Fighters Who Had an Outstanding Year, but didn't win 'Fighter of the Year'?

can't believe I would ever hear say such a thing against Pops

 

To be fair, it was a pretty awful division and Muangsurin wasn't all that good.

 

Eder Jofre defeated John Caldwell in a unification match between unbeatens, defended against Herman Marquez, and scored a dominant KO over Jose Medel. All KO wins while earning plaudits as the best fighter in the world pound for pound. D1ck Tiger won it for scoring a KO over Florentino Fernandez, a points win over Henry Hank, and winning the middleweight title off Gene Fullmer.

JOFRE also had a great 1973, improbably winning the featherweight title against Jose Legra, before sandwiching dominant wins over Godfrey Stevens and Frankie Crawford, before knocking out Vicente Saldivar. Foreman got it for beating Frazier and defending against Jose Roman.

Wilfredo Gomez deserved it in 1978. Marco Antonio Barrera was a great candidate in 2004 but Glen Johnson was probably the right choice. Fighting Harada had a great claim in 1967, but I understand it was definitely a heavyweight favored award.

 

Kelly Pavlik in 2007, he probably should have won that year. Explosive stoppage wins over Zertuche, Edison Miranda, and MW champion Jermain Taylor

Shane Mosley and Lennox Lewis in 2000. Great years, but couldn’t top Felix Trinidad.

Manny Pacquiao in 2003. Three stoppage wins, including a huge win over M.A. Barrera.

Mike Tyson in 1987. Took the WBA belt from Bonecrusher in a boring fight, defended against Pinklon, unified the 3 major belts against Tucker, and closed off the year by beating up Biggs.

 

Read what he said, George.

 

It's been edited. Unless I'm going crazy, I swear the word fights has been added.

 

To digress a little, in the UK Boxing News Fighter of the Year poll, Pat Cowdell beat the surgingly popular Barry McGuigan.
Barry, incredibly, had six fights that year against very good opposition beating them all inside the distance.
Pat came back from a twenty month retirement to win the European Super Featherweight Title. It was hugely satisfying for him that the fight traders recognised the scale of his achievement.

 

Was this right before he ran into Azumah's uppercut?

 

But really, the Thai's talent was neither here nor there. Fighter of the Year has to do with accomplishments during the year and he beat good opposition over the course of that year. I thought he far exceeded what Zarate achieved that year.

 

1963 - Ring gave it to the young Cassius Clay for beating Charlie Powell, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. It seemed to be a bit of a thin year. Young Clay struggled with Jones and Cooper, so I don't think it was the most impressive. I felt Joey Giardello was more deserving that year. He beat Wilfie Greaves, Ernie Burford, Sugar Ray Robinson and won the middleweight title from Dick Tiger.

1972 - Ring called that year a tie between Ali and Monzon. Personally, I would have given it to Ali outright. He wasn't the champ but he was doing the champ's work. While Frazier was defending against Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, Ali went to the post 6 times that year beating Mac Foster, George Chuvalo, Jerry Quarry, Al Blue Lewis, Floyd Patterson and Bob Foster. That 's what a champion is supposed to do.

 

I agree with you, but competition matters, too.

I really liked Julio Cesar Borboa when he went on his title run. I'm not a big fan of the smaller divisions, but for some reason I really liked him. You could argue he had a great 1993, better than Carbajal. But beating Humberto Gonzales was more impressive than Robert Quiroga. Borboa had a really good run, though. He just wasn't all that great.

 

I agree.

 

Yeah, 1963 came to mind for me as well, and I agree with your assessment. Somewhere in there I think reigning heavyweight champ Sonny Liston deserves a shout - granted, he only went to the post once and for what turned out to be only one round, but it was a repeat one round victory over the man from whom he had won the title the previous year, Floyd Patterson.

 

Joe Louis had a great 1935, stopping former champions Carnera and Baer, and tough contenders Levinski and Uzcudun. But he did not get the Fighter of the Year award. Neither did he receive it in 1937 when he won the heavyweight title. He did, however, win it for 1936 - the year of his first professional defeat by Max Schmeling. Now I'm a huge fan of Joe Louis but I feel that Schmeling's successful preparation, strategy and execution in that stunning upset should have earned him the award that year (and the title shot with Braddock as well.)

 

Just over 12 months before it.