It is not difficult to bestow this honor upon Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao. While his destruction of Os
car De La Hoya may not have been the year’s best or most significant fight, it did show that he is one bad man. It’s not that he beat the respected "Golden Boy," it’s the fact that he beat him down. Giving up four inches in height, six inches in reach, and moving up to the heaviest weight (147) of his career, I figured the smaller Pacquiao was a long shot to defeat De La Hoya. I had a good year predicting boxing matches (84% success rate), but I sure screwed that one up.
I am not screwing up my "fighter of the year" pick though. It’s the Pac Man, hands-down. Earlier in the year, he also collected the WBC junior lightweight belt against fellow "pound for pound" rival Juan Manuel Marquez (49-4, 36 KOs) as well as the WBC lightweight strap when he destroyed the rugged David Diaz (34-2-1, 17 KOs). Not that you needed any more evidence.
With all due respect to Joe Calzaghe fans, my runner-up is Vic Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs). Darchinyan’s two wins against then IBF super flyweight champion Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1, 9 KOs) and former super flyweight king Cristian Mijares (36-4-2, 15 KOs) trump Calzaghe’s wins over Bernard Hopkins (nothing to scoff at) and Roy Jones, Jr. (something to scoff at).
The 2008 Fighter Of the Year Is Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao.
Pacquiao is the fighter of the year in my opinion the best fighter pound for pound the past 3 years and proved in this fight why
The Pacman has definitely been the best fighter of the last two years and is the current pound for pound champ worldwide at this point in time. Once Pacquiao has his way with Floyd Mayweather im sure he will become the greatest fighter ever and will prove that he is unstoppable. His trainer Freddie Roach is also the best trainer in boxing by a long way and he really prepares his fighters for what they will be facing come fight night. Roach studies tapes and makes sure that his fighters capitalise on any possible mistakes or bad habits that their opponents have.
Vince, I concur with everything that you say except for the fact that Pacquiao would have his way with Mayweather. Based on the styles, I think Mayweather defeats him because he, like Marquez, who troubled Pac Man a great deal, is a natural counter-puncher, naturally bigger than Pacquiao, and has better defense. Pac is great, but probably too small and too over-aggressive to defeat a sharp-shooter like Mayweather in my humble opinion. I just hope they fight!