Fight of the year for 2018
Alvarez abandoned his more conservative approach in their previous encounter and succeeded in backing up Golovkin in the first half of their fight.
As 2018 comes to a close, two fights come to mind when you consider Fight of the Year honors.
First was Saul Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin 2. It was action-packed, intense, and nail-biting till the end.
Second was Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury.
CANELO-GGG. A fight of the year candidate is one which contains many elements of a great match-up. To me this one hits the mark the most.
First is the significance. Are they name fighters? Is it a title-fight or perhaps a career -defining battle?
At stake were the WBA and WBC middleweight crowns. Of course, there is no bigger fighter in boxing right now than Canelo Alvarez. GGG is not far behind. They are two of the biggest draws and are both on the top 5 of most pound for pound lists.
Then there is the actual fight itself. While there were no knockdowns or wild, swinging contests, this was much more action-packed than their first bout.
Alvarez abandoned his more conservative approach in their previous encounter and succeeded in backing up Golovkin in the first half of their fight.
GGG displayed his usual feral self hurting Canelo on some occasions with brutal body shots.
The verdict had a lot of drama too. One judge had it a draw but the other two saw Canelo winning by only two points.
WILDER-FURY. This was for the WBC heavyweight championship and Tyson Fury was coming off a very long layoff after being stripped of his own titles and suffering a bout of depression.
It was also an interesting contrast of styles. Both men are gigantic in stature, but the similarity ends there as Wilder is a wild brawler-puncher while Fury is a pure boxer.
Fury outboxed and outfought Wilder for most of the evening only to suffer two knockdowns, the last one of which was particularly devastating.
How he got up from that to finish the fight was both mind-boggling and inspiring.
LAST ROUND. It’s on my daughter Julia Emmanuelle, who has turned into a one fine lady as she turns 18 tomorrow. Cheers!
I’ve always spoken that there should be one champion, one face, one name. I always wanted to unify the division. I’ll be satisfied with (either Fury or Joshua), to be honest. Me and Fury put on a hell of a performance. I’d love to go back to a rematch, or I’d love to fight Joshua. I’m in a win-win situation. DEONTAY WILDER