Ronald “RC” Cameron’s 2011 Boxing Awards

By:  Ronald Cameron

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.  Hopefully you gave and received some great gifts and made some great resolutions.  So keeping with that theme, it’s about that time of the year when boxing fans and writers around the world evaluate what happened in boxing in that particular year and we hand out yearly awards.  2011 was filled with some excellent fights, some that were marred with controversy and there were some fights that did not live up to expectations.  So with that in mind, I have some awards to give out. I will give proper praise to certain fighters for their great performances. I will also give some awards out to some fighters and non-participants who did a lousy job.  So sit back, grab a cold one and get ready to enjoy RC’s 2011 Boxing Awards ceremony.

 

 

2011 Fighter of the Year

Candidates—Nonito Donaire, Manny Pacquiao, Andre Ward, Sergio Martinez, Floyd Mayweather

Winner: Andre Ward

 

Before I begin, there have been many boxing experts who have listed Miguel Cotto as a Fighter of the Year candidate but in all due respect to Cotto and those experts, I can’t put him on my list due to the fact that he beat two of the most overrated, washed up punching bags in the sport (Ricardo Mayorga and Antonio Margarito). As most of you know who read my articles, I view quality of opposition as the most important element when I evaluate fighters in terms of ranking fighters.  With that said, all of these candidates have fought some tough competition this year.  This award is not about who is the best fighter in the world—this is about which fighter had the best year and that fighter was Andre “Son of God” Ward.

 

Not taking anything away from the other candidates, they all had great years, but there are reasons why I could not vote for them over Ward.   First off, Ward had a great year, which ended with winning the Super 6 Tournament by totally out-classing WBC Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch, but earlier this year he also shut out former Middleweight champion Arthur Abraham over 12 one-sided rounds. Nonito Donaire started this year out with a bang by knocking out former Bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel in 2 rounds and later this year he shut out unbeaten and untested Omar Narvaez over 12 rounds.  Very impressive year for Donaire, but I give the slight nod to Ward due to the fact that Ward fought tougher opposition. The same thing applies to the 2010 Fighter of the Year, Sergio Martinez, who won his two fights this year beating Serhiy Dzinziruk and Darren Barker. Martinez was very impressive against Dzinziruk, but against Barker, he was not as sharp and at times he looked vulnerable as he had trouble avoiding Barker’s jab.
And as for Mayweather, he was his usual dominant self against Victor Ortiz, but as great as Mayweather is, I can’t give him the award based off a single fight.  And while Manny Pacquiao won both of his fights this year, he was not impressive against an over the hill, Shane Mosley and against his arch rival, Juan Manuel Marquez, even though he won the fight, most boxing experts (including myself) thought that Marquez did enough to win the fight.

 

In all, there were several fighters who had great years, but again no one deserves to be the 2011 Fighter of the Year more than Andre “S.O.G.” Ward.

 

 

2011 Fight of the Year:

Candidates—Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto, Delvin Rodriguez vs. Paul Wolak I,  Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson, James Kirkland vs. Alfredo Angulo

Winner: Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto

 

 

Any one of these fights could have been great choices and this was a tough call.  In all of the fights I mentioned, these were WARS. Not a tactical, boxer vs. puncher battle, but two fighters laying it all on the line in the center of the ring trading bombs.  The reason why I choose Ortiz vs. Berto over the others is because both guys had to overcome adversity and coming into this fight there were many boxing fans who questioned whether either fighter could handle it, especially Ortiz because he was involved in a similar battle against Marcos Maidana and when things got rough, he submitted.  But in this fight, Ortiz started off fast and he knocked Berto down in the first round. Berto rallied and dropped Ortiz in the next round but in the 6^th round, the two fought in one of the best rounds of this year as they both traded brutal knockdowns.  Ortiz went on to beat Berto, winning a comfortable decision, but both fighters proved to their cynics that they are solid fighters who are capable of giving anyone a tough fight on any giving day.   The two will fight again next year so hopefully the two will provide yet another great battle.

