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The 2002 K9s: MaxBoxing’s Year-End Awards
By Steve Kim (December 26, 2002)
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OK, after a short intermission, we get started again with the festivities.
PROSPECT OF THE YEAR
1. Muhammad Abdullaev: Everyone talks about Miguel Cotto and Ricardo Williams, but remember, it's this guy who decisively beat both of them in the 2000 Olympics on his way to a gold medal. He is currently 14-0.
2. Rocky Juarez: Got lost in the shuffle early on behind Franciso Bojado and Jeff Lacy but has really come on the past year and proven that he is Main Events best pro prospect. His hard-charging body attack will make for some long grueling fights at the featherweight level.
3. Miguel Cotto: He's up to 13-0 now and Top Rank has skillfully guided him against a collection of 130-pounders who are past their primes. Cotto has the patience of Job and a lethal left hook in his arsenal.
4. Anthony Thompson: 'the Messenger' came in under the radar as he passed up a shot at the 2004 Olympics, but this guy is a well-rounded, classic Philly fighter. He's now 7-0 and look for him to make some noise in 2003. Could be the next great middleweight from 'the City of Brotherly Love'.
5. Jeffrey Resto: 2003 will be a pivotal year for Resto as his advisor Lou DiBella plans to step him up in class. Resto, who is 14-0, will try to make a dent in a fertile jr. welterweight division. He's a tall and rangy fighter with heavy hands.
6. Kermit Cintron: They call him 'Killer' and for good reason -- he can crack. Pure punchers are hard to find and Cintron is one of them. He's 17-0 and Main Events has tabbed him as one of their future stars. Only chink in his armor is that he has problems with boxers.
Honorable mention: Brian Viloria, Juan Diaz, Dominick Guinn, Malik Scott, Ricardo Williams, Clarence Vinson.
THE MILLI VANILLI AWARD (for biggest farce)
Joey Torres and Top Rank: To create some interest in their April 27th show in Anaheim, Bob Arum thought it would be a great idea to trot out Torres, a 41-year-old ex-convict in his pro debut. Torres, who had served a long spell for a murder he said he didn't commit, wanted to make a run at professional boxing.
While behind bars Torres had somehow become connected with such athletes as Paul Molitor and Eric Davis and he said his real goal was to help kids in trouble and that he could help spread his message through boxing. Well, Top Rank put him on a media blitz prior to the fight- including an in-studio interview with the nationally syndicated Jim Rome where he stated that Charles Manson really wasn't a bad guy -- and somehow Torres was permitted a boxing license by the California State Athletic Commission despite not having a fight in over a decade (at least).
But he would go into the Arrowhead Pond with great fanfare but when he took off his robe, you could see the farcical nature of the event. He looked like a modern day 'Two Ton' Tony Galento and his opponent was an Oklahoma, tomato can (isn't that a repetitive term?) by the name of Perry Williams. The bout would start with Torres putting out his left arm as if to touch gloves but instead it was a trap to try and hit Williams with a surprise left hook -- which missed. Williams looked petrified in the ring and he must have been so scared by Torres' ruse that he actually threw a punch in fear at the hard-charging Torres, which caught him right on the button. Torres would crash face first to the canvas and if it weren't for a suspiciously long count he would have been KO'd.
Torres survived the shaky first round and Williams would proceed to basically give up and not throw another punch the rest of the night before being 'knocked out' in the second. As this was happening, the crowd at 'the Pond', sensing what was going on, booed lustily. Torres, as he was being announced as the winner would get booed even louder and would leave the ring to noticeable catcalls and heckling. In essense, it seemed that a guy who was seemingly brought in to take a dive had nearly knocked out his opponent.
I thought I had seen it all. How wrong I was.
Arum advised Torres to call it a day and retire. But he really wishes he wouldn't have allowed him to fight at all.
THE HECTOR CAMACHO SR AWARD (for being gun-shy after taking a good shot)
Zab Judah: in his comeback fight after his knockout loss to Kostya Tszyu, 'Super' Judah, looked hesitant and unsure of himself in winning a 10-rounder against Omar Weis.
THE FRIDAY AFTER NEXT AWARD (for worst third fight between two guys we didn't need to see)
Winky Wright DQ9 Bronco McKart III: First of all, it's bad enough to make a 'Friday's' sequel without Chris Tucker, but to make two? And the results were obvious, the sequels have gone consistently downhill.
Such is the case of Wright-McKart, the first fight was a pretty decent fight, the second was a bit more lopsided, and then the third was a foul-fest that got McKart disqualified for repeated low-blows. Let's hope they never see each other again and that Ice Cube comes up with another movie concept to work with.
MANAGER OF THE YEAR
Kevin Barry: For somehow convincing the people of Fres Oquendo and Michael Moorer to take on David Tua. With two big knockout wins, Tua is all of a sudden a player again.
THE R. KELLY/ JAY Z AWARD (for worst collaboration that went nowhere)
The February 2nd HBO Doubleheader: Did HBO really think that Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins were going to actually face each other next after feasting on their respective mandatory defenses? The verbal altercation they got into via satellite is probably the closet you'll ever get to seeing them fighting on camera.
THE SHARON/ARAFAT AWARD (for no common ground)
Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones: Yes, there will be peace in the Middle East before these two ever get together for a rematch.
PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE YEAR
1. Tyson-Lewis in New York: This one got worldwide attention and eventually caused a cancellation of the original April date that was set for this fight. The best part of course was seeing Jose Sulaiman getting knocked out, so you can't say nothing good came out of this for boxing.
2. De La Hoya-Vargas: This one had everything except former Miami Hurricane Jerome Brown asking, "Did the Japanese sit down and eat dinner with Pearl Harbor before they bombed 'em?" It's refreshing to see old-fashioned hatred and animosity in an age of political correctness.
THE HOWARD DAVIS/TERRENCE ALLI/SUSAN LUCCI AWARD (for coming up short for the big prize)
Angel Manfredy: First it was a shot at Floyd Mayweather, then Stevie Johnston, next was Diego
Corrales and then finally this past March, Paul Spadafora. For Manfredy, the title proves elusive.
Will he get one more shot?
THE JAMES BROAD/VIRGIL HILL AWARD (for the most boring fight)
1. Virgil Hill W12 Joey DeGrandis (November 16th): How appropriate, huh?
2. Daniel Alicea W12 Brian Adams (April 12th): Yaaaaawn.
3. Brian Viloria W12 Javier Lagos (August 30th): ZZZZZZZ
4- Guty Espadas W12 Bones Adams (November 16th): Hit the 'snooze' button.
KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR
1. Graciano Rocchigiani to the tune of $30 million against the WBC: CHA-CHING!!!
2. Antwun Echols KO 1 Oscar Bravo (June 27th): POW!!!
3. Oscar Larios KO1 Willie Jorrin (November 1st): BANG!!!
4. Tim Witherspoon KO2 Darrol Wilson (March 10th): BOOM!!!
5. Nate Campbell KO3 Daniel Alicea (September 14th): DUCK!!!
6. James Toney KO7 Glenn Robinson (August 18th): DAAAAAAAMN!!!
Honorable Mention: Antonio Tarver KO5 Eric Harding (July 20th), Juan Valenzuela KO1 Juan Diaz (April 26th), Richard LaMontagne KO11 Michael Bennett (August 2nd), and Vivian Harris KO2 Diobyles Hurtado (October 19th).
BIZARRO ENDING OF THE YEAR
1. Bobby Boy Velardez DQ9 Diego Morales: Morales was seemingly in control until one of his cornerman accidently stepped into the ring prematurely resulting in a disqualification of Morales and inciting a near riot in his hometown Tijuana. The Corona was flying into the ring -- or at least we hope that yellow liquid was just Corona.
2. Ricky Hatton DQ2 Stephen Smith: Hatton was on his way to a knockout win until Darkie Smith, the father/trainer of Smith would step into the ring to protest what he thought were fouls being committed by Hatton.
ROUND OF THE YEAR
1. Gatti-Ward I, Round 9: An easy choice
2. Gatti-Ward II, Round 3: How did Micky survive?
3. Muriqi-Ahmad, Round 1: Any round where guys trade trips to the canvas are keepers.
NIGHTLINE AWARD (for best televised confrontation)
1. Larry Merchant and Don King (December 14th): This was better than most of HBO's fights in 2002. Thank God Merchant will be around for another four years.
2. Tony Ayala and Teddy Atlas (May 3rd): Did anyone really think Atlas would apologize to Ayala for anything?
3. Max Kellerman and Teddy Atlas (every week on ESPN2): And the beat goes on, and on, and on...
BUZZKILL AWARD
1. ESPN pulling the plug on showing Dorin-Balbi II on May 31st: C'mon, you let fighters slip all over the place on ring logos but you won't show a fight because a fighter wants to make a few extra bucks by having a temp tattoo on his back?
2. Showtime's “no-time” in August 24th: What are the odds that two bouts (Derrik Gainer-Daniel Seda and Nelson Dieppa- John Molina) would both end in early no-contests?
3. Jesse James Leija-Micky Ward (January 5th): This was taking the look of a typical Ward thriller until a cut on Leija stopped the fight prematurely.
THE MICHAEL JORDAN AWARD (It's time to go)
* Junior Jones L10 Ivan Alvarez (December 6th)
* Tim Witherspoon KO'd 5 Lou Savarese (September 22nd)
* David Izon KO'd 9 Joe Mesi (October 18th)
* Terron Millett L10 Ricardo Williams (November 2nd)
* Vinny Paz L12 Eric Lucas (March 1st)
* Oleg Maskaev KO’d 8 Corey Sanders (March 17th)
* Oba Carr L10 Kunanych Toyganbayev (May 18th)
* Jorge Julio KO’d 2 Manny Pacquiao (June 8th)
THE USLF,XFL AWARD
America Presents: Or was it 'America Pre-tends'? Yeah, they sure changed the face of boxing didn't they?
'I GOT THE HOOK-UP' AWARD (for worst pay-per-view show that should have gone straight to video)
1. Christy Martin-Mia St.John: Did anyone actually watch this? Was anyone actually there?
2. 'Fistfull of Dollars': A worse version of 'ThunderBox'
3. Larry Holmes-Butterbean: I remember as a kid when Holmes was one fight away from tying Marciano's record.
Yeah, I'm getting old.
THE ENRON AWARD
Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing: First, they get a sweetheart deal with ESPN that infuriated promoters across the land, then you got the bogus blackout in Buffalo for the Mesi bout and now the situation with Mrytle Beach.
What's next, shredding documents?
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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