Although
boxing in 2014 may have lacked the firepower of previous years, there were
certainly many worthy performances. My awards for this year lean internationally (2014 was a relatively weak campaign on the American boxing scene). This year, I've handed out hardware to fighters and entities from Japan,
Argentina, Ireland, the U.K. and the U.S. So let's commence
with the celebratory aspects of the year that just passed. Without further ado, here are the 2014
Saturday Night Boxing Awards:
Fighter
of the Year: Naoya Inoue
One of
the most rewarding aspects of following boxing is how the sport never fails to
introduce new stars, often ones whose rapid ascension is unanticipated. A year
ago, Naoya Inoue was a 20-year-old hotshot junior flyweight prospect
from Japan who had only participated in five professional fights. Yes, much was
expected from him but very few could have predicted the success or impact that he
had on boxing this year.
Inoue
started off his 2014 campaign by defeating the top junior flyweight in the
division, Mexico's Adrian Hernandez, stopping him in the sixth round.
After a marking-time defense against Thailand's Samartlek Kokietgym
(scoring two knockdowns before getting an 11th-round stoppage), Inoue
stunned the boxing community by moving up two divisions to take on the number-one
junior bantamweight in the world, Argentina's Omar Narvaez. Inoue made quick
work of Narvaez, dropping him four times in two rounds, earning a second-round
KO victory. It was a marvelous display of virtuosity.
Although
there were a number of other fighters who had impressive years in
2014, Inoue wins Fighter of the Year based on the quality of his
opponents and his dominance in those outings.
Previous SNB Fighters of the Year:
2013: Adonis Stevenson
2012: Nonito Donaire
2011: Andre Ward
______________________________________________________
Fight
of the Year: Coyle-Brizuela
Before
I wax on about this crazy affair, maybe it's best that you refamiliarize
yourself with it. The link is below:
http://youtu.be/cWe1-Ktr8rI
Tommy Coyle
entered 2014 as a middling British lightweight prospect who had lost to
gatekeepers Derry Matthews and Gary Sykes (that fight was part of the
Prizefighter series and only consisted of three rounds). Argentina's Daniel Brizuela
had amassed a number of wins in his home country but had lost his
only prior fight abroad. His record indicated a lack of power (only 8 knockouts in 27 fights). The bout took place in Coyle's hometown of Hull.
This fight was riveting: eight knockdowns, three
point deductions and a half-dozen or so serious swings in momentum. Prior to
the 11th round, Sky Sports' Nick Halling said, "Is there one more big twist
in this one?" Of course, there were still four more knockdowns to follow.
The
early rounds, while engrossing, were nothing out-of-the-ordinary.
Brizuela landed a right hand after a double jab in the second that dropped Coyle, who wasn't
necessarily hurt by the shot. In the early portions of the fight, Brizuela
used upper body movement and shoulder feints to land a variety of shots to
the head and body. He was very cagey. Coyle struggled to put punches together but he
did land some hard single right hands. Overall, the opening frames were close.
In the
sixth round, Brizuela connected with a pulverizing left hook to the body that sent
Coyle to the canvas. Coyle was in obvious pain but he somehow made it to his
feet. Still reeling from the shot, he parked himself on the ropes and ate tons
of leather, throwing the random left hook so that ref Steve Gray wouldn't feel
inclined to stop the fight. Seconds later, Brizuela returned to the body with a left hook and Coyle
met the canvas for the second time in the round. Again, Coyle beat the count, which seemed to demoralize
Brizuela, who may have temporarily punched himself out going for the KO. Despite being knocked down twice in the round, Coyle seized momentum. He rallied to close out the round and had a solid seventh.
In the
eighth, Coyle landed a huge right hand that staggered Brizuela and was able to
score his first knockdown with some follow up shots. Aggressively going after
Brizuela after the knockdown, Coyle strayed low and was deducted a point (he
had been warned previously), which gave Brizuela time to survive. In the ninth,
Brizuela fought with more energy. Gray took a B.S. point from him for a low
blow but he followed up after the point deduction with a savage attack to Coyle's body.
