Fight of the Year List: 1950 to Current Year

[Flickergrab98]

2018 for example. They picked Canelo-GGG, when I felt it was easily Lara-Hurd

I personally liked Canelo vs. GGG 2 better than Lara-Hurd. I think it delivered the interesting clash of styles that we expected but with more the toe to toe action we wanted, but the first fight fell short on.

[kara]

I personally liked Canelo vs. GGG 2 better than Lara-Hurd. I think it delivered the interesting clash of styles that we expected but with more the toe to toe action we wanted, but the first fight fell short on.

GGG didn't go for the kill like he promised. Instead Canelo came for war and GGG was trying to box

[Flickergrab98]

GGG didn't go for the kill like he promised. Instead Canelo came for war and GGG was trying to box

And yet he still was effective enough to make fans dispute the decision for a second time. And the shots that Canelo lands on GGG alone make it memorable for me than Hurd vs Lara

[kara]

And yet he still was effective enough to make fans dispute the decision for a second time. And the shots that Canelo lands on GGG alone make it memorable for me than Hurd vs Lara

I saw no dispute the second time. While some GGG diehards think he pulled it out, the vast majority felt Canelo pulled it out this time.

[QueensburyRules]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ri...ht_of_the_Year
Basically a list of the best fight from every year as a follow up to my original thread about the topic. This time I’m making a formalized list starting from the 50’s since that’s the first decade where it became easy to find footage of most of the significant fights and even the lesser known ones. Link to the Wikipedia article for Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year is up at the top if you want to make your own. This list isn’t permanent and will update if I see a fight that changes my mind.
Time to create our ideal Fight of the Year list.
Replacements are marked with a *
1950s

• 1950 – Jake LaMotta KO 15 Laurent Dauthuille II
• 1951 – Sugar Ray Robinson TKO 13 Jake LaMotta VI*
• 1952 – Rocky Marciano KO 13 Jersey Joe Walcott I
• 1953 – Rocky Marciano KO 11 Roland La Starza II
• 1954 – Rocky Marciano KO 8 Ezzard Charles II
• 1955 – Carmen Basilio KO 12 Tony DeMarco II
• 1956 – Carmen Basilio KO 9 Johnny Saxton II
• 1957 – Carmen Basilio W 15 Sugar Ray Robinson I
• 1958 – Archie Moore KO 11 Yvon Durelle I*
• 1959 – Gaspar Ortega W 10 Benny Paret I*

1960s

• 1960 – Floyd Patterson KO 5 Ingemar Johansson II
• 1961 – Joe Brown W 15 Dave Charnley II
• 1962 – Joey Giardello W 10 Henry Hank II
• 1963 – Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) W 10 Doug Jones
• 1964 – Muhammad Ali KO 7 Sonny Liston I
• 1965 – Fighting Harada W 15 Éder Jofre I*
• 1966 – José Torres W 15 Eddie Cotton
• 1967 – Nino Benvenuti W 15 Emile Griffith I
• 1968 – **** Tiger W 10 Frank DePaula
• 1969 – Joe Frazier KO 7 Jerry Quarry I

1970s

• 1970 – Carlos Monzón KO 12 Nino Benvenuti I
• 1971 – Joe Frazier W 15 Muhammad Ali I
• 1972 – Bob Foster KO 14 Chris Finnegan
• 1973 – George Foreman KO 2 Joe Frazier I
• 1974 – Roberto Durán KO 11 Esteban DeJesús II*
• 1975 – Muhammad Ali TKO 14 Joe Frazier III
• 1976 – George Foreman KO 5 Ron Lyle
• 1977 – Matthew Saad Muhammad KO 12 Marvin Johnson I*
• 1978 – Larry Holmes W 15 Ken Norton*
• 1979 – Danny Lopez KO 15 Mike Ayala

1980s

• 1980 – Roberto Durán W 15 Sugar Ray Leonard I*
• 1981 – Sugar Ray Leonard KO 14 Thomas Hearns I
• 1982 – Bobby Chacon UD 15 Rafael Limon IV
• 1983 – Bobby Chacon W 12 Cornelius Boza-Edwards II
• 1984 – Jung-Koo Chang TKO 9 Katsuo Tokashiki*
• 1985 – Marvelous Marvin Hagler KO 3 Thomas Hearns
• 1986 – Evander Holyfield W 15 Dwight Muhummad Qawi I*
• 1987 – Sugar Ray Leonard W 12 Marvelous Marvin Hagler
• 1988 – Tony Lopez W 12 Rocky Lockridge I
• 1989 – Roberto Durán W 12 Iran Barkley

