2018: The Nominations

In many ways, 2018 picked up where 2017 left off with its share of excellent match-ups, unification fights, and a heaping helping of action-packed, crowd-pleasing battles. But perhaps just as interesting as anything we’ve seen inside the squared circle were the stories that unfolded outside of it. Fight fans witnessed the resurgence of the heavyweight division, the rise of Eddie Hearn and the age of boxing streaming, the astonishing Tyson Fury comeback, the infamous clenbuterol scandal, and the passing of broadcasting monolith HBO Boxing after 45 years of covering the sport. 2018 may be the watershed year the boxing world has been waiting for, and for better or for worse, wheels have been set in motion which will shape the sport for years to come.

In 2018 boxing said farewell to Lampley and HBO.

While we can only speculate on how 2019 will unfold after such a pivotal year, we now acknowledge the gladiators who put forth some of the most remarkable performances of 2018 in our annual year end awards. Herewith, in no particular order, our nominations for the best of 2018. We will announce our winners over the next several days.

Upset of the Year
Rob Brant W12 Ryota Murata
Maurice Hooker W12 Terry Flanagan
Tony Harrison W12 Jermell Charlo
Josh Warrington W12 Lee Selby,
Eleider Alvarez KO7 Sergey Kovalev

Warrington shocks Selby.

Round of the Year
Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Juan Francisco Estrada — Round 12
Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury — Round 12
Murat Gassiev vs Yuniel Dorticos — Round 12
Leonardo Zappavigna vs Alex Saucedo — Round 4
Sho Kimura vs Kosei Tanaka — Round 2

Dorticos and Gassiev gave us a thrilling round 12.

Knockout of the Year
Teofimo Lopez KO1 Mason Menard
Murat Gassiev KO12 Yuniel Dorticos
Dereck Chisora KO8 Carlos Takam
Dillian Whyte KO11 Dereck Chisora
Vasyl Lomachenko KO10 Jorge Linares
Eleider Alvarez KO7 Sergey Kovalev
Jermall Charlo KO2 Hugo Centero, Jr.
Naoya Inoue KO1 Juan Carlos Payano
Oleksandr Usyk KO8 Tony Bellew

Chisora lands a huge KO shot on Takam.

Performance of the Year
Oleksandr Usyk (vs Murat Gassiev)
Tyson Fury (vs Deontay Wilder)
Eleider Alvarez (vs Sergey Kovalev)
Oscar Valdez (vs Scott Quigg)
Oleksander Gvozdyk (vs Adonis Stevenson)
Gennady Golovkin (vs Canelo Alvarez)
Josh Warrington (vs Carl Frampton)
Deontay Wilder (vs Luis Ortiz)

“Storm” Alvarez executed his strategy to perfection.

Fight of the Year
Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Juan Francisco Estrada
Canelo Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin II
Jarrett Hurd vs Erislandy Lara
Dereck Chisora vs Carlos Takam
Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder
Murat Gassiev vs Yuniel Dorticos
Sho Kimura vs Kosei Tanaka
Leonardo Zappavigna vs Alex Saucedo

Estrada and Rungvisai rumbled for 12 action-packed rounds.

Fighter of the Year
Vasyl Lomachenko
Tyson Fury
Oleksandr Usyk
Canelo Alvarez
Josh Warrington

2018 was an exceptional year for Lomachenko.
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