THERE were several exemplary performances from different fighters the past year. Notably, Oleksander Usyk, Vasily Lomachenko, Saul Alvarez and our very own Donnie Nietes come to mind.
USYK. The reigning cruiserweight king has almost unanimously won Fighter of the Year honors from several boxing publications, websites and various fight media, which included ESPN.com, CBS sports, and Boxingscene.com, among others.
To garner that honor, Usyk defeated three fighters- Mairis Briedes (MD, January 27), Murat Gassiev (UD, July 21) and Tony Bellew (TKO, November 10).
This undefeated southpaw puncher from Ukraine no doubt deserves the accolade though his first two opponents were not necessarily A-listers. But the victory over Bellew rang the loudest as the loquacious and hugely popular Bellew recently came off two consecutive stoppage victories over David Haye.
LOMA. Not to take anything away from Usyk, but I think Lomachenko, the current pound for pound champion, also had an outstanding year and rightfully deserves co-fighter of the year honors.
Loma jumped up to a higher weight class and defeated the formidable Jorge Linares to win the WBA super world lightweight title. Prior to that Linares was coming off an impressive unanimous decision victory over our very own Mercito Gesta in January of last year.
Loma followed that up with a unification bout with WBO counterpart Jose Pedraza last December whom he defeated via unanimous decision and in the process unified two lightweight belts.
I had to give premium to Loma’s move to a higher weight class and ergo, he rightfully deserves to be named Fighter of the Year also.
NIETES. Honorable mention should go to our very own “Ahas” Nietes, who had three fights last year- Juan Reveco (TKO, 2/24), Aston Palicte (Split Draw, 9/8) and Kazuto Ioka (Split Decision, 12/31).
The draw with Palicte probably derailed Donnie’s chances, which is quite unfortunate, as to most accounts Donnie dominated that fight.
His hard fought victory over Ioka who held the WBC silver super flyweight title was the most impressive, but one factor that probably went against Donnie was that the fight came about too late (last day of the year) and by then most of the pundits had probably made up their minds already.
LAST ROUND. It’s on a dear friend, Blanche Regual Braun who recently celebrated her birthday. Cheers!