Ranking the Top Contenders for 2016 Fighter of the Year
Even though there are still some outstanding fights on the schedule for December, the majority of the ballot for 2016 Fighter of the Year has already taken shape.
Some names that we have grown used to seeing on annual short lists will be absent from the discussion this year. Meanwhile, other rising stars have spent the past six months establishing world-class resumes.
The names at the top of this list will be involved in some of the biggest fights of 2017.
10. Anthony Joshua
1 of 10
In truth, I cannot view Anthony Joshua as a serious candidate for Fighter of the Year, but his name will come up in discussions. He captured the IBF heavyweight title in April, when he knocked out undefeated Charles Martin. In June, he stopped undefeated Dominic Breazeale.
Next month, he will probably knock out fringe contender Eric Molina. All told, that's an outstanding year for a fighter with less than 20 professional bouts.
But it needs to be put into context. The IBF heavyweight title is the least legitimate title in the sport right now. It should never have been stripped from Tyson Fury last spring. Charles Martin should never have been selected to contend for it.
Then Martin claimed the title via injury default, when Vyacheslav Glazkov went down with a leg injury. That made Martin the least qualified heavyweight title-holder in history. Beating him was a decent win for Joshua, but it hardly makes him a true world champion.
Joshua's fight with Molina will be interesting in that it will provide a measuring stick for him alongside WBC champion Deontay Wilder, who stopped Molina in nine rounds in 2015.
9. Jermall Charlo
2 of 10
Jermall Charlo still needs to take care of his business next month against Julian Williams when they fight in Los Angeles. But so long as he does, he will have put together a better 2016 campaign than anybody in the sport from 154-168 pounds.
Charlo turned in an outstanding performance last May, when he defeated former champion Austin Trout via unanimous decision. I have been surprised by how little credit he has received for that win.
Trout had previously defeated Miguel Cotto with ease. Charlo's win over Trout was far more convincing than Canelo Alvarez's in April 2013.
Williams is not a sure win for Charlo by any means. He is a big, powerful super welterweight with good technical skill. This could end up being a late entry for 2016 Fight of the Year.
8. Jezreel Corrales
3 of 10
Last April, Jezreel Corrales went to Japan and stunned the boxing world by knocking out long-time super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama in Round 2. Corrales entered 2016 relatively unknown in most boxing circles, but right now he is, at the least, a leading candidate for 2016's Upset of the Year.
If he can turn back Uchiyama a second time, when they rematch on December 31, he'll deserve at least a nod in any discussion of 2016's Fighter of the Year.
Uchiyama was on a lot of pound-for-pound lists before losing to Corrales. He was a long-time undefeated champion with a KO percentage of nearly 80 and dominant wins over numerous contenders.
If Corrales beats Uchiyama a second time, I hope his next stop will be a high-profile unification bout in North America.
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7. Errol Spence Jr.
4 of 10
This was the year that Errol Spence Jr. established himself as one of the elite fighters in the welterweight division. In April, he put on a clinic against former champion Chris Algieri, stopping him in Round 5. In August, he knocked out Leonard Bundu in six.
Neither Algieri nor Bundu had ever been stopped in a fight. Algieri went the distance with Manny Pacquiao and fought on fairly even terms with Amir Khan. Bundu went 12 with WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman.
These are not quite the quality of wins that could seriously put Spence into consideration for Fighter of the Year. But it was one of the better campaigns in the sport this year.
6. Manny Pacquiao
5 of 10
I can already hear the haters squawking about a mention of Manny Pacquiao in this conversation. But unless you are grading him on a special curve, the Filipino Senator had a 2016 campaign that warrants acknowledgement.
I had very little interest in seeing him fight Timothy Bradley last April, and even less in seeing him face Jessie Vargas in September. In my estimation, Pacquiao deserved to win his first fight with Bradley and won the second one with ease. I didn't expect a third fight to prove much of anything.
And I didn't see any reason to be excited about Pacquiao facing Vargas, who was cleanly defeated by Bradley in 2015.
But nobody else at welterweight last year had two wins over opponents who were solid top-10 fighters in the division. If nothing else, Pacquiao proved he is still an elite talent, even as he closes in on his 38th birthday.
