Fighter of the Midyear
Juan Carlos Burgos, Contributing Writer
Miguel Cotto – After his loss to Austin Trout, I as well as many others thought we had seen the best of Miguel Cotto. Cotto had different ideas, under the guidance of Freddie Roach, the future Hall of Famer has been reborn as evidenced by his beat down of former middleweight champ Sergio Martinez. Terence Crawford is a very close second.
Merissa Dyer, Staff Writer
Miguel Cotto
Rarely are seasoned fighters able to make such drastic improvements late in their careers, but sometimes it’s about going back to the basics. Freddie Roach’s aim to revisit and fine-tune Miguel Cotto’s strengths played a huge role in his fight against veteran Sergio Martinez, arguably his best performance to date.
Lou Catalano, Staff Writer
Miguel Cotto – There seems to be two schools of thought–one that believes Cotto is a transformed fighter who is now at the very upper elite level, and the other that believes a cool breeze would have crippled Sergio Martinez and sent his team running for the Bengay. Lets call it even. Either way, Cotto looked absolutely fantastic, and he executed Freddie Roach’s game plan to perfection. Hopefully we see him one more time this year.
Dominique Silva, Contributing Writer
Manny Pacquiao – After Juan Manuel Marquez knocked his world upside down, many people thought Manny Pacquiao’s time was through. Sure, he had a comeback against Brandon Rios last year, but the big test was when he went after Tim Bradley, who had just outboxed and outclassed Marquez in his last fight. Bradley was a top five pound-for-pound fighter in the world and had already beaten Pacquaio before. Although Pacquiao had some tough moments early, he came back as the Pacquiao of old and defeated Bradley soundly. No other fighter fought a top pound-for-pound fighter this year in their prime and beat them.
Gabe Rivas, Sr. Analyst
Miguel Cotto
Tony Calcara, Staff Writer
Terence Crawford – Terence Crawford looks more and more like he can be a real solid champion.
Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief
Terence Crawford – Terence Crawford showed guts going out to Scotland and earning the WBO title in convincing fashion against the hometown fighter, Ricky Burns. Did Crawford take a “gimme” in his first title defense? Hell no! Crawford instead staked his claim as boxing’s next best thing with a sensational knockout performance of the previously unbeaten Cuban slickster, Yuriorkis Gamboa. One more big win and Crawford has this award in the bag at year’s end.
All photos by Chris Farina/Top Rank
