2014 Individual Performance of the Year

Tight race.

 

There are 625 active super flyweights, and 995 active light heavyweights. 175lb is pretty close to a median weight for in-shape adult men, yet there are 66% as many super flies as there are light heavies. If the distribution were as you claim and men that light were such an extreme rarity it wouldn't be that close.

Further, I'd say that super fly is the much deeper talent pool in spite of being smaller (both literally and numerically).

115lbs has: Inoue (and his brother), Cuadras, Matsumoto, Arroyo, Ishida, Morales, Villanueva, Tso, Yafai, Conlan and Butler - all young (the eldest, Arroyo, is still in his twenties) promising & unbeaten and either holding titles already or zeroing in on chances rapidly. On top of them you have world-class veterans in the mix in El Nica, El Tornado, El Gallito, Jose Salgado, Tyson Marquez, Kono, Wangek, Tete, Narváez (if he bangs on), Igarashi, and Sithsamerchai - all of whom either holds belts or have in the past or have contended multiples times at various weights.

That's well over twenty names.

175lbs has: Kovalev, Beterbiev, Mekhontsev, Alvarez, Oosthuizen, Lepikhin, Shabranskyy, Skoglund, Koelling, Gvozdyk, Barrera and Monaghan for rising unbeaten prospects (Kovalev close to becoming the clear-cut #1 in the division, if not already). Rounding things out you have the other two world title claimants in Stevenson & Brähmer, along with contenders Pascal, Hopkins (if he bangs on), Chilemba, Campillo, Mohammedi, Fonfara, Krasniqi, and Murat.

I stretched to make 23 names for a fair comparison.

Light heavy is top-loaded with talent, and the best 5-6 names (Kovalev, Beterbiev, Mekhontsev, Brähmer, Pascal, Stevenson) collectively probably trump 115's best half-dozen. For overall depth, though, 175 has a lot of dead - or dying - weight. Campillo is pretty well past his prime, only slightly less so than a couple of former champs I didn't even mention because of how clearly ravaged and devoid of h2h value they are by now, Dawson & Cloud. After that first half dozen or so names, the current p4p quality of the next 17-18 is consistently higher at super fly.

Guys like Skoglund, Koelling, Monaghan, Krasniqi, Murat, Sukhotsky and Mohammedi who are prospect/contenders at light heavyweight are woefully average talents, all easily worse pound for pound than every single name on the 115lb list above.

So "midgets" as far back as 25th best in a shallower division are better than guys ranked top 15 in a division with 33% more participants. You might want to rethink what you do and don't take seriously.

 

:good

Yeah, the dominance of Kovalev had very little to do with brawn. He really did outbox the old man, part of what made it so impressive (and not only in the running but leading the poll as IPOTY).

Also, he does look visually much larger than he actually is. Strange, too, because you'd think with that high upper-body distribution of bulk mass he would have skinny chicken legs as is often the case - but nah. His legs are fine. He doesn't have crazy Manny Pacquiao calves or anything, but he isn't exactly on stilts either. His legs are perfectly normal/averagely proportioned by athlete standards. :huh

Low bone density maybe? :conf

 

:worm

 

You should have nominated it!

Could've perhaps made the poll, if you had reminded others. :think