“Fighting Words” – is “Fighter of the Year” a Two-Man Race?

[pugay_kamay]

I agree - Vitali deserves a FOTY reward this year in case he wins convincingly in December...

I agree with the article and say that Pac/Cotto winner is the major candidate for FOTY reward...

With no hate , hello to *******s! Pacquaio is a very deserving fighter, but!!! Explain me please, why there is so much hatred in this world, for such an amazing fighter like Cotto?

Oopps! I don't hate Cotto, but I'm not sure about the others though.

[GOD-FR33]

Tough 1.

I THINK IT COMES DOWN TO MANNY/COTTO WINNER OR TIMOTHY BRADLEY. IF MANNY WINS IMPRESSIVELY OR NOT, HE's DEF. F.O.T.Y. IF BRADLEY BEATS PETERSON WITH AN IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE, THEN HE COULD STEAL IT AS WELL. THIS HAS BEEN A BREAKOUT YEAR FOR BRADLEY AND BECAUSE MANNY WON IT IN 2008, THE PANEL WOULD MOST LIKELY LEAN TOWARD THE FIGHTER WHO HASN'T WON IT YET. BUT NO WORRIES CAUSE MANNY ISN'T GETTING PASS COTTO SO MY PICK IS TIMOTHY BRADLEY. GOOD POST BY THE WAY.

[bluetuazon]

I agree - Vitali deserves a FOTY reward this year in case he wins convincingly in December...

I agree with the article and say that Pac/Cotto winner is the major candidate for FOTY reward...

With no hate , hello to *******s! Pacquaio is a very deserving fighter, but!!! Explain me please, why there is so much hatred in this world, for such an amazing fighter like Cotto?

i can speak for myself....i dont hate cotto....i like cotto, he is a beast in the ring...he fights all comers...he never ducked any fighter imo....i will root for cotto 24/7....but he is fighting manny.....and my heart tells me that i should go for a manny victory.....so im rooting for manny.......but then again...i have nothing but love and respect for the boricua bulldozer!!

[pugay_kamay]

I agree - Vitali deserves a FOTY reward this year in case he wins convincingly in December...

I agree with the article and say that Pac/Cotto winner is the major candidate for FOTY reward...

With no hate , hello to *******s! Pacquaio is a very deserving fighter, but!!! Explain me please, why there is so much hatred in this world, for such an amazing fighter like Cotto?

Moreover, if anyone or even me picks Brandley or Vitali to be FOTY does that mean we hate Cotto? Sounds ridiculous!

[Lacrimosa]

Moreover, if anyone or even me picks Brandley or Vitali to be FOTY does that mean we hate Cotto? Sounds ridiculous!

I wasn`t replying to somebody in particular! I`m just stating that many boxing fans have double standarts and very often they close their eyes on somebodies fails or successes... Example: I`ve heard lots of praise for PBF`s dominance over fattened featherweight (decision dominance...) and i`ve heard almost nothing except critisism for Cotto`s fight against Clottey... Simply forget the fact he fought for half an hour with the whole in his head...

Cotto`s record includes absolutely stellar competition! The only active fighters who can boast such amazing records are Mosley, Hopkins (half active) and... i don`t know...

I read that he gets whipped by Pac, Mayweather... That he was exposed by Marg, and he quitted...

And it is not like such kind of thing is posted by a limited amount of imbiciles who simply free their hatred here... I can read it from numerous PBF or Mosley or Pacquaio fans...

And it is really said... IF you hate the fighters of Cotto`s standard, then what is boxing about in your mind? (it is adressed to everybody)

[bluetuazon]

I wasn`t replying to somebody in particular! I`m just stating that many boxing fans have double standarts and very often they close their eyes on somebodies fails or successes... Example: I`ve heard lots of praise for PBF`s dominance over fattened featherweight (decision dominance...) and i`ve heard almost nothing except critisism for Cotto`s fight against Clottey... Simply forget the fact he fought for half an hour with the whole in his head...

Cotto`s record includes absolutely stellar competition! The only active fighters who can boast such amazing records are Mosley, Hopkins (half active) and... i don`t know...

I read that he gets whipped by Pac, Mayweather... That he was exposed by Marg, and he quitted...

And it is not like such kind of thing is posted by a limited amount of imbiciles who simply free their hatred here... I can read it from numerous PBF or Mosley or Pacquaio fans...

And it is really said... IF you hate the fighters of Cotto`s standard, then what is boxing about in your mind? (it is adressed to everybody)

dude its pretty simple...u cannot please everybody...especially in this forum...there will be haters no matter what ur fave fighter does...whatever he accomplishes stellar as it may...somebody here will have something to say about it...thats the way it goes....so imo...use this forum just to find humor and dont stress urself too much...i stay here to just watch and **** around with die hard fans after office hours...just like what manny said a couple of times...."nothing personal" ...just enjoy the forum man...

[S.G.]

Winner of Pacquiao v Cotto deserves it.

[black.ink]

If Pac beats Cotto, then he should win FOTY.

If Cotto beats Pac, Vitali is FOTY should he beat Johnson in style (Likely).

[Heru]

Hard to call it a 2 man race when Vitali is looming over with 3 defenses of his title against 2 top 10 and 2 undefeated contenders.

[Mr. David]

Hard to call it a 2 man race when Vitali is looming over with 3 defenses of his title against 2 top 10 and 2 undefeated contenders.

If Vitali beats Johnson, it's a strong year by heavyweight standards, considering how rarely the big men fight these days. But the depth of the division, or rather the lack thereof, takes some of the air out of the sails when it comes to beating two top 10, undefeated contenders.

Arreola and Johnson are closer to prospects than they are contenders. This is not to take away from what Vitali is doing.

Should Pacquiao beat Cotto, wins over the lineal 140-pound champ and one of the top 147-pounders outweigh, to me, a knockout of a contender who really hadn't done anything at heavyweight (Gomez) and two touted but unproven prospects (Arreola and Johnson). It's a very good year considering what heavyweights do (or don't do) these days, but it's not enough to garner Fighter of the Year.

These are the recent BWAA fighter of the year winners and what they did:

2008 - Pacquiao (SD Marquez, TKO D. Diaz, TKO De La Hoya)
2007 - Mayweather (SD De La Hoya, TKO Hatton)
2006 - Pacquiao (TKO Morales, UD Larios, KO Morales)
2005 - Hatton (TKO Tszyu, KO Maussa)

...and I'm pretty sure 2004 was Glen Johnson (UD Clinton Woods, KO Roy Jones, SD Tarver).

I'd say of all of those, Hatton probably had the weakest case for fighter of the year. I can't remember what else happened in 2005, though, so I can't argue against that without doing some more research. Tarver had a good 2005, with points wins over Glen Johnson and Roy Jones... perhaps Hatton was just tops in a year without a stand-out.