1990s

• 1990 – Chris Eubank TKO 9 Nigel Benn I*
• 1991 – James Toney D 12 Mike McCallum I*
• 1992 – Rid**** Bowe W 12 Evander Holyfield I
• 1993 – Michael Carbajal KO 7 Humberto González I
• 1994 – Jorge Castro KO 9 John David Jackson I
• 1995 – Saman Sorjaturong KO 7 Humberto González
• 1996 – Evander Holyfield TKO 11 Mike Tyson I
• 1997 – Ike Ibeabuchi W 12 David Tua*
• 1998 – Ivan Robinson W 10 Arturo Gatti I
• 1999 – Paulie Ayala W 12 Johnny Tapia I

2000s

• 2000 – Erik Morales W 12 Marco Antonio Barrera I
• 2001 – Micky Ward W 10 Emanuel Augustus
• 2002 – Micky Ward W 10 Arturo Gatti I
• 2003 – James Toney W 12 Vassiliy Jirov*
• 2004 – Manny Pacquiao D 12 Juan Manuel Márquez I*
• 2005 – Diego Corrales TKO 10 José Luis Castillo
• 2006 – Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO 10 Mahyar Monshipour
• 2007 – Kelly Pavlik TKO 7 Jermain Taylor I*
• 2008 – Israel Vázquez W 12 Rafael Márquez III
• 2009 – Juan Manuel Márquez KO 9 Juan Diaz I

2010s

• 2010 – Amir Khan W 12 Marcos Maidana*
• 2011 – Delvin Rodriguez MD 10 Pawel Wolak*
• 2012 – Juan Manuel Márquez KO 6 Manny Pacquiao IV
• 2013 – Timothy Bradley W 12 Ruslan Provodnikov
• 2014 – Lucas Matthysse KO 11 John Molina, Jr.
• 2015 – Francisco Vargas TKO 9 Takashi Miura
• 2016 – Francisco Vargas D 12 Orlando Salido
• 2017 – Srisaket Sor Rungvisai W 12 Román González I*
• 2018 – Canelo Álvarez W 12 Gennady Golovkin II
• 2019 – Naoya Inoue W 12 Nonito Donaire I

2020s

• 2020 – Jose Zepeda KO 5 Ivan Baranchyk
• 2021 – Tyson Fury KO 11 Deontay Wilder III
• 2022 – Leigh Wood TKO 12 Michael Conlan

- - This is Ring Mag, and fundamentally Ring is quite different near 75 yrs later.

1963 many thought Jones whooped Clay who was early in his controversial years. I wouldn't vote for a fight of questionable officiating.

1969 Frazier vs Quarry a fantastic all time fight with no bad officiating.

1971 Same deal with Joe whooping the Uncle Tom outta Ali. Joe was smoking everyone.

1973 George too lopsided a beatdown on Joe for FOY, but perfect for Upset of the Year.

1975 Manilla Thrilla could be but for the controversial Stoppage of Joe by Futch as Ali was screaming for Dundee to cut his gloves off. Joe deserved better.

1976 good one for both George and Ron.

1978 fantastic fight but for wrong fighter winning with King and Tubby Lar freezing Kenny out of boxing.

1980 Fantastic fight with Roberto whooping Sugar into premature retirement.

1981 fantastic fight of ebb and flow with Ray coming back from the brink against Hearn who Manny overtrained.

1982-3 Bobby Chacon!!!

1986 fantastic fight but for Vander drug allegations that included an emergency Hospitalization of a mysterious life and death condition.

1987 I don't reward Sugarless for running scared in a 24' ring to cop an obviously rigged bout to rob a masterful champ with no rematch granted. Even minus the officiating is still a lousy fight to watch because there was no fight...

1989 Roberto vs Barkley, now that was as high end fight as it gets.

1990 Eubank KOing Benn as good as it gets.

Now I'm tiring, but you mugs get the drift of the fights that are legit...

[Flickergrab98]

1973 George too lopsided a beatdown on Joe for FOY, but perfect for Upset of the Year.

I’ve been trying to find alternative fights from that year, but I’ve only seen one recommendation from other sites in Arnold Taylor vs Romeo Anaya. But the full fight doesn’t seem to be available, only highlights. Still, I should probably check it out.
In the meantime though, does anyone got any other recommendations, especially from that year?

[Flickergrab98]

So, it’s come to my attention that three foty contests from the sixties are either lost or their footage hasn’t been made available to the public. Unfortunately, this means they have to be replaced with ones we can actually watch. But so far I’m having trouble picking between Joey Giambra vs. Florentino Fernandez and **** Tiger vs. Henry Hank for 1962 fight of the year.
Let me know which one you guys think it should be. I’ll link both fights so that you can judge yourselves.

[Flickergrab98]

[Flickergrab98]

[Flickergrab98]

I’ve decided to go for Tiger-Hank instead of Giambra-Fernandez as the replacement for 1962 FOTY for two reasons.
1) Despite how good the fight is, the longest cut we have of Giambra-Fernandez is evidently still missing a few rounds.
2) Since, I had to take off Hank’s fight with Giardello and will eventually have to replace Tiger’s fight with DePaula, I figured this would be the simplest to make it up to the both of them.