Lennox Lewis defeated the T-101 in one of the better heavyweight fights of the decade.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

The heavyweight division, for the most part, was dominated by a few guys, but there still may be some contention as to who is the best.  Lennox Lewis ruled the early part of the decade, but only fought for a few years and appeared to be past his best for the most part.  Lewis defeated Vitali Klitschko, but there's an argument that Vitali was green at the time.  Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko have owned most of the remainder of the decade (excluding a few years when Vitali was temporarily retired), but the two brothers made a promise never to fight each other, and so it will probably always be unsettled as to which brother is really better. 

Vitali Klitschko - Vitali went 10-2 in the weight class, and spent a short time as the lineal champion after Lennox Lewis retired.  While his roster of wins isn't super impressive, he's generally fought ranked competition in the weight class and has generally beaten them convincingly.  His best wins include Cris Arreola, Samuel Peter, Corrie Sanders, Danny Williams, Kirk Johnson, Larry Donald and Timo Hoffmann.  Both losses were somewhat questionable.  One was to Lennox Lewis in the fight described below, where the fight was stopped on cuts over Vitali's objections, and the other was to Chris Byrd in a fight that Vitali was winning handily, but he injured his shoulder and quit rather than risking further injury. 

Wladimir Klitschko - Wladimir has gone 22-2 over the course of the decade, unifying three of the belts and becoming Ring champion.  Much like his brother, the names on Wladimir's resume don't necessarily look spectacular, but nearly everyone he's fought (other than immediately after losses or early in the decade) has either been a mandatory or someone who was ranked in the division's top 10 at the time.  Key victories include Chris Byrd (twice), Ruslan Chagaev, Sultan Ibragimov, Samuel Peter, Lamon Brewster, Danell Nicholson, Jameel McCline, Ray Mercer, Franz Botha, Monte Barrett and faded Hasim Rahman.  The losses came to Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster (in a fight where Wladimir gassed and won the rematch easily).  While Wlad's losses are far worse than the losses suffered by the other two here, there's also a solid argument that Wladimir was somewhat green at the time of the losses, and has improved considerably since those defeats. 

Lennox Lewis - Lewis went 6-1 in the early part of the decade, all of the fights being for the lineal championship and multiple belts.  His best win was a somewhat controversial stoppage win over Vitali Klitschko, where Vitali was ahead on the cards at the time of the stoppage, but was extremely busted up, and the tide of the fight seemed to be turning in Lennox's favor.  Other good wins include Hasim Rahman, David Tua, Michael Grant (who at the time was thought to be the next big thing), Franz Botha and a severely faded Mike Tyson.  The loss came to Rahman, which Lewis avenged shortly thereafter.

Others for possible consideration: Chris Byrd, Ruslan Chagaev, John Ruiz, Nicolai Valuev, Hasim Rahman, Samuel Peter

Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins met up twice, with Taylor coming out with the disputed decision both times.

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Now that 2009 is getting close to wrapping up, it means this decade is almost over.  Before the end of the year, I hope to get through all the weight classes, presenting to you some choices for the best fighter in a given weight class in the decade.  I'm not going in any particular order here, but we'll get through all 17 weight classes. 

When voting, please only consider the time that the fighter was in the specified weight class during this decade.  Also, I'm not going to count obvious ballot stuffing when I tally these up at the end of the year.

Middleweight has less choices than most weight classes, but that's primarily because the few available options are relatively cut and dry.  There was a true champion for the weight class through the entire decade, and that championship changed hands twice.  In addition, there was one more guy who ran up an undefeated record, but never faced any of the other big three.

Arthur Abraham - Abraham ran up a record of 19-0 at the weight, including 10 defenses of his IBF title.  His key wins include Edison Miranda, Khoren Gevor, Raul Marquez, Kingsley Ikeke and Howard Eastman.  While there had often been discussions of a unification between King Arthur and Kelly Pavlik, they never came to fruition, and he moved up to 168 before being seriously tested.

Bernard Hopkins - The Executioner was 34 years old when the decade started, yet he's managed to stay active and near the top of his game.  While the latter half of the decade was spent at light heavyweight, Bernard dominated the early part of the decade, unifying all four titles in the weight class and scoring ten title defenses.  The best wins came over Oscar de la Hoya, Felix Trinidad, William Joppy, Howard Eastmen, Carl Daniels, Keith Holmes and Antwun Echols.  Both losses came to Jermain Taylor in closely contested bouts.