Entering
the 11th, the fight was still on the table. As riveting as the match had
been, the fight was about to enter truly special territory. Brizuela landed yet another hard body shot that sent Coyle
down. However, after rising, Coyle immediately returned the favor, dropping Brizuela with the first shot that he
threw, a bracing right hand. Brizuela was hurt badly by the punch and was soon
sent down again from another right hand. As Brizuela attempted to survive, Gray
deducted a second point from Coyle for hitting on the break (another B.S. point
deduction) and the bell sounded. It was absolutely wild action.
As the
fighters made their way out for the 12th, the crowd stood and cheered; they knew that they were witnessing an absolutely epic battle. Shortly
into the final round, Coyle landed yet another huge right hand and Brizuela hit
the canvas. He pounded the ground and rose by the count of six. Gray took a
long look at Brizuela's eyes and stopped the contest, giving Coyle a TKO win.
Having
rewatched the ending of the fight, I'll give Gray the benefit of the doubt
on the stoppage. Although Brizuela was aware of his surroundings, he
seemed to have a blank look in his eyes; the referee was well within
his right to end the contest at that point. Even though the fight's conclusion
had some mild controversy, very few will remember the details of the
stoppage. But what won't be forgotten will be their
brutal, relentless war, where both fighters exhibited the guts and courage that exemplify
the best aspects of the sport.
Previous SNB Fights of the Year:
2013:
Bradley-Provodnikov
2012: Pacquiao-Marquez IV
2011: Rios-Acosta
__________________________________________________________________
Knockout
of the Year: Andy Lee KO 5 John Jackson
After
suffering a knockout loss to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2012, Andy Lee,
with new trainer Adam Booth, patiently worked his way back to more significant fights. His next four opponents were pedestrian. He beat them all but his performances weren't particularly sharp. However, given a chance to appear on an HBO pay per view
undercard, Lee made the curious decision to drop down to 154 lbs. to face John
Jackson, a hard puncher from the U.S. Virgin Islands who was also the son of
legendary heavy-hitter Julian Jackson.
Jackson
got off to a great start in the fight by scoring a knockdown in the first
round. He caught Lee with a huge right hook from the southpaw stance – Jackson
switched up throughout the fight but is naturally an orthodox fighter. The
early rounds of the match mostly favored Jackson, who landed the cleaner,
harder punches. However, Lee used the fight's early frames to measure his
opponent and set traps. He noticed that Jackson liked to lunge in with his
right hand, which made him vulnerable to counter shots. Lee saw that opportunity and looked to counter Jackson's tendency with his right hook. Throughout the first rounds of the fight, he tried to draw the right hand from Jackson so that he could counter with the hook.
After
landing a right hand, Jackson trapped Lee along the ropes. Lee was able to
neutralize the follow up shots and punched his way out. However, Jackson was in
hot pursuit. Jackson loaded up with a big right hand but Lee got there first with a
right hook. Down Jackson went. And he stayed down. And he stayed down. And
he stayed down.
Although
Jackson may have gotten the better of Lee on the scorecards prior to the fifth,
the fight played out exactly how Lee had hoped. His final right hook was set up throughout the earlier portions of the fight and it was a sensational knockout. He would go on to use that punch to win a
middleweight title later on in the year.
Previous SNB Knockouts of the Year:
2013: Stephen Smith KO 5 Gary
Buckland
2012: Juan Manuel Marquez KO 6 Manny Pacquiao
2011: Takashi Uchiyama TKO 11 Jorge Solis
________________________________________________________________
Round
of the Year: Thomas Williams Jr. - Cornelius White Round 1
Now
this one was a shootout. Take a look:
The action
went as follows: knockdown by Williams, knockdown by White, knockdown by Williams and then
Williams jumping on White, forcing the ref to stop the fight. Instead of going on and on about this scintillating round, I'd rather have you hear it
from Williams directly. I interviewed him for this article and his words about
the fight are below:
"I
was expecting for it to be a tough fight. All the people who had
stopped him, like Donovan George and Sergey Kovalev, were big punchers. He
had beaten the guy who Adonis Stevenson just fought, Dmitry Sukhotsky, for
an IBF international belt. So I was expecting a tough fight. We worked hard for
that fight.