5. Roman Gonzalez
6 of 10
Roman Gonzalez emerged as the consensus pound-for-pound king in 2016. He also had one of the best years of his career—and one of the best in the entire sport.
Gonzalez's KO streak came to an end in April when he faced McWilliams Arroyo. Still, he beat a rising contender in a one-sided fight.
But the big moment of the year for Chocolatito was September 10, when he moved up to super flyweight and won the WBC title from previously undefeated Carlos Cuadras. The win made Gonzalez a four-division world champion, 46-0 for his career, with 38 KOs. At this point, he has to be viewed as one of the best sub-bantamweight fighters of all time.
Cuadras fought a brilliant fight in defeat, and an argument can be made that he should have won. He was definitely carrying the action in the last rounds.
In my own opinion, Gonzalez vs. Cuadras was the best overall fight in 2016, combining a high level of action with outstanding technical displays.
A rematch has got to happen.
4. Andre Ward
7 of 10
For most of 2016, I expected that I would be picking the winner of Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev as my choice for Fighter of the Year. But the way that fight ended up going down has complicated things.
Let's be clear about one thing, though: Ward's unanimous-decision victory does not at all qualify as a "robbery." To use that term is to speak carelessly.
After watching the fight twice, though, I do have Kovalev winning 114-113, on the strength of his Round 2 knockdown. I thought he won Rounds 1-4, 6 and 10.
But I can see legitimate scores for Ward in Rounds 3 and 10. And the way he came back from that knockdown to take control in the second half of the fight against a beast like Kovalev proves he is a great fighter.
We should all be looking forward to the rematch next year.
3. Terence Crawford
8 of 10
Maybe it is reckless to have a fighter so high on my list who still has a fight left on his schedule. Terence Crawford still has to beat John Molina next month.
But if Molina somehow wins, it will qualify as the 2016 Upset of the Year, and the biggest upset of recent years. I cannot really see that fight ending any other way than with Crawford getting his hand raised, most likely inside of 12 rounds.
So long as I am correct in my prognostication, Crawford will end up 3-0 on the year, with victories over veteran contenders Hank Lundy and Molina. In between, he will have defeated Viktor Postol in a unification bout, the other best fighter in the world in his division.
Crawford was the Boxing Writers Association of America's choice for Fighter of the Year in 2014. Expect to see him on the short list on a near annual basis.
2. Vasyl Lomachenko
9 of 10
I am not sure anybody in boxing history has created the kind of excitement Vasyl Lomachenko has with such a small number of fights. After only eight professional bouts, he is a two-division world champion. The Ring already has him in its pound-for-pound top 10.
He has justified that kind of acclaim in 2016. In June, he brutalized long-time super featherweight champion Roman Martinez, knocking him out in five rounds.
This past weekend, Lomachenko faced undefeated Nicholas Walters, a former world champion at featherweight and one of the top five fighters in the world at 130 pounds. Lomachenko put on another boxing clinic, making Walters appear so outclassed that the Axe Man refused to continue following Round 7.
I will not be surprised if Lomachenko ends up with the majority of media support for Fighter of the Year. Martinez and Walters are both top-level, world-class talents, and Lomachenko defeated them with ease.
1. Carl Frampton
10 of 10
Other fighters should look at Carl Frampton's 2016 campaign as an example of the benefits that come to a fighter who is willing to take risks. He entered the year the undefeated IBF super bantamweight champion. He was a popular, rising talent.
But the two-fight streak he put together this year has elevated him to the top among the sport's international stars. In February, he defeated fellow unbeaten, and WBA 122-pound champion, Scott Quigg in a unification fight.
From there, Frampton set his sites on the best fighter in the division above super bantamweight, WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz. In July, Frampton went to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and turned in a stellar performance, handing Santa Cruz his first professional loss and lifting his belt via majority decision.
It was an outstanding, competitive bout, but I can't see how judge Guido Cavalleri had it scored even at 114-114. I thought Frank Lombardi (116-112) and Tom Schreck (117-111) were both far more accurate.
Frampton ends 2016 ranked in The Ring's pound-for-pound top 10. He already has a rematch set with Santa Cruz for January.
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