2014 Fighters of the Year () - Cecilia Braekhus & Delfine Persoon

The principal standout nominees are:

(world class victories in bold, elite in bold & gold)

• Cecilia Braekhus - 4-0, victories over Ivana Habazin, Jennifer Retzke, Jessica Balogun, Myriam Lamare
• Ibeth Zamora Silva - 2-0, victories over Judith Rodriguez,
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• Marcela Eliana Acuña - 2-0 (1), victories over Estrella Valverde, Edith Soledad Matthysse
• Jackie Nava - 3-0 (1), victories over Sayda Mosquera, Alicia Ashley, Alys Sanchez
• Susi Kentikian - 2-0 (1), victories over Dan-Bi Kim,
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• Mariana Juarez - 2-0 (1), victories over
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  , Carla Romina Weiss
• Amanda Serrano - 2-0 (2), victories over Maria Elena Maderna, Carla Torres
• Arely Muciño - 3-0, victories over Tenkai Tsunami, Suri Tapia,
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• Carolina Rodriguez - 4-0, victories over Simone Da Silva Duarte, Dayana Cordero,
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• Yazmin Rivas - 2-0, victories over Alesia Graf, Susie Ramadan
• Delfine Persoon - 3-0 (1), victories over
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  , Judy Waguthii,
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• Anabel Ortiz - 3-0 (1), victories over Ivoon Rosas, Neisi Torres,
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• Jelena Mrdjenovich - 3-0 (2), victories over Fatuma Zarika, Marilyn Hernandez, Pasa Malagic

We actually have the opposite problem as we did with the men. Instead of having too few deserving candidates to round out a list of ten (maximum allowable # of poll options) we have this abundance of relatively comparable years. So the floor is open - we need to whittle down from this list, eliminating three in order to even create a poll. Anybody knowledgeable about the women's scene is welcome to join the knitting circle and comment.


* Yesica Yolanda Bopp is a top 10 p4p fighter but only fought once in 2014, and is thus ineligible for consideration.

** Christina Hammer was originally credited with a DQ victory over Anne Sophie Mathis in their July 26th encounter (on the grounds that Mathis knocked her out with "rabbit punches") but this decision was later overturned and the result changed to a No Contest with Mathis' titles restored. That leaves Hammer's only standing official result as her shutout UD10 over Jessica Balogun. Nice result, but doesn't put her in the running. (but technically having the W over Mathis - fishy or not- would've)

 

IMHO, this comes down to culling true quality.

Anybody with a gold W (and remember, these are just my subjective calls on who qualifies as "elite") - even if that is their only remotely good win all year and they don't have a second world class victory to go along with it - merits a spot on the poll. That means Silva, Kentikian, Juarez, Muciño, Ortiz, Rodriguez, and Persoon. That leaves us three spots. Braekhus with four world class victories, even if none were elite, seems an obvious choice ...and is most people's #1 p4p anyway (the only reasonable argument being Persoon at this point). Acuña, Rivas, and Nava all have multiple world class victories as well. Nava on having three of them skates on in. Comparing those of Acuña with those of Rivas, you have to say Rivas' were better (proven former world champs in Graf and Ramadan, as opposed to just strong contenders in Valverde and Matthysse). Acuña, Mrdjenovich, and Serrano, are therefore left out in the cold.

Any objections? Write-in candidates I may have overlooked?

 

See, if you asked me "do you follow women's boxing closely" I'd ordinarily say no - which is why I was surprised to find while compiling this list that I have in fact seen every fighter mentioned at least once.

I don't know if that is anything to be too proud of. Having no life because of watching a lot of boxing is one thing. Having it go this far where I can tab a baker's dozen of nominees for the XX-chromosomal boxer of the year has me questioning some of my life choices... :err

 

Like, I can even provide context for how good each W is.

Lord help me. :-(

 

As soon as she turns pro, Braekhus & Persoon will have competition for that p4p #1 spot. (and the latter is getting up there in years, so the Katie Taylor era could be around the corner. :good

 

That would be a waste. :twisted:

 

Right, kind of the same conundrum with having to include Ruenroeng among the men. (his résumé if you subtract Ioka wouldn't be strong enough to even be considered - but he technically has a W over him, albeit controversial...)


I agree with you that Persoon and Braekhus are the frontrunners in not only the current p4p standing but also in terms of having the best 2014. I'm okay with Persoon getting the nod over Farias, too, although it was super close and obviously she wasn't as dominant over her field as Braekhus was. (and, even though Prazak is elite, she was a lighter champion moving up and has described herself as basically a "smaller version of Persoon herself" which means that stylistically there was no advantage making it all just about size, making it kind of tailor-made for Persoon and thus detracting from the creditability of it...)

I have a hard time splitting them, myself, but I'd put either of their years up with all but maybe the 5-6 top men - which (at the risk of sounding condescending toward women's boxing, though honestly the quality just isn't nearly as high in general and that's just a fact) is saying a mouthful.

 

I did give Kuroki some thought, along with Naoko Shibata and some others, but even in cases where they had multiple world title victories their opposition quality just didn't seem up to snuff with the original thirteen I posted. :think

She's a good shout though, and had a top-15 year no doubt.