Kelly Pavlik - Pavlik has gone 16-0 at the weight, including his current reign as middleweight world champion.  The Ghost's best wins are over Jermain Taylor, Edison Miranda, Marco Antonio Rubio, Jose Luis Zertuche, Fulgencio Zuniga, Bronco McKart and Grady Brewer.  This includes three defenses of his middleweight title, although all three of those fights were against less than premiere opposition.

Jermain Taylor  "Bad Intentions" went 21-1-1 in the decade at the weight.  Key wins include two victories over Bernard Hopkins (both somewhat controversial, once at a time when Hopkins was ranked the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world), Cory Spinks, Kassim Ouma, William Joppy, Raul Marquez, Alex Bunema and Grady Brewer.  The draw came against Winky Wright, at a time when he was ranked top pound for pound in the world, although that too was somewhat controversial.  The lone loss came to Kelly Pavlik.  Including his time at super middleweight, Taylor has gone through an incredible stretch where 14 of his last 15 fights (including his upcoming fight with Andre Ward) will have been against former, sitting or future titlists.

Others possibly worth mentioning: Paul WIlliams, Winky Wright, Felix Sturm, Felix Trinidad, William Joppy

Kelly Pavlik scored a fifth round technical knockout of Miguel Espino in a better than expected fight. Pavlik still looks mildly disappointed, probably because he got a fraction of the payday he would have received for facing Paul Williams.

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There were a number of title fights tonight, including those on the Top Rank pay per view card.  Check back to this thread for results of tonight's fights.

• Kelly Pavlik scored a fifth round technical knockout of Miguel Espino.  Espino came in with about as good of a game plan as he could hope for, closing the gap and forcing a fight on the inside, but he was just completely outgunned.  Still, he was able to make in an entertaining fight.  Pavlik eventually took out with a big uppercut, and referee Steve Smoger stopped it shortly after the knockdown.  Round by round coverage of the fight is in the comments.  After the fight, Bob Arum said that the same offer for a Paul Williams fight is still on the table. 
  
• Humberto Soto scored a wide unanimous decision over Jesus Chavez.  That makes Chaves 0-3 for the year.  Soto wins his first fight at lightweight, but didn't look spectacular at times.  Round by round coverage of the fight is in the comments as well.
  
• Edwin Valero scored a sixth round knockout over Hector Velasquez.  After taking a beating for six rounds, Velasquez chose not to come out for the seventh.
• In the biggest upset of the night, Johnriel Casimero knocked Cesar Canchila down five times on route to an 11th round TKO win, winning an interim light flyweight title.  Canchila was best known for beating Giovanni Segura not that long ago.  Casimero is only 19 years old and only had 13 fights under his belt, making him the second Pinoy under the age of 20 to win a title this year.  Canchila falls to 28-3, while Casimero moves to 14-0.
• Juan Carlos Reveco knocked out Ronald Barrera in the third round to win an interim light flyweight title.
• Nehomar Cermeno scored a TKO over Alejandro Valdez in a dreadfully boring and predictable bout.  Partial round by round coverage is in the comments, but frankly, the full fight wasn't worth it. 
  
• Juergen Braehmer defeated Dmitry Sukhosky in an entertaining and hard-fought bout.  Round by round coverage is in the comments.
  
• Sebastian Zbik retained his title via split decision against Emanuele Della Rosa.
• Cristobal Cruz and Ricardo Castillo fought to a third round technical draw after a headbutt opened a nasty gash on Cruz.  Had the fight been under the unified rules, it would have been a no contest.
• Vanes Martirosyan scored a third round technical knockout of hopelessly outclassed Willie Lee.
• Samuel Peter scored a fourth round TKO over the fightin' fattie Gabe Brown.  This was reportedly an entertaining fight as well.  At one point, Brown stuck his chin out there, Ricardo Mayorga style, and Peter tagged him with four hard shots, after which Brown just taunted him further.  Brown also managed to land a bolo punch on Peter.  Still, in the end, Peter was able to get him out of there.  From the descriptions, it almost sounded like Little Mac versus King Hippo.
  
• Billy Dib, Alexander Alexeev, Lukas Konecny and Zaurbek Baysangurov all won their fights.

