2012 Wrap Up
I like to get right to the point on these wrap ups, so here I go:
Juan Manuel Marquez knocked Manny Pacquio clean the F out in their 4th installment of their saga, which has led to talks of a 5th fight. Many people cried about them having a 4th fight screaming “Enough is Enough!” These same fans are talking about the KO, and are excited about the 5th fight, if it gets made. It’s funny how a brutal knock out can change perspective.
Amir Khan lost his second fight in a row to Danny Garcia by TKO, which led him to fire Freddie Roach as his trainer and hire Virgil Hunter. He blames Roach’s attention to Manny Pacquio as the reason for his losses. I say he needs to quit pointing the finger and man up! He did beat an undefeated Carlos Molina under Hunter’s tutelage, but he would have done that when he was with Roach, so I have yet to see proof that the change has been beneficial.
Nonito Donaire fought and won 4 times this year and was clearly the fighter of the year. He has risen in weight and has collected belts on the way. He put 2 of the 4 fighters into retirement, and has his eye on more stiff competition in 2013.
Brandon Rios went to war against Mike Alvarado in what we have crowned “the fight of the year.” Neither fighter is known for their defense, so this fight was predicted to be a slug fest and they didn’t disappoint. The fight was all offense with both fighters landing big, but Rios landed the ones that counted, because he ended the fight in the 7th round by KO. There are talking about a rematch between the two in 2013, so we can only hope it gets made.
Andre Berto, Lamont Peterson, and Erik Morales all failed drug tests. Berto and Peterson both missed out on rematches because of their dishonest antics, even though they both denied and had logical explanations. Berto finally got into the ring, after over a year out of action, against Robert Guerrero and lost in a tough fought fight. It looks as if Guerrero will go on and get a match against Floyd Mayweather Jr, while Berto sits and trys to figure out what to do next. Lamont Peterson did not fight and Erik Morales was knocked out by Danny Garcia in the 4th round of their rematch. I don’t understand how fighters will beat Berto and go on and get the biggest payday of their career by fighting Floyd. Is Berto Floyd’s gate keeper? Victor Ortiz did the same thing, but that’s another story.
It was announced that Arturo “Thunder” Gatti was one of the fighters that were able to be voted into the hall of fame, and this started a big debate among boxing fans. One side was saying that Gatti was an all-out action star and was one of the most entertaining fighters of his era, so he should definitely go in. On the other side, they pointed out that gatti lost all his big fights when fighting great fighters, so he should not be allowed in. I understood both sides and I land somewhere in the middle, but: Arturo Gatti was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this year!?!
Miguel Cotto lost to Mayweather on May 4th of this year, but he shocked many people at how well he fought. He seemed to bully Floyd at times and even made Floyd look like he was actually in a fight by the end. Floyd went to jail for 2 months after that, for a domestic abuse case, and Cotto went on to fight Austin Trout. Trout came into this fight motivated and determined to use his length and boxing skills to get the win, and he did just that. Austin Trout is looking to fight Saul Alvarez, who was supposed to fight Cotto if he won. I think Saul needs to fight Trout and Cotto needs to sit back and relax before he makes his next move.
We had boxing on live tv this year, but the fight between Tomasz Adamek and Steve “USS” Cunningham ended badly. This was a rematch between the two, and the first fight was an explosive one that Adamek won, but Cunningham had no intentions on making the same mistakes as he did in the first fight. He came out using his jab and outworked Adamek for most of the fight and at the end Michael Buffer scored the fight a split draw only to change it to a majority decision for Adamek a few seconds later. It was clear that Cunningham won, but as long as there’s the mystery of what judges look at when scoring a fight, we will continue to have fights like this. And I repeat, this was on live tv, which was setup to entice casual fans to watch the sport more….Great Job!!
Other fights:
Victor Ortiz lost to Josesito lopez after Lopez broke his jaw. Ortiz was scheduled to fight Alvarez after the win, but since he lost, Josesito went on to fight Alvarez and he got abused in Ortiz’s place!
Andre Ward was called out by Chad Dawson, so he got in the ring and demolished him…Simple as that.
Lucian Bute also called out Carl Froch, feeling he was tired of people saying he hasn’t fought anyone and wasn’t giving him credit for his wins. He decided to go to Froch’s home town to fight him, and he was crushed in the first half of the fight, so….We still don’t give him credit for his wins.. They are planning a rematch in Canada, and Froch has also said he would like to have rematches with Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward.
2012 has been an entertaining year and has setup 2013 to be even more entertaining. We have Zab Judah vs Danny Garcia, Bernard Hopkins vs Tavoris Cloud, Hopefully Rios vs Alvarado, Chad dawson in a rematch against Jean Pascal, Devon Alexander vs Kell Brook, and more.
