Pacquiao named fighter of the year

For winning all his three fights this year and for consistently giving the fans their money’s worth with his explosive style of all-out warfare, Manny Pacquiao was named "Fighter of the Year" by the Boxing Times.

It was one of the many awards the Filipino has received the last few weeks with East Side Boxing, the World Boxing Media and Sports Network, to name a few, naming Pacquiao as the best pound-for-pound boxer.

"Pacquiao consistently gave people their money’s worth with his high-octane explosive style of all-out warfare. There are some guys who have more skill, better balance and are superior boxers than Pacquiao but the General Santos City sensation is the second coming of boxing immortal Henry Armstrong," according to Boxing Times in its annual review of the sport.

Pacquiao opened the year about to end by scoring an explosive 11th round TKO over Erik Morales, the man who had defeated him 10 months earlier. The Filipino boxing icon rallied over the second half of the fight and dropped Morales twice in the 10th, forcing referee Kenny Bayles to halt the rematch at the 2:33 mark before a raucous and sold out crowd in Las Vegas.

In July, Pacquiao returned home to the Philippines and the Pacman hammered out a 12 round unanimous decision over the durable but bloodied Oscar Larios, who held his own over the first half of the encounter and rocked the champion several times in the third round.

However, the Filipino southpaw turned up the heat and eventually floored Larios in the seventh and again in the final round. There was little doubt that Pacquiao had posted another victory at the final bell and that was reflected on all three judges’ scorecards.

Pacquiao then capped the year by scoring yet another victory to end his historic trilogy with Morales, a future Hall of Famer. Pacquiao’s speed, quickness and power proved insurmountable and he floored the former WBC super bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight champion in the second, and then twice more in the third, to score the knockout over Morales at the 2:57 mark.

But Boxing Times named Israel Vasquez-Jhonny Gonzalez fight in September as the Fight of the Year where Vasquez rallied from two knockdowns to score a 10th round TKO over Gonzalez. — Dante Navarro