Welcome to The Queensberry Rules' annual year-end awards, starting today and continuing for one week. Here's how we do it around these parts:
The major categories are Knockout of the Year, Round of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. The final leg, which will finish early next week, is a pu-pu platter of awards ranging from Trainer of the Year to more frivolous topics.
For each category, we give five finalists, with video and/or relevant info. You tell us if our finalists and honorable mentions are lacking, and give your vote on who you think should win. Maybe you sway us to adjust the list, and maybe you sway us on the eventual winner. On the second day after a category is introduced, we'll give that winner and explain why. (There are virtually no major fights left in 2013, but we reserve the right to change our category winners if something crazy happens.)
So, up first: Knockout of the Year candidates. On deck: Round of the Year candidates and Knockout of the Year.
THE FINALISTS (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)
Lucas Matthysse – Mike Dallas, Jr.
Matthysse kicked off "The Year of the Puncher" by putting Dallas into a deep face-first slumber.
Argenis Mendez – Juan Carlos Salgado II
Revenge for a questionable decision loss is best served via monster left hook.
Adonis Stevenson – Chad Dawson
No knockout of 2013 was more significant, shocking or sudden.
Gennady Golovkin – Matthew Macklin
gennady golovkin vs matthew macklin by dm_51e3df4ee198e
So fearsome a puncher is Golovkin that this might not even be his best Knockout of the Year candidate. It was his best body punch knockout of 2013, at least, and the only body shot KO among the finalists.
Stephen Smith – Gary Buckland
Good luck finding many uppercut knockouts in any year — let alone 2013 — much better than that one.
THE HONORABLE MENTIONS (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
Gennady Golovkin – Nobuhiro Ishida
Curtis Stevens – Saul Roman
Sergey Kovalev – Ismayl Sillakh
Jesus Soto Karass – Andre Berto
Daniel Jacobs – Giovanni Lorenzo
Keith Thurman – Jesus Soto Karass
Mikey Garcia – Juan Manuel Lopez
Lucas Matthysse – Lamont Peterson
Edgar Sosa – Ulises Solis III
Javier Fortuna – Miguel Zamudio
Deontay Wilder – Siarhei Liakhovich
Adonis Stevenson – Darnell Boone II
Dodie Boy Penalosa – Nimithra Sithsaithong
Milan Melindo – Tommy Seran
Milan Melindo vs. Tommy Seran by outlawrocker
Tyson Fury – Steve Cunningham
Jeff Horn – Sam Colomban
Yunieski Gonzalez – Rowland Bryant
Vasyl Lomachenko – Jose Ramirez
Jhonny Gonzalez – Abner Mares
