Shields beating Marshal in the UK is a huge win. No female boxer has a better win than that this year.
Are you really using boxrec ratings? You do realise they have Floyd Patterson as the #4 heavyweight of all time? Those ratings should not be taken seriously. If boxrec's rankings are so "objective" then do you have Floyd Mayweather at #2 all time p4p? Because they do. Go back and look on the old threads on this forum. So many people were picking Marshall to knock Shields out. Shields proved so many people on here wrong (myself included) and won the biggest women's fight of the year while on the road. I don't get why being exciting should matter for fighter of the year. It should just be the fighter who had the best year right? So I don't understand why you brought up excitement.
Tsylor had a good year but Shields dominated Her rival where Taylor was in a razor close fight. Many people picked Marshall to knock Shields out. Taylor-Serrano was much more closer on the polls and in the ring.
Taylor is past prime, so if that's true I would say only recently. Edit: still Shields though, what a win that was.
I personally value hotness over skills and accomplishments when it comes to women's boxing and you've got to score high for lady power too and neither Shields or Taylor tick those boxes for me. You can accuse me of being shallow if you like but what are you going to do when I just laugh it off and agree with you, huh? Yeah thought so. You'll do nothing. This lion is bulletproof and you ain't about that life. I'll give it to Baumgardner because she ticks both boxes.
Hate to say it but Shields for me proved she is the best P4P women's boxer right now, her performance against Marshall was just impeccable. She talked the talk but she walked the walk and proved nobody right now can touch her.