Anyone who actually mentions ward is an idiot! For beating a weight-drained, overhyped Dawson? It is either Viloria or Donaire. But Donaire is by far the leading candidate. Donaire has 4 fights : Vazquez, Mathebula, Nishioka and finally Arce. Viloria : Segura (end of 2011), Romero, Marquez
I guess give it to Donaire. Arce don't mean a whole lot. But beatin Math and Nish is pretty good. Not his fault Nish looked flat.
I think beating wide odds is a plus when talking FOTY, all else equal. But forget that, we agree Khan is better than Chavez by a bit. Resume, talent, top level experience, p4p rating, everything but the chin. Peterson >> Lee, losing a shady decision to a juiced LP won't swing the balance. You think Macklin outweighs that + 2 Morales fights, I think even Morales 1 would keep Garcia ahead, so would have any fringe top ten win at 140. Matthysse got a ton of traction from Soto, who's no better than Morales (if fresher). And Macklin is just not that great of a win, a mismatch on paper. I understand Martinez will be favored wide against any middle, nowhere near that wide. Being pedantic, wider than Garcia Morales 2, no?
Thanks for the shoutout, but i have to disagree with you and others mentioning Ward for FOTY. He's had one fight this year, and it was against a corpse who hadn't made 168 for 6 years and had never had a meaningful fight at the weight. Both Chad and Ward are fine P4P fighters, but i really can't class it as a notable win. In fact, i'm actually a big fan of Ward and have been touting him as a future P4P #1 since the Kessler fight, but i really can't give him a great deal of credit for beating someone so far out of their comfort zone. The fighter of the year is Donaire for me. Garcia, Matthysse, Martinez, Mares and - if he beats Mack - Froch have all had fine years, but Donaire stands out imo.
No way Ward should be there, fought a weight drained hype job. I like Ward, but Dawson has never fought a guy at his age, the one time he did he lost clearly & he only fought once this year. Martinez: Stopped Macklin the 11th round. The Knife was robbed against Sturm & stopped Alcine in one round, so it's an underrated win imo. Then he humiliated Chavez JR. in a embarrassing way and only ******s want's too see a rematch, Martinez did not hold on when he got knock downed he stood his ground and fought. If it wasn't for the 12th round Chavez Jr. would never-ever be the same. But in reality i'm voting for Garcia, beat Morales, was a HUGE underdog against Khan & completely destroys him, then he shuts Morales up in a brutal fashion.
The reason people say Ward I think is because he basically cleaned out LHW w/One fight. Who @LHW would be favored over him? ^But I understand why some would hate.