Braehmer had a successful first defense of his light heavyweight title, but it wasn't all smooth sailing.

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In Mecklenburg, Germany, Juergen Braehmer successfully defended his WBO light heavweight title against game combatant Dmitry Sukhotsky.  Throughout the fight, the Russian challenger showed better speed and a higher workrate, while the German titlist showed better form, more power, and a bit more elusiveness. The official scores were 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112.  Bad Left Hook scored the bout 116-111, giving Sukhotsky one 10-8 round without the benefit of a knockdown.

In the early rounds, Braehmer was able to take control with relative ease, as Sukhotsky came forward behind weak arm punches, with Braehmer throwing strong hooks to the head and body, while mixing in a good number of uppercuts when the two got inside.  Halfway through the bout, it looked like Braehmer was about to steamroll Sukhotsky, but the resiliant Russian came back to win the next couple of rounds. 

Finally, the action really started to pick up around the eighth round.  With Sukhotsky knowing he was hopelessly behind, he started to stand and trade with Braehmer a bit more.  While it seemed that Braehmer had the much bigger punch, Sukhotsky was able to badly hurt and stagger Braehmer in the tenth round, and he unloaded a massive series of unanswered punches that left Braehmer nearly out on his feet and opened up a huge gash over Braehmer's right eye.  If the fight was on Sukhotsky's home soil rather than Braehmer's, you could pretty much guarantee that there would have been a stoppage in favor of Sukhotsky right there.  Instead, Braehmer was eventally able to grab a hold of Sukhotsky, and he got a much needed breather when the doctor checked on the awful cut. 

For the rest of the way, the two battled it out with some toe to toe action.  Sukhotsky knew he was down on the cards and needed the knockout, so he kept targeting Braehmer's cut.  Braehmer knew he would lose if the fight was stopped due to the cut, so he kept naining Sukhotsky with hooks to keep him from aggrevating the injury.  In the end, Braehmer was able to stay on his feet and keep the cut from stopping the fight, and walked out of the ring with the victory.

No word on what's next for Braehmer, but as he's wildly popular in Germany and is only a good but not great fighter, expect Universum to keep feeding him easy defenses for as long as they can get away with it.  As for the previously untested Sukhotsky, the fight proved that be belongs on the world stage, even if he may not have the talent to be an elite fighter.

Chad Dawson, right, is a contender for worst hair of the year, but gets beaten out by a really, ahem, special crop of fighters in that regard. via www.hbo.com

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With the end of the year fast approaching, we'll be seeing a lot of "best of" awards coming out soon.  I like knowing the best of the year as much as the next guy, but  what about the worst?  For the truly ignominious, I now present to you the first annual "Bricky" awards for the worst in boxing in 2009.

Sven Ottke Award for Worst Robbery of the Year

Winner: Sergio Martinez D12 Kermit Cintron.  How often does someone get robbed TWICE on the same night?  In the seventh round, Martinez knocked down Cintron with a big right hand.  Cintron stayed on his knee until the count of 10, and then got up immediately.  The referee waved off the fight, but Cintron started complaining that the knockdown was a headbutt.  Rather than ending the contest (which should have happened, butt or not), the referee let the fight continue.  Martinez then proceeded to get robbed on the cards in a fight where he clearly won at least 8 rounds, plus scored a knockdown.

Other nominees:

Felix Sturm UD12 Khoren Gevor.  I personally scored this fight 10 round to 2 in favor of Gevor, and I didn't think it was particularly close.  All three judges scored the fight for Sturm in a bout where Gevor seemed to land more punches than Sturm even threw.

Ali Funeka D12 Joan Guzman.  Funeka beat the tar out of Guzman in this fight.  While it's conceivable that a draw could have been a legitimate scorecard if every remotely close round was scored in favor of Guzman, the fact that two of the cards had it a draw is ludicrous.

Not quite robberies, but pretty close: Andre Dirrell vs. Carl Froch; Paulie Malignaggi vs. Juan Diaz I; DeMarcus Corley vs. Hector Sanchez

Eugenia Williams Award for Worst Scorecard of the Year

Winner: Pierre Benoist, 119-110 in favor of Paul Williams over Sergio Martinez.  This was a close, great fight, and was almost sullied by this absurd scorecard.  Up to 116-112 in either direction might have been reasonable, but with a card like this, it's hard to see how the judge could have possibly been impartial.

