By Dar Mead
I am a big fan of Manny Pacquiao, but if the BWAA gives him the “Fighter of the Year” award for 2010 over Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez, I would be disappointed.
It would show that politics and name recognition would play into the selection. I am not upset at Pacquiao but as a fan of boxing, I feel this was Martinez’s year.
I have Manny Pacquiao as my “Fighter of the Decade,” but this year wasn’t his best year, he gets all the credit in the world for staying active but the quality of opposition wasn’t at the level of Sergio’s.
Manny had victories over Joshua Clottey and a suspended Antonio Margarito who wasn’t even ranked in the top ten as a Junior Middleweight or Welterweight.
Sergio Martinez had an amazing year, he beat up the Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and won the Middleweight title, and topped off the year defending his WBC Middleweight title with a sensational one punch KO of Paul “The Punisher” Williams, a knockout that should also garner “Knockout of the Year” for 2010.
If the Boxing Writers Association of America does the right thing, they will vote Sergio Martinez as the rightful winner of “Fighter of the Year” for 2010, but if they want to go with the popularity of Manny Pacquiao they will vote him for FOTY again only so they can gain more media interest in the award ceremony and Manny will bring in publicity and exposure to the BWAA award show.
Boxing shouldn’t ride the coattails of a few famous fighters, they need to give new guys a chance who rightfully deserve recognition and develop new stars to keep the sport strong. How else do you develop new stars if you are not willing to give them recognition and rather vote the more popular guy in?
*Please refrain from leaving any Racist, Profane or Derogatory comments*
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