Why Did Ring Magazine Call Foreman-Frazier II the 1973 Fight of the Year??

Likely due to the historical significance & sheer shock of the fight.
(And yeah, I know the OP meant Foreman-Frazier 1.)

 

I think you should reread the title of your thread...

 

Hang on, guys, you're getting things turned around a bit. The first fight (which is what is being discussed in '73) which was stopped in 2 rounds, was their first fight. The second, from '76 was stopped in 5. The question about fight of the year, I totally agree with. IMO FOTY should be for a hard, exciting competitive fight. Back then Ring was really heavyweight crazy. I was just a kid back then but questioned it myself. I also recall in '78 I believe, they gave Ali fighter of the year and I screamed just as loud by saying, "Big deal, he loses and beats Leon Spinks. He never should have lost to him in the first place and they give him fighter of the year." I took things quite seriously. Little did I know what was coming down the pike. Anyways, for FOTY of '73 I would have chosen one of the following. Rafael Herrera v Rodolfo Martinez II, Rafael Herrera v Venice Borkorsor and Masao Ohba v Chartchai Chionoi. Either of those three deserved to be miles ahead of Foreman v Frazier. Also, for what it's worth, I would have given fighter of the year of '73 to Antonio Cervantes. He defended his jr. welter title that year 5 times plus he squeezed in 2 non-title bouts. Who does that anymore? Fighters today defend their title once a year and no non-titles. I think the Ring picked Foreman also that year for fighter of the year. Please!!

 

Masao Ohba vs Chartchai Chionoi was in the same year for the Flyweight title.
Better than this bout IMO. Could've been FOTY instead for its action.

But this was definitely it for historical significance

 

Upset of the year went to Ken Norton in his first fight against Ali. There was no knockout of the year category at that point.

 

As Scartissue says, Ring was indeed heavyweight crazy back then. "As the heavyweights go, so goes boxing," the saying went. Sometimes it's instructive to look at what Ring's runners up were. I no longer have the issue covering 1973, but I do have the issue covering 1976.

George Foreman was again Fighter of the Year based on his 1976 comeback. #2 was Miguel Canto, #3 Wilfredo (sic) Benitez, #Muhammad Ali, and #5 Ken Norton. Ring said it gave Foreman the award based on the "abbreviated and explosive battle on June 15th."

Fight of the Year was again a heavyweight battle, this time probably deserved - Foreman vs. Lyle. #2 was Monzon - Valdez, #3 Palomino - Stracy, #4 Benitez - Cervantes, and #5 (they had to get it in) Ali - Norton III. Others mentioned in the article were Cuevas - Espada, Canto - Gonzalez, Dagge - Obed, Bugner - Dunn, and Galindez - Kates.

Rounds of the year were #1 Foreman - Lyle (4 & 5), #2 Ward - Merritt (3), #3 Galindez - Kates (15), #4 Hope - Antuofermo (15), and Ali - Norton (15). Gee, three of those were round 15. Wake up, sanctioning bodies.

Anyway, I realize that the OP was talking about 1973, not 1976, but I listed the above (because I have that issue) to illustrate that sometimes you have to go beyond the main pick in annual awards to find the real gems.

 

Definitely they were too Heavyweight crazy. Ali got FOTY in 1978 for losing and beating Leon Spinks whereas Wilfredo Gomez defended his title 5 times, all in dominant fashion including against their 1977 fighter of the year Carlos Zarate.

 

All due respect to the fighters you mentioned, those acconplishments sound amazing (especially defending your title 5x in 1 year).

But foreman was written off as an inexperienced young slugger who never got tested. Frazier was seen as invincible, the gold medalist pit bull who not only unified the titles and cleaned out the division, he crushed "the greatest" in a sensational bout. Then foreman just bounces him around like a kid absuing a puppy.

Maybe other fighters accomplished a lot that year, but given the historical context and absolute shocker ending, its understandable why theyd give foreman fighter of the year. We hadnt seen a hw title fight with a more shocking result since baer vs Braddock. And never before or since did we see a reigning respectable champ get demolished in such a 1 sided fashion.

 

I definitely disagree. Fight of the year should not be event of the year. This bauble should be reserved for those who fought an exciting, back-and-forth fight of attrition, not a brief one-sided contest where one treated the other like a basketball. If we want to call it shock of the year, I'm all for it, but it embarrasses the legacy of Zale-Graziano, Robinson-Basilio or Patterson-Chuvalo to call it FOTY. Moreover, if you look at the FOTY picks from '73-'78, they were all heavyweights. Really? I'm certain this is due to the editorial staff who was running Ring at the time and their affection for all things heavyweight. And some of them were legit, like Foreman-Lyle and Ali-Frazier III. But '77 and '78 were Foreman-Young and Ali-Spinks. Now come on. I'm looking up '77 while I'm writing this because Foreman-Young was a snoozefest. Now offhand I can pick out Palomino-Muniz, Palomin-Green, Cuevas-Espada, Monzon-Valdes, Lopez-Torres and Zarate-Zamora as solid candidates for FOTY, but not Foreman-Young.