FIGHTER OF THE YEAR 2009: MANNY PACQUIAO

RUNNER UP: VITALI KLITSCHKO

There is one man who stood out from the rest in 2009 and this was probably the easiest of all my picks.

Manny Pacquiao took the boxing world by storm in 2009 moving throughout divisions with ease, beating the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, blowing through each man like a Philippine typhoon, becoming a record seven weight world champion in the process.

This led many of boxing ’s most knowledgeable people to claim that Manny Pacquiao may be the best fighter of the modern era, claiming that he may be the reincarnation of the great Henry Armstrong.

EUROPEAN FIGHTER OF THE YEAR 2009: VITALI KLITSCHKO

RUNNER UP: ARTHUR ABRAHAM

The nominee’s for this section were between Britain’s David Haye, Germany’s Arthur Abraham, Poland’s Thomasz Adamek and the Ukraine brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko.
You can probably see the difficulty I had in choosing a winner because each of these men has achieved a great feat this past year.

David Haye became a two weight world champion in 2009 when he entered the heavyweight division  and dethroned the former champion Nicolai Valuev for the WBA title.

Arthur Abraham continued his knockout streak most notably against the American former Middleweight King Jermain Taylor to top the Super Six contest.

Thomasz Adamek like Haye dipped his toe into the heavyweight pool and took apart his fellow countryman Andrew Golota in a one sided contest in one of the biggest bouts to be staged in Poland.

Wladimir and Vitali both had a great 2009 beating everyone put in front of them while continuing their monopoly over the rest of the division.     

Taking everything into account our winner had to be the returning Vitali Klitschko who came back to the sport in 2009 from a two year hiatus to beat four of the division’s best in Samuel Peter, Juan Carlos Gomez, Chris Arreola and Kevin Johnson. 

Dr Ironfist is the division’s premier name and stands out as Europe’s best fighter.

PROSPECT OF THE YEAR 2009: GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX / OMAR HENRY

RUNNER UP: SAUL ALVAREZ

This section was a difficult pick and left me scratching my head and pulling what’s left of my hair out, so I decided to get a little help with this one and asked around fifty boxing insiders including boxers, trainers and cut men, their take on the best prospect category and with all numbers counted and verified we eventually came to a tie.
The list comprised of the Cuban pairing of Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara, The American contingent of Omar Henry, Luis Ramos, Miguel Garcia and Mexico’s Saul Alvarez.

FIGHT OF THE YEAR 2009: PAUL WILLIAMS VS SERGIO MARTINEZ

RUNNER UP: JUAN MANUEL LOPEZ VS ROGERS MTAGWA

There was a host of great fights throughout 2009 but for us here at TopClassBoxing there were two fights that stood out from the crowd. 

These were Juan Manuel Lopez’ great contest against Rogers Mtagwa where the Puerto Rican had to walk through hell to hold onto his WBO Super Bantamweight title while the other bout was the one between two of the world’s most avoided fighters in Paul “The Punisher” Williams who had to get off the canvas to record a decision over the Argentine slickster Sergio Martinez.

This was another difficult decision to make but in the end I opted for Williams V Martinez due to the knockdowns which the Lopez v Mtagwa bout was missing.

UPSET OF THE YEAR: JUAN CARLOS SELGADO TKO1 JORGE LINARES

RUNNER UP: DANNY GREEN TKO1 ROY JONES JR

This was a bout where the dominant WBA Super Featherweight champion Jorge Linares would turn up and put on an impressive performance and go back home to Venezuela victorious without much of a problem, well that was the plan which come fight night went straight out of the window as the Mexican Juan Carlos Selagdo shocked the boxing world with a brilliant first round stoppage victory.

This was a no brainer for us here at TopClassBoxing, at the time I too had Linares to take this one.

KO OF THE YEAR 2009: MANNY PACQUIAO KO2 RICKY HATTON

RUNNER UP: ARTHUR ABRAHAM VS JERMAIN TAYLOR

Going into this contest many boxing experts predicted that Ricky Hatton’s aggression would be enough to put an L on the Philippines record but on fight night Pacquiao stunned viewers with an amazing assortment of power punches which left Hatton a crumpled wreck on the canvas in just the second round. Pacquiao timed the shot brilliantly and left Hatton to fall like a tree in a forest.

TRAINER OF THE YEAR 2009: FREDDY ROACH

RUNNER UP: NAZIM RICHARDSON

Everything Freddie has touched in the last few years has turned to gold. In 2009 he has masterminded a plan which has made Manny Pacquiao the dominant force he is today plus leading Britain’s Amir Khan to a WBA title.

Roach is a genius outside the ring and is a certain future addition to Boxing’s prestigious Hall of Fame. Throughout this past decade Freddy has become so in demand that every fighter worth mentioning has tried to employ his services not only throughout boxing but also reaching out to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts training fighters such as Andrei Arlovski, Anderson Silva and recently Tito Ortiz.

There could only be one man for this section and we bow down to Freddies genius.