"I
hit him with the [first] left hand and he went down. I said to myself, 'Man, I
can step to this guy.' But I went in overanxiously...and he used his veteran
experience, stepped back, let me walk to him and he threw a punch; actually, he
caught me between punches. The punch wasn't really something that hurt me.
It caught me more off guard than anything. When he hit me I said, 'Aw man, I'm
down,' and that changed my whole outlook on the fight. Now I'm walking to this
guy and getting him out of here.
"We
have this technique in the gym where we fight three-minute rounds and then for
30 seconds I will stand up and do windmills. And when the 30 seconds are over,
I get back to fighting. When you're doing windmills things are going to be
off. Things are shifting. My balance isn't good. And I really think that
played a part [in the White fight] because when I got up, it was nothing like
the windmill, which was way worse than that [the knockdown]. When I got up, I
was still pretty good; but the windmill was tough.
"If
you look [after getting up from the knockdown], I threw a short hook
before the left hand. I actually got that from Rico Ramos. Ramos fought
the night before. I saw the fight and Ramos, who is a southpaw like me,
caught him with a right hook. And my trainer told me all you have to do is
catch him with the left hand and it clicked in my mind – throw the left
hand behind the hook. I actually was just going to throw the
hook. And he walked right in to it. It bothered him. He got the
stinky-leg.
"When
I hit him with that, he was still coming forward. I had just gotten
dropped before that, so I didn't know how hurt my legs were. I was just
stepping back, stepping back, stepping back. I threw the hook like he did
it to me when he put me down."
"It's
so crazy. People won't believe this. My trainer kept saying hit him on the side
of the head or on his temple. He said if you hit him on the temple, it's
going to throw everything off... And when I threw it, and after the fight
ended, I told my coach, 'You were right.'
"I
was trying to end it. It was kill or be killed. Once he put me down for
the first time, in front of my mom and my fiancé...it was kill or be
killed. I know that they were hysterical. They told me after the fight
that they were jumping up and down. I think my mom was jumping up in the
stands after I went down and fell. That was the first time they had seen something like that.
"I
didn't think it would be over so fast. When we got back to the dressing room
after the fight, I had my team in there. They were jumping up and down and so
happy. I was sitting down on the chair saying, like, 'Man, it's over so
quick.' It seemed like an out-of body experience. I walked out for the fight
and by the time I could really think about it I was back in the dressing room.
"After
the fight, we went to Longhorn. And they
had ESPN's top-10 plays on and I made number-six. That's the night that
Carmelo [Anthony] had 51 points for New York. Carmelo was number-one.
And I'm in the restaurant and people are seeing me and they're coming up
to me asking for autographs. That was something I had never felt before. I
was walking through the airport and people were recognizing me. That was
just a different type of feeling for me."
Previous SNB Rounds of the Year:
2013: Tim Bradley-Ruslan Provodnikov Round
12
2012: Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez
Jr. Round 12
2011: Hernan Marquez-Luis Concepcion I
Round 1
__________________________________________________________
Upset
of the Year: (tie) James De la Rosa UD Alfredo
Angulo and Tommy Karpency SD Chad Dawson
The
winners of these bouts were "opponents" and certainly weren't supposed to be victorious. Alfredo Angulo had looked utterly
lifeless in his previous fight against Saul Alvarez and Chad Dawson was working his
way back from his knockout loss to Adonis Stevenson. They both were trying to get back to the upper reaches of the sport. De la Rosa had two losses
to fringe prospects (Marcus Willis and Allen Conyers) and Karpency had a
recent knockout loss to Andrzej Fonfara and a shutout defeat against Nathan
Cleverly.
Nevertheless,
both underdogs took it to their opponents in the early rounds, besting them with punch volume and
perhaps most importantly, effort. De La Rosa even scored a knockdown in the
second round. Dawson didn't open the fight with enough urgency and Angulo
appeared as if he was stuck in quicksand. Eventually, Dawson forged a late rally
in the second half while Angulo had his own moments towards the end of the
fight; however, both fell short.
Shockingly,
but more importantly, justly, Karpency won a decision in Dawson's backyard of
Connecticut. And although Angulo-De La Rosa was never really that close, boxing
fans certainly have seen worse robberies than Angulo getting the
decision. However, on these two evenings, boxing judges reminded those in
the sport that some practitioners are more than capable of rendering fair
verdicts, even against heavily-favored fighters.
