He fought one time in 2012. No way he deserves that honour. 2011? Sure I would pick him based on winning the super 6 tourney.
I'm inclined to go with Ward at this point for turning back Chad Dawson's challenge in such impressive fashion.
But he only fought once... and it wasn't the best Dawson... compared to Donaire's wins? OR Garcias or Martinez's?.. It's good but not good enough to trump them in an honest effort IMO
Have to go with Martinez. Stopping Macklin and then nearly shutting out Chavez who was practically a cruiserweight is worthy.
That's 2 fights against 2 solid contenders. That should be the norm, not FOTY stuff. Chavez was a cruiser vs 165lb Zbik just last year, and most people had him losing. Didn't drop Zbik at all.
Right, you could fight 2 non contenders like Martinez did last year. Still as bad as this year was for FOTY, there's people doing more, like Donaire or Garcia. Or Pac of course if he wins clear cut.
Donaire I can understand, but Garcia? No way. No doubt his victory over Khan was impressive, but the other two vs a BEYOND-SHOT Morales mean nothing.
Khan is better than either of Martinez' wins, and 3 wins is better than 2. Morales was Ring top 10 ranked, right or wrong. Mostly wrong, but had that win over Cano that is looking better now. He did alright vs Garcia 1 also.
Citing Morales' performance against Garcia as an indicator of his quality and therefore the impressiveness of Garcia's win is completely circular. You wouldn't accept the argument that "Barker wasn't a non-contender because he did alright against Martinez" so don't use the equivalent justification for Garcia/Morales. Likewise, simply giving credit for fighting more when two of those fights come against the same opponent seems illogical. The average rating of Martinez's two opponents was higher than Garcia's; would you really then say that the second Morales fight alone bumps Garcia ahead?