HBO's Holiday Treat: Best of Boxing 2011 Starts Monday, December 26 11:00 p.m.

According to a press release from the executive producers of HBO, they will be kicking off their annual Best of Boxing 2011 edition starting Monday December 26th, at 11:00 p.m. on HBO Sports.

It will be seven of the best HBO boxing matches from the 2011 calendar year shown across four consecutive nights.

The following is the full line up for HBO's Best of Boxing 2011. Winner's names are underlined:

The “Boxing’s Best” lineup includes:

"

            Monday, Dec. 26 at 11:00 p.m.                --               Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins II

 

            Monday, Dec. 26 at 12:00 a.m.                --               Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson

 

                  Monday, Dec. 26 at 1:00 a.m.                  --               Andre Berto vs. Victor Ortiz

                                                                     

            Tuesday, Dec. 27 at  11:00 p.m.               --              Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz

           

           Tuesday, Dec. 27 at 12:00 a.m.                --              Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III

 

           Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 12:00 a.m.            --              Alfredo Angulo vs. James Kirkland

 

     Thursday, Dec. 29 at 11:00 p.m.              --              Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito II

  All times are ET/PT. “Boxing’s Best” will be available on HBO ON DEMAND^® and HBO GO^®

 

"

My personal rankings of these top seven HBO fights are as followed:

1. My personal favorite was Angulo vs Kirkland. It was ALL action, no thinking involved at all and no need to even try to score rounds; just sit back and enjoy and be fully entertained with two warriors slugging away at each other until one can not slug away anymore. If you want to win over new casual fight fans, this will be the one to win them over with.

2. Coming in a close second for me was the Berto vs Ortiz fight. I was part of the very small minority to predict Ortiz to upset Berto, and he rightfully earned the win, giving Berto his first loss. Whenever have you heard the usual calm collected Emmanuel Steward scream at the top of his lungs, "OH MY GOD!!!!"? That's how good this fight was.

A week after this fight, I told Ortiz that I knew he was going to upset Berto, and he was very humbled and just looked at the ground when I told him that.

3. Coming in third is Khan/Peterson. Khan should get respect for taking this fight in Peterson's hometown, but depending on who you ask, they may say that was his downfall with a hometown referee who deducted two crucial points in him losing a close, evenly-matched war to Peterson.

This fight is full of back-and-forth action where many rounds were very close, as both fighters gave the crowd a very close hard fight. Get your score cards out and maybe even a calculator, and you probably will have to watch this one a few times as well to really be happy with a final verdict.

4. Fourth place goes to Cotto/Margarito II. This was the last big major fight for HBO PPV. Cotto has established himself as a true star being able to sell out the iconic Madison Square Garden, and rightfully so. He has always been an entertaining fighter who always fought the best. Margarito is that super villain who has the stamina, pressure, style and pain threshold to keep coming at his opponents despite having a James Bond villain fake eye. Cotto was able to finally obtain justice, and we will just leave it at that.

5. Fifth place goes to Pacquiao/Marquez III. I love both Pacquiao and Marquez, and it seems even if these guys fight 10 times, then there will always be similar results, meaning a close controversial outcome where both legions of fans will swear their fighter won.

Only problem is, the majority of the people this time felt Marquez did much better and deserved to win the rubber match. Even though Marquez lost, I hope he will finally get the recognition that he never got. Only way to solve this problem is to have a fourth fight.

6. Mayweather vs Ortiz had the good, the bad and the ugly. Many were hoping the younger, hungrier, heavy handed Ortiz would be able to land and hurt the superior master boxer Floyd, but he was not able to....at least legally. Mayweather displayed true genius ring generalship from the opening bell.

Sitting ringside, I could not be more impressed with how Floyd shows that he is just on a different level. The only problem is many discredit and forget that about him, especially with the unsportsmanlike yet legal sucker punch knockout in which he chose to defeat Ortiz.

7. Finally, last but not least in my book is, of course, Hopkins vs Pascal II. The fact is, Hopkins made history in this fight becoming the oldest boxing champion to win a world title, replacing George Foreman's record.

My personal problem is, Foreman won by a monster knockout, and Hopkins won by fighting a fighter who is not physically able to fight past four rounds, as even Hopkins himself pointed out prior to the fight.

Credit is due to Hopkins despite the fight and performance not being as impressive or entertaining as Foreman's record win, but again, when you are fighting a man who cannot fight past four rounds, all you need to do is be the fighter who can fight all 12 rounds and you win.

So there you have it: a quick, personal recap on HBO's Best of Boxing 2011.

KING J is the Bleacher Report Boxing Community Leader and a Featured Columnist. All information was provided directly to him via email press release from the executive producers of HBO.

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