Previous SNB Upset of the Year:
2013: Jhonny
Gonzalez KO 1 Abner Mares
2012: Sonny Boy Jaro TKO 6 Pongsaklek
Wonjongkam
_________________________________________________________
Trainer
of the Year: Freddie Roach
After a
down year in 2012 and a middling campaign in 2013, Freddie Roach came roaring
back in 2014. Manny Pacquiao reestablished his dominance by defeating Tim
Bradley in a rematch of a prior dubious loss and dropping Chris Algieri
six times to win a wide decision. On another pivotal front, Miguel Cotto scored
three first-round knockouts and battered Sergio Martinez throughout their fight
to earn a stoppage victory. Roach's only significant blemish of the season was
a disputed split decision loss by Ruslan Provodnikov against Algieri. For the
record, I had Provodnikov winning that fight comfortably.
And it
wasn't just that Roach was victorious in his biggest matches of the year; he was
instrumental in his fighters' success. His plan for Cotto was immediately to
attack Martinez, who was coming off of knee and hand surgery in addition to a
lengthy period of inactivity. Roach didn't want Martinez to gradually warm up and get comfortable in the fight.
The idea was for Cotto to force Martinez into duress from the opening bell, testing
Martinez's recovery from his injuries. By the end of the first round, Martinez
was limping around on one leg; Cotto executed Roach's plan flawlessly.
In the
Bradley rematch, Roach impressed upon Pacquiao to stay aggressive. Noticing
that Bradley was loading up on big shots, he wanted Pacquiao to outwork Bradley in
the second half. Pacquiao's high activity level in the final rounds of the
fight was the key to his victory. Altogether, 2014 was a fantastic campaign for
Roach as he helped two fighters regain their elite statuses in the ring.
Previous SNB Trainers of the Year:
2013: Kenny
Porter
2012: Robert McCracken
2011: Robert Garcia
_______________________________________________________
Promoter
of the Year: Matchroom Sport
Well,
someone had to win this award. As Golden Boy spent most of the year in
self-immolation mode and none of Top Rank's big fights really caught fire, the
promoter of the year surely didn't belong in the U.S. Eddie Hearn and his folks
at Matchroom put on easily the grandest boxing event of the year, with 80,000
filling up Wembley Stadium in London for the Froch-Groves rematch. It was a
spectacular main event and featured an unforgettable Froch knockout. Hearn
dreamed big with the venue for the fight and delivered in every conceivable way.
Matchroom
also had a lot of success earlier in the year with some smaller fights. Hearn
was the promoter for Coyle-Brizuela, the 2014 Saturday Night Boxing Fight of
the Year mentioned earlier in the article, and put on two great fights between Gavin Rees and Gary Buckland. The Anthony Crolla-John Murray scrap was also memorable. In addition, Matchroom triumphed in 2014 with Kell Brook, who went to the U.S.
and relieved Shawn Porter of his welterweight title.
Hearn
also has been building prospect and Olympic hero Anthony Joshua into a true
heavyweight spectacle. By keeping Joshua active and gradually increasing his
competition, Hearn is helping to create a bona fide superstar if Joshua can do
his part.
Not all
was perfect for Hearn and Matchroom. The last half of the year featured too
many mismatches. Scott Quigg has yet to step up and the Cleverly-Bellew II
undercard, which was a pay per view in the U.K., was completely rancid. Hearn
has talked about increasing the number of pay per views in Britain. If he follows through on this, he's going to have to provide more value for fight fans than he did in his last
attempt.
Although
there were some blemishes in 2014, Matchroom did a fantastic job in continuing
to stoke the formidable fire that is the British fight scene. Hearn plans to
start promoting in the U.S. and his ambition and impressive stable
of fighters could mean big things for the sport in the next few years.
Previous SNB Promoters of the Year:
2013: (tie)
Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank Promotions
2012: Golden Boy Promotions
2011: Top Rank Promotions
_________________________________________________________
Network
of the Year: ESPN
Similar
to Promoter of the Year award, there was no slam dunk candidate in 2014 for the
boxing network of the year. Sky Sports started off with an excellent boxing program
in the first half of the year but the quality of its offerings showed a
significant decline as the year progressed. HBO and Showtime didn't do much to
distinguish themselves during the campaign. As something of a default, I will give ESPN the
award.
