sultan Ibragimov and took in two knockouts in defenses against Tony Thompson and a walking-dead Hasim Rahman.
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