Other nominees:

Gale Van Hoy, Juan Diaz 118-110 over Paulie Malignaggi. After the fight, Malignaggi went nuts, ripping into Van Hoy for that absurdly horrible scorecard, and he was right.  It was conceivable that you could score the fight seven rounds to five in favor of Diaz, but anything more than that was just silly.  118-110 questions the judge's integrity.

Daniel Talon, Sturm 117-111 over Gevor.  All three scorecards were bad in my estimation, but that anyone scored it THIS wide in favor of Sturm is absolutely insane.

All of the judges of Andre Dirrell-Carl Froch.  The actual scorecard was released, and frankly, there's no way to make heads or tails of any of the cards.  It almost seems like none of the three were actually watching the same fight.

Paulie Malignaggi Award for Worst Hair of the Year

Winner: Antonio Pitalua, for his classic "mushroom cloud on top, rat tail in the back" hairstyle.

Other nominees:

Simphiwe Nongqayi - the checkerboard.  See right.

"Bad Hair" Chad Dawson - Classic early 90's fade with a star shaved into one side and his name in the other.  See above.

Paul Samuels - The "Krusty"

Juan Alberto Rosas - The double cutout mohawk

Zab Judah Award for Worst Dance Moves

Winner: Aristides Perez, against Humberto Soto.  As seen at about 5:13 this Youtube link, he actually did some kind of breakdancing thing, where he actually managed to avoid a huge shot Matrix-style while wobbling around the ring.

Other nominees:

Nicolai Valuev, versus David Haye.  The ring actually rumbled while Valuev was performing this dance (at about 1:53 of the link).

Rodolfo Armenta, versus Sharif Bogere.  Starts at about :44 of the video below.

Harry Joe Yorgey, versus Alfredo Angulo.  Yorgey was eventually viciously knocked out, but he fought about half the bout on wobbly legs, twice doing variations of the chicken dance.

Naseem Hamed Award for Most Absurd Ring Entrance

Winner #1: Sharif Bogere.  You gotta love a prospect with a flair for some entertainment value.  Each time he's fought, he's entered the ring wearing a full lion's pelt and headpiece, in a cage, carried in by four oiled up musclemen in loincloths. 

Winner #2: Cristobal Cruz, against Jorge Solis.  Starts at about 5:20 of the video below, and has to be seen to be believed.  Cruz came out surrounded by performers, including a bunch of guys decked out in full Mayan gear, acrobats dressed as jungle animals, plus the piece de resistance, a midget, decked out as a Mayan priest, announcing Cruz's arrival.

Other nominees:

Joseph Agbeko, against Yohnny Perez.  There are so many ways to misinterpret this one.  Agbeko came out with a gorilla head on, in chains, being led out by a scantily clad white woman.  Sure, his nickname is "King Kong", but it looked pretty bad.

Vitali Klitschko, against Kevin Johnson.  It's become old hat for fighters on German cards to come walking out to live bands, but this was just something else.  After a classy video montage with Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, George Foreman and his brother extolling his virtues, a REALLY bad German disco band, with a full horn section and a section of Motown-style backup singers, played this God-awful "Klitschko" song before Vitali did his official ring walk.

Panama Lewis Award for Ugliest Incident of the Year

Winner: Antonio Margarito, against Shane Mosley.  In one of the worst controversies in boxing in many years, Mosley's trainer Nazim Richardson found that Margarito and his trainer were trying to use illegal hand wraps, which were eventually found to contain "elements of plaster."  This is the worst kind of cheating in the sport, and it's left a big black mark on Margarito's career, as well as a lot of question marks surrounding prior wins over Miguel Cotto, Sebastian Lujan, Joshua Clottey, Kermit Cintron and others.

Other nominees:

Billy Dib versus Kenichi Yamaguchi.  Not only did Dib knock out Yamaguchi when he was already on the ground, but then he had the cojones to push Yamaguchi away, and then to push his cornerman away, leading to a small riot in the ring.  Video at the link.

Joey Abell versus Rafael Butler.  Abell knocked down Butler near the end of the first round.  The bell rang when Butler got up, but the referee didn't hear it and didn't stop the round.  Abell walked up to Butler as if to touch gloves, and instead cold clocked him, knocking him out after the round had ended.  As Butler's corner comes in to confront Abell, a huge melee breaks out involving Abell, the referee and both corners, as Butler remains on the ground knocked out cold. Video at the link.