 

 

KO of the Year:

 

Candidates—Nonito Donaire’s 2^nd round TKO over Fernando Montiel, Floyd Mayweather’s 4^th round KO over Victor Ortiz, Garry Russell Jr. 1^st KO over Heriberto Ruiz

 

Winner: Nonito Donaire’s 2^nd round KO of Fernando Montiel

 

This would have been a no-brainer if the referee would have done his job and stopped the fight after Donaire landed that Sugar Ray Robinson-like left hook that had Montiel on the canvas kicking both of his legs in the air as if he was a turtle on his shell.  Even though Montiel beat the count, he didn’t have any idea where he was and Donaire closed the show with another left hook which forced the referee to stop the fight. This big win propelled Donaire into the upper echelon with some of the top fighters in the sport and the future looks bright for the Filipino Flash.

 

Round of the Year:

 

Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto (Round 6) ,  James Kirkland vs. Alfredo Angulo (Round 1), Delvin Rodriguez vs. Pawel Wolak  (Round 9), Brandon Rios vs. Urbano Antillon (Round 1)

 

Winner:  Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto (Round 6)

 

This was the toughest award to give out.  I went back and watched these rounds again and all of them were great but I gave the slight nod to Ortiz vs. Berto because we saw Ortiz in a similar battle before (against Marcos Maidana) and he did not handle the situation well and when Berto knocked Ortiz down again in the 6^th round, I thought he was going to call it a day and pack it in.  But out of nowhere, Ortiz caught Berto with two, solid left hands that dropped Berto and had the legendary trainer Emanuel Steward yelling, “OH MY GOD!!” And just think, we will see this fight again this year, but this fight will be on Showtime and if something incredible happens in the rematch, I’m sure Hall of Fame announcer Al Bernstein will do a tremendous job as he always does.

 

 

The Best Fighter on the Planet Award:

 

Candidates: Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Floyd Mayweather, Sergio Martinez, Andre Ward

 

Winner: Floyd Mayweather

 

Like him or not, for the last 7 years there has not been a more skilled fighter than Floyd Mayweather and he’s showed no signs of slowing down. I’ve said this many times but it bears repeating—Floyd’s the most accurate, best defensive/counterpuncher in the sport and one of the top 2-3 best defensive fighters of all time.  I won’t get into what’s going on with his personal life, were all aware of what he did and where he’s headed, but he was born to box and hopefully he get back to doing what he does best sometime this year.  All the fighters on the list are outstanding, in fact I predict that one of those guys on that list will be the best fighter in the world in about 2 years (Andre Ward) but for now, Floyd Mayweather is still the best in the business.

 

 

Now onto some of the other awards…..

 

 

The “Jersey Joe Walcott” Lousy Referee Award:

Candidates: Russell Mora, Joe Cortez, Joseph Cooper

 

Winner: Russell Mora

 

The less I say about Mora’s performance in the Abner Mares vs. Joseph Agbeko fight, the better.   I wrote an article about his performance  a few months ago and I ripped him pretty good. Let’s just say that he won this award going away.

 

 

The Pernell Whitaker—Highway Robbery of the Year:

 

Candidates: Paul Williams vs. Erislandy Lara, Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III, Robert Helenius vs. Dereck Chisora
Winner: Paul Williams vs. Erislandy Lara

 

This was also an easy choice to make.  Now to be consistent, I’ve said all along that while I thought Marquez beat Manny, it was not a “robbery” as many believe it to be.  I put this on the list because there are many boxing fans and experts who believe otherwise. Paul Williams “win” over Lara was a robbery in every sense of the word. I only gave Williams 4 rounds and I was generous because one of those rounds was close and could have gone to Lara. The Helenuis vs. Chisora fight was also a highway robbery, but not quite as bad as Williams vs. Lara.

 

 

2011 Trainer of the Year

 

Candidates: Ann Wolfe, Robert Garcia, Roger Maweather, Virgil Hunter

 

Winner: Virgil Hunter

 

This was a tough one because all of them have done a wonderful job and have been good for years.  I’m going with Virgil Hunter because he was with Ward ever since he was a kid and they made it to the top together.  Ward had a great year in 2011 and Virgil Hunter was a big part of his success.

 

 

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.  Feel free to let me know what you think. If you agree with my picks, or disagree, I’d like to hear from you.

 

Ronald Cameron is an exclusive feature writer for BOXINGiQ.com