Terence Crawford ESPN's 2017 fighter of the year

That had more to do with his embarrassing blowup about Horn, his corny "flood the basement" references that took him 30 seconds to spew out, and according to "insiders" and "rumor mill," his berating of Regal during his first ESPN broadcast was unacceptable to them.

And he isn't fired. They said they look forward to using him for all their boxing coverage, just not announcing during the matches.

 

True champion lineal champion, best pfp and deserves it.

 

Joshua didn't deserve it Snatch lmao. Takam doesn't compare to Indongo.

 

Fired/marginalized/censored, take your pick.

 

Bud's not a terrible choice, but Rungvisai would've had my vote.

 

People recognized that Rungvisai was just too big for Roman. And many think that Rungvisai lost the first fight which is why he doesn't deserve ESPN FOTY. Joshua didn't even deserve to be nominated. Garcia beat inferior opposition. Bud unified all 4 the belts at 140. Good choice ESPN.

 

Poor choice. Joshua defeated a hall of famer in a great fight becoming a mega star in the process. Lomachenko dominated a top 10 p4p fighter making them quit.
Crawford fights in a poor division, he is in the discussion but should not have placed higher than 3rd. Espn never surprises me with their choices anymore however to the point I don't even watch their channel anymore

 

Yeah, that explains the odds for the 1st fight. People recognized that Crawford would handily win the two fights he had this year, hence the overwhelming odds in his favor for both. He had a solid year - but did what he was supposed to do. Rungvasai dethroned a top 3 P4P fighter while a massive underdog in their first fight and produced a KO of the year contender in the 2nd.

 

But did you really expect them to pick a non American fighter if they could somehow defend taking one of their own?!

 

Should've been Rungvisai or Ward, they beat the best guys in the most decisive (and generally unexpected) fashion. Crawford beat nobody special, and the most distinguishing feature of his routine accomplishments in 2017 is that he got Indongo out of there a few rounds sooner than one might've expected. I'd give Lomachenko the edge over Terence, but that's not saying much - the somewhat misleading prestige attached to Rigo's name is all it really boils down to. Mikey Garcia arguably has as good a case as either of them, and I wouldn't nominate him.

I think he means that the belt flattered Indongo. And it's true. With all these straps in circulation, it's the fighters that give substance to the belts, more than the other way around. Troyanovsky and a very shopworn Burns don't make Indongo a champ any more than Senchenko made Paulie a champ.

Wow, he was sure pissed.

 

They gave it to Frampton last year, when Ward was 3-0 with W's over Kovalev and Barrera. (and Bud himself had a better year, also going 3-0 against Postol, Molina and Lundy)

This just proves that ESPN writers DKSA lower weight classes. My choices in order would be:

Rungvisai
Loma
Bud
GGG
AJ

 

Meh, not my choice really. Unifying is a big deal but I personally judge a year on the fighters beaten rather than the trinkets alone. SSR for me. Had the judges saw the fight as I did, then I would have said GGG for beating Jacobs and Canelo actually but these things are done by official records. So SSR would be my shout. AJ...not enough for me. Loma...decent wins but nothing stand out, which is effectively how I see Bud's year too.

 

Actually, pending the fight outcome I think Melindo could be in the conversation, though certainly not the winner

 

Congrats champ.