Andrew Golota Award for Foul-Fest of the Year

Winner: Cristobal Cruz vs. Jorge Solis. It's hard to imagine there may have been one worse than Froch-Dirrell, but the referee completely lost control of this one.  Overall, five points were dedcuted from the fighters in a fight that involved wrestling, intentional low blows, judo throws, bum rushing, constant headbutting, elbows, knees to the groin, and just about every other foul imaginable.

Other nominees:

Andre Dirrell vs. Carl Froch. If you want to frame it that Dirrell "fought negatively" while Froch "fought positively", then fine, but fact is that both guys were fouling incessantly, and both guys were making the fight ugly.  Froch rabbit punched Dirrell no less than 15 times, not once receiving a warning.  He also would hold Dirrell's head with one hand while punching with the other.  in return, Dirrell flopped all over the place, seemingly intentionally slipping at opportune times, clinched incessantly, outright ran at certain times, and pulled Froch down a number of times.  Despite this, only one point was deducted in this controversial fight.

Miguel Cotto vs. Joshua Clottey. Both sides tried to make this fight as dirty as possible, with Clottey constantly holding and hitting and leading with his head, and Cotto rabbit punching, low-blowing and, at one point, bodyslamming Clottey in retaliation.

Andre Ward vs. Mikkel Kessler.  This makes two of the three fights in the first round of the Super six that involved a lot of fouling, although this one was pretty one-sided in favor of Ward.  Ward very intelligently fouled throughout the fight, using his head as a third fist (and opening up at least one cut on Kessler with a headbutt, as well as using his head to turn the tide with an intentional looking butt in the fourth round), while also sneaking in some low blows and holding and hitting.  While Kessler complained about the tactics, Ward just looked like the better man that night, and probably would have won handily even if he had fought completely clean.

Per ESPN, Bob Arum's Top Rank Boxing and Fox Sports are on the verge of finalizing a new free boxing show that would air on Saturday nights.  With the disappearance of Solo Boxeo, Wednesday Night Fights and Versus Fight Night over the course of the last year, getting new boxing on basic cable TV can only be a good thing, even if Arum's record with prior TV shows is a bit spotty. 

The show itself will primarily air on Fox Sports Espanol, which will have 100% coverage.  It is expected that most of the shows will also be simulcast on Fox Sports Net, although local sports broadcasting may preempt the show in the English language telecasts. Barring an early cancellation, the show should air for at least 36 dates.

And for some more good news, a number of the fights are already scheduled, including bouts featuring Joshua Clottey, Jorge Arce, Mike Jones (one of the best prospects around who has inexplicably not been on US TV yet) and Kendall Holt.  Per Dan Rafael:

The Jan. 16 premiere will take place at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas and likely will feature former welterweight titlist Joshua Clottey against Michel Rosales. That's one of the cards that will be available live on both networks, duBoef said.

• The Jan. 30 card will come from Toluca, Mexico, and feature former titleholder Jorge Arce of Mexico against Indonesia's Angky Angkota for the junior bantamweight title recently vacated by Marvin Sonsona when he failed to make weight.
• On Feb. 6, lightweight prospects Brandon Rios and Jorge Teron will meet at a site to be determined in Texas.
• The Feb. 20 show is expected to feature former junior welterweight titlist Kendall Holt, who hasn't fought since losing his belt to Tim Bradley in an April unification bout. Holt could be in a title eliminator with the right to challenge titleholder Juan Urango at stake.
• Welterweight prospect Mike Jones of Philadelphia will appear in the Feb. 27 main event at Bally's in Atlantic City, N.J., against an opponent to be named. Top Rank is working on the show with Jones promoter Russell Peltz.
• The March 6 card will come from Mexico, but the fights have not been determined.
• On March 20, heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis, a 2004 Cuban Olympian, will headline from Key West, Fla., against an opponent to be determined. It's possible he could face Ray Austin in a title eliminator with the right to face Vitali Klitschko on the line.

From the looks of the lineup so far, expect something along the lines of Arum's show on Versus.  This is at least the fourth Top Rank show that I can remember (Top Rank Boxing on ESPN, the predecessor to FNF; Solo Boxeo; and Versus Fight Night), and