Spence, Charlo and Floyd (?!?) To Create Lasting 2019 Memories

By Lyle Fitzsimmons

If you’ve gotten to this point and aren’t happy, it’s your own fault.

You should have seen it coming last year.

As has become early January tradition in this Tuesday morning space, we proactively greet the New Year with a preview of stories other boxing scribes will be reacting to about 12 months from now.

Of course, if you recall from December, 2018 was a forecasting year to ignore… if not forget.

But hope springs eternal, so – in the recurring quest to match the glory of our spot-on advance pick of Andre Ward as the fighter of the year in 2011 – we’re giving it another go for 2019.

Unlike football, baseball or their collective ilk, there are no master schedules from which to pluck events to predict. And even if I was prescient enough to know now which fights would be made between which guys, say, next October, there's always a chance that three people sitting on the ring's perimeter would pound my forecasting into dust with their definition of what constitutes a “boxing lesson.”

But those are excuses and gripes for another day.

Today is a day of forward thinking, and with that, here’s a look at what we’ll all be looking back on next Christmas.

And if even some of this stuff actually happens… it’s going to be a good year for all of us.

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
Floyd Mayweather Jr.

OK, so it's not your garden-variety comeback.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. wasn't exactly down on his luck in 2018 – having reportedly made millions for a ridiculous exhibition erasure against comparative Japanese novice Tenshin Nasukawa.

But when you consider his last win over a remotely credible boxing opponent – a shutout decision over Andre Berto in Las Vegas – had actually come in September of 2015, it seemed improbable at best that the Money Team czar could once again rise to something resembling a championship level in the ring.

Nevertheless, his chance came on Cinco de Mayo weekend in the Nevada desert and he made the most of it, getting a second bank-busting go-round with generational nemesis Manny Pacquiao and again outhustling the frustrated Filipino on the way to a clear-cut unanimous decision.

UPSET OF THE YEAR
Jermall Charlo UD 12 Gennady Golovkin

OK, when you really look at it, maybe it’s not so big a surprise.

Gennady Golovkin turned 37 in early 2019, hadn’t clearly won a fight against a top middleweight since dusting David Lemieux in 2015 and was in against a fighter in Jermall Charlo who arrived to the ring with edges in height (by 1 1/2 inches), reach (by three inches) and age (by eight years).

Still, when the official scorecards were read and Charlo’s hand was raised, it was a shock to the system.

Charlo maximized his physical advantages in the early going by throwing combinations and never giving Golovkin a stationary target, and he brought it home down the stretch by standing and firing to fight off a determined rally from a by-then-desperate Kazakh.

Your move, Canelo Alvarez.

KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR
Errol Spence Jr. KO 8 Mikey Garcia

Errol Spence Jr.’s was a career in search of a defining moment.

Oh sure, he’d gone overseas to win his key to the welterweight penthouse and he’d been impressive enough in a pair of defenses, but the southpaw entered 2019 still in need of the sort of signature that’d carry him over from cognoscenti darling to household name.

A March 16 date at the home of the Dallas Cowboys became the venue for said coming-out party and multi-division champ Mikey Garcia became the foil, daring to be great enough to rise from relative safety and comfort at 135 pounds to tackle the best of the best at 147.

Needless to say, it didn’t work out so well for Garcia.

Spence carried the fight to his smaller, albeit supremely talented foe from the start, gradually breaking him down before ending matters with a smashing straight left hand that prompted an immediate referee intervention midway through Round 8.

FIGHT OF THE YEAR
Deontay Wilder SD 12 Tyson Fury

They combined for more than 13 feet and nearly 500 pounds of heavyweight drama when they first got together in December 2018, and the sequel in mid-2019 was in no way a disappointment.

So it’s no wonder, then, that a third fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury is already a topic.

The chiseled American and the gangly Englishman went at it for a second time at Wembley Stadium and actually amped up the compelling nature of their rivalry, this time with Wilder getting out to an early lead and holding on for dear life as Fury took his turn at a result-altering final-round rally.

It wound up too little, too late, though, as Wilder’s ability to stay on his feet for three harrowing minutes prevented a 10-8 round against him and cemented 114-113 verdicts on two of three cards.

Go ahead and reserve this space for the trilogy fight forecast next January.

FIGHTER OF THE YEAR
Errol Spence Jr. (Garcia, Crawford)

Errol Spence Jr. was on the short list of candidates for 2017's fighter of the year following a stoppage of Kell Brook that earned him the Englishman's IBF welterweight title belt, and he did little to blunt the 147-pound momentum with one-sided routs of Lamont Peterson and Carlos Ocampo in 2018.

As mentioned earlier, though, he reached 2019 ready to add to his resume in a more significant manner.

A March matchup with Mikey Garcia saw Spence dominate the multi-division claimant for nearly every one of seven rounds before registering an eighth-round stoppage, but the Texas-based New York native was far from through with his mission.

He parlayed the Peterson win into a fall showdown with fellow pound-for-pound elitist Terence Crawford. The popular Nebraskan was the hometown hero and the favorite in spite of Spence's emerging status, but the underdog was sharper and faster across 36 minutes and ended the year with his own high-end P4P claims.

This time, his FOTY bid is nearly impossible to dismiss.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s legit title-fight schedule:

No title fights scheduled.

Last week's picks: 4-1 (WIN: Shiro, Ito, Mthalane, Kyoguchi; LOSS: Ioka)
2018 picks record: 93-39 (70.4 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,013-343 (74.7 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.