2014
was Brian Kweder's first full year at the helm as ESPN's head of boxing
programming. He showed a willingness to innovate and an opportunistic streak
that helped expand the network's offerings. He greenlit the successful Boxcino
tournaments that created a significant amount of buzz in the first part of
the year (the tournament will return in 2015). The slate for Friday Night
Fights in 2014 was also relatively strong.
Stepping
outside of ESPN's traditional Friday night window, Kweder was successful in
bringing several higher-profile fights to the network, including the heavyweight title bout
between Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola and a middleweight clash that
featured Curtis Stevens against Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam. On the negative side
of the ledger, a fighter like Jermain Taylor, who had suffered a brain bleed in
the past and had recently been accused of shooting his cousin, was not the
sort of fighter that ESPN should have gotten into bed with. It was unfortunate
that ESPN reached into its pockets to show his fight against Sam Soliman.
ESPN's
boxing coverage also distinguished itself in a number of other ways in
2014. The network streamed several international fights via its ESPN3 platform.
In addition, the espn.com boxing website has continued to expand its
offerings. Boxing editor Brian Campbell has made a nice addition to the site
with the Making the Rounds feature and the website has beefed up its presence
for the larger American fights. Boxing on espn.com is no
longer just the Dan Rafael show. The additional voices on the site have helped
to enrich the network's coverage of the sport.
Although I still wish that Teddy Atlas would spend more time calling the
action of the fights instead of fixating on an arcane topic or preparing
his next rant, the quality of the Friday Night Fights broadcast has continued
to improve. Todd Grisham has made a solid transition to blow-by-blow announcer
and his enthusiasm is in stark contrast to his predecessor, Joe Tessitore, who
in recent years often seemed uninterested in the fights in front of him
(perhaps he had been burned out by one-too-many nights at the Chumash
Casino). Adding the fans' scoring of the rounds via Facebook has also been a nice
touch. It works as a natural corrective to Atlas' sometimes myopic focus
during fights.
ESPN
had a very successful foundational year in 2014. Hopefully, its desire to
expand its boxing programming and its urge to connect with boxing fans in new
ways lead to even bigger things in 2015.
Previous SNB
Networks of the Year:
2013:
Showtime
2012: BoxNation
________________________________________________________________
Referee
of the Year: Steve Smoger
Steve
Smoger has built his legacy in the sport by letting the boxers themselves determine the outcome
of a fight. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly demonstrated his acute
talent of knowing when to stop a fight and when to let the action continue.
In
2014, two fights in particular highlighted Smoger's skill in this area. April's
heavyweight clash between Steve Cunningham and Amir Mansour was Smoger at his
best. Cunningham went down twice from big shots in the fifth round. Smoger, who
prides himself on studying fighters' tendencies and patterns, knew that
Cunningham had demonstrated significant recuperative powers throughout his
career. Although Cunningham was in pretty bad shape after the second knockdown,
Smoger gave him a long look (perhaps a little too long) and let the fight
continue. Cunningham went on to score a knockdown of his own in the 10th round
and wound up winning a highly entertaining fight. With many refs, Cunningham
never would have seen the sixth round.
In
July, undefeated prospect Mark Davis was taking on Michael Farenas. As the
fight progressed, Farenas nailed Davis repeatedly with big left hands. Davis
never went down but he was taking real punishment. His body language was also bad. Smoger wound up stopping the fight in the eighth round. Davis remained on
his feet the whole night but it was the right call.
Smoger
demonstrated in these two bouts that he has a very strong understanding of the
fighters in the ring. His decisions of when and when not to halt action were spot-on. In one case, Smoger's judgment enabled a fighter to rally for a big win.
In the second, he helped a boxer see another day, saving him from a weak corner.
This is what a referee should be doing – make it about the
fighters whenever possible and protect them when no one else will.
Previous SNB Referees of the Year:
2013: Tony Weeks
2012: Eddie Claudio
Adam Abramowitz is the head writer and founder of saturdaynightboxing.com.
He is also a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
@snboxing on twitter
