Comments Thread For: "Fighting Words" - Breaking Down 2016's Fighter of the Year Race

[b Murphington]

Seems real different this year. There's no clear, standout winner. No ones had that real amazing run this year.

[Pigeons]

Kovalev-Ward winner
Crawford (if he unifies vs. Troyanovsky in December)
Frampton

Crawford-Troyanovsky is unlikely. Frampton has two great wins, but they came via split and majority decision. Kovalev-Ward winner will likely become #1 P4P and 2016 FOTY. So long as their fight isn't an ugly borefest.

[AneesMoha]

I've already seen 3 fights this year I liked better. I'm not saying you've wrong, the that's really a personal choice. But, it's a tough category this year. There is no clear winner.

Do you also have a feeling that Ward v Kovalev isn't going to live up to expectations or am I alone there?

And if I may ask what fights did you like better. I'll definately check it out if I havent seen them yet.

[Redd Foxx]

Do you also have a feeling that Ward v Kovalev isn't going to live up to expectations or am I alone there?

And if I may ask what fights did you like better. I'll definately check it out if I havent seen them yet.

Absolutely. I'm a technique junkie so this is going to be a dream come true for me; technical puncher vs dynamic technician. However, the public will likely hate it. Think; Ward/Kessler, Ward/Froch. Andre is going to control the range and Kovalev will try to counter that with his own footwork. Not a lot of people notice that stuff or find it entertaining. Kovalev will not be planting his feet and teeing off like usual. Ward will smother quite a bit. I expect people to be disappointed. But, it is still an extremely important fight that much happen.

As far as great fights this year, beyond the two obvious suspects; Porter/Thurman, and Salido/Vargas, check out Easter/Comey if you haven't. Fantastic fight, my fave so far. I also heard that both SotoKaras and Salka had a highly entertaining fights that are getting on everyone's lists but I haven't checked them out yet.

[Gillie]

Frampton defeated two undefeated champions. I would give it to him regardless of the Ward vs Kovalev winner.

[JmH Reborn]

The author himself just made the case for Frampton being FOTY

But made the case for looking elsewhere. Beats two undefeated champs, in two separate divisions - each rated in the top 3. Sorry, his two wins are better than Ward/Kov's win over eachother. 2>1 in all cases.

Ward is unproven at 175 and hasn't had a true challenge in 5 years. Ward over Kov is more impressive than Kov over Ward - but Ward can't steal the award from Frampton after taking two soft fights and one tough fight

[The D3vil]

Meh, it's gotta be Kov-Ward winner.

Yeah, I know Frampton beat Santa Cruz & Quigg & he might actually deserve it, but we've Kov/Ward is a fight the world's been waiting for at 175. Both of those guys are top 5 P4P already & beating a top 5 P4P in the world fighter in a huge showdown fight is more impressive to me than beating two really good fighters in lower profile fights.

So for me winner of Kov/Ward is #1 & give Frampton an honorable mention.

[AneesMoha]

Absolutely. I'm a technique junkie so this is going to be a dream come true for me; technical puncher vs dynamic technician. However, the public will likely hate it. Think; Ward/Kessler, Ward/Froch. Andre is going to control the range and Kovalev will try to counter that with his own footwork. Not a lot of people notice that stuff or find it entertaining. Kovalev will not be planting his feet and teeing off like usual. Ward will smother quite a bit. I expect people to be disappointed. But, it is still an extremely important fight that much happen.

As far as great fights this year, beyond the two obvious suspects; Porter/Thurman, and Salido/Vargas, check out Easter/Comey if you haven't. Fantastic fight, my fave so far. I also heard that both SotoKaras and Salka had a highly entertaining fights that are getting on everyone's lists but I haven't checked them out yet.

I need to check out the Easter/Comey fight. We didn't have it broadcast in South Africa so I need to check the interwebs for it. I enjoyed the Porter/Thurman fight.

I totally forgot about the Salido/Vargas fight. I think it's because might have been a little juiced when it was on. Was out at a sports bar with mates (I got a boys night out card from the wife) and it was on in the background and from the 3rd round we all just stopped talking to each other and were so into the fight. Was a great fight. Have to say though Vargas was a mess after that fight. We were saying that neither guy would be the same after that fight.

Ward/Kessler was a let down because of the headbutts for me.

Ward/Froch was so much better but if I had one problem with it is that Ward looked to start coasting in the later rounds, don't know if he was gassed or just decided he had it in the bag but that worried me. As you mentioned the way he controlled distance was amazing as well as how beat Froch to the punch so many times.

I think Ward outboxes Kovalev all night but if he starts coasting it might be dangerous. Abraham hurt Ward a couple of times in their fight because of Ward taking his foot off the gas. I do thing Kovalev has enough to put Ward away if he (Ward) loses focus. But if he doesn't and Ward controls the pacing i think he wins easily.

[R_Walken]

I don't know right now I'd favor Frampton because he has two A wins in 2015

The winner of Ward / Kov has maybe a A+ win but also a couple C grade wins. Even if you look at past winners they almost all had 2 noteworthy wins

[Redd Foxx]

Ward/Froch was so much better but if I had one problem with it is that Ward looked to start coasting in the later rounds, don't know if he was gassed or just decided he had it in the bag but that worried me. As you mentioned the way he controlled distance was amazing as well as how beat Froch to the punch so many times.

I think Ward outboxes Kovalev all night but if he starts coasting it might be dangerous. Abraham hurt Ward a couple of times in their fight because of Ward taking his foot off the gas. I do thing Kovalev has enough to put Ward away if he (Ward) loses focus. But if he doesn't and Ward controls the pacing i think he wins easily.

Ward had broken his hand in 2 places in training;
‘Early on, the adrenaline was working. But in the sixth round, when I hit him on top of the head, I hit a wall in terms of the pain. But we got through it.’

Pretty amazing thing to consider when you watch back. The ideal thing for Ward is being able to execute a specific gameplan, like he did with Dawson. He set some brilliant traps. People try to pawn that off on "drain" but the techniques that won the fight would have happened at any weight.

IMO, he will have a highly strategized plan for Kovalev. He and Virgil are amazing at that. If JDJ hasn't taught Sergey an effective way to deal with Ward's ability to stay inside or outside of range, Kovalev will get worked over. People think Kov is invincible because they haven't seen him get tired. If Ward gets him tired+frustrated, he owns the fight.

That said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Kovalev is prepared to throw a wrench in Andre's footwork and hurt him.