2019: The Nominations
As the old saying goes, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” and it’s difficult to conjure up a more apt statement about the business of professional boxing in the year 2019. With HBO’s boxing coverage gone for good and the rise of DAZN, fight fans still enjoyed a generous serving of action-packed battles and intriguing match-ups, thanks in no small part to the World Boxing Super Series.
But at the same time, we had to endure arguably the biggest star in the sport shamelessly ducking his most obvious rival, while the heavyweight division, aside from one massive upset, was stuck in limbo. And, in a highly disturbing development, big-time boxing decided its new home for major fights was a country where people are imprisoned and tortured for writing the wrong thing in their Facebook posts.
Be that as it may, 2020 is already upon us, so it’s time to look back and take stock as we do each year with our six categories and highlight the best fights and fighters, the biggest surprises, and the stand-out performances. Our winners will be announced in the days following. Let’s get to it!
Upset of the Year
Andy Ruiz Jr. TKO7 Anthony Joshua
Andrew Cancio KO4 Alberto Machado
Julian Williams W12 Jarrett Hurd
Oscar Escandon KO1 Jhack Tepora
Jean Pascal TD8 Marcus Browne
Round of the Year
Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz I: Round Three
Jean Pascal vs Badou Jack: Round Twelve
David Lemieux vs Max Bursak: Round Ten
Maurice Hooker vs Jose Ramirez: Round Three
Naoya Inoue vs Nonito Donaire: Round Eleven
Irosvani Duvergel vs Jerhed Fenderson: Round Three
Anthony Fowler vs Scott Fitzgerald: Round Ten
Knockout of the Year
Nonito Donaire KO6 Stephon Young
Ryan Rozicki KO2 Khetag Pliev
Oscar Escandon KO1 Jhack Tepora
Teofimo Lopez TKO2 Richard Commey
Deontay Wilder KO7 Luis Ortiz
Vasily Lomachenko KO4 Anthony Crolla
Yuniel Dorticos KO10 Andrew Tabiti
Vergil Ortiz KO3 Mauricio Herrera
Naoya Inoue KO2 Emmanuel Rodriguez
Canelo Alvarez KO11 Sergey Kovalev
Devin Haney KO7 Antonio Moran
Performance of the Year
Sergey Kovalev (vs Eleider Alvarez)
Nonito Donaire (vs Naoya Inoue)
Naoya Inoue (vs Nonito Donaire)
Manny Pacquiao (vs Keith Thurman)
Julian Williams (vs Jarrett Hurd)
Naoya Inoue (vs Emmanuel Rodriguez)
Canelo Alvarez (vs Sergey Kovalev)
Josh Taylor (vs Regis Prograis)
Artur Beterbiev (vs Oleksandr Gvozdyk)
Fight of the Year
Julian Williams W12 Jarrett Hurd
David Lemieux W10 Max Bursak
Gennady Golovkin W12 Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Jose Ramirez TKO6 Maurice Hooker
Jean Pascal W12 Badou Jack
Steve Claggett D10 Mathieu Germain
Josh Taylor W12 Regis Prograis
Errol Spence W12 Shawn Porter
Yuki Beppu TKO10 Ryota Yada
Naoya Inoue W12 Nonito Donaire
Fighter of the Year
Vasyl Lomachenko
Naoya Inoue
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
Josh Taylor
Manny Pacquiao
Jean Pascal
Stay tuned! Our winners will be announced over the next few days ….
