Did The Ring name the wrong Fighter of the Year in 2001?

Bhop.

Had the better win later in the year against a very highly rated opponent

 

Think Mayweather was the favorite going into all his fights whereas Hopkins was the underdog against Tito

 

Mayweather was underdog to Corrales.

 

Mayweather. Beat one of the best lightweights of his generation and after Mayweather would go on to have wins over Castillo, Casamayor and Frietas. Before that was blowing guys out of the water.

Famoso and Chavez were also top contenders and belt holders. Watch Jesus Chavez fight against Morales to see how tough he was.

Hopkins was a middleweight who beat a welterweight who had already showed a propensity for being outboxed. Trinidad was undefeated because he got a gift against Oscar. Hindsight is 20/20 but come on lol.

 

As much as I've crapped on KT (well...at least referred to him as overrated), his 2001 was pretty damned good, too. Forcing Mitchell to retire and Judah to the chicken dance established him as the champion of 140lbs, and the win over Urkal, though tougher than expected, was decent enough.

Truthfully, Ring could have named him FOTY in '01 and I wouldn't have complained that much.

 

:yep

 

that's not true actually. Corrales was the favorite going in and he was ranked number 4 p4p while Floyd was 6

 

Corrales was a slight favorite. Pick em fight and something for you guys with the "blown up WW" argument dont forget chico was also drained :deal

 

People act like Oscar wasnt robbed against Tito lol.

Yeah Oscar ran in the championship rounds. In a fight he had a 5 round lead lol and he STILL won one of those rounds lol

Hopkins is a great fighter but he was the underdog because of his underwhelming career up to that point.

Mayweather was an olympic bronze medalist heir apparent fighting his antithesis and put on a dazzling performance in a fight where it was a pick em against a bigger more powerful man.

Go look at the fight tape and Hopkins is huge compared to Tito.

 

so drained that he stayed at the weight for 2 more years and won another title :deal

 

Ring rankings 2000

Shane Mosley
Felix Trinidad
Roy Jones Jr.
Oscar De La Hoya
Diego Corrales
Naseem Hamed
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Lennox Lewis
Erik Morales
Bernard Hopkins

Superfeatherweight rankings

Title Vacant
Diego Corrales
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Joel Casamayor
Acelino Freitas
Steve Forbes
Jong-Kwon Baek
Lakva Sim
Jesus Chavez
Yong Soo Choi
Roberto Garcia

 

looking back, I think Floyd deserved it, but at the time, especially since it was later in the year compared to Floyd who beat Corrales in January, I could see how Hopkins rode with the hype.
Tito ain't **** at MW, but he beat Joppy for a belt the fight before by KO. So people didn't see it that way then

 

So drained that his very next fight he came in at 136, and that was 2 years after the KO. Many things can happen to your body in that time span

 

Trinidad damn well lost that fight against Oscar, and would've been soundly stood on his head had he fought Whitaker in the mid-90s. :rofl :deal I suppose I won't call him simply a 'blown up welter' because he did crush Joppy and it brings out the "drained" excuses re: Corrales (see megavolt) but Floyd is my pick for the year. There's probably too much emphasis placed on being a favorite or not. Floyd would need to go fight middleweights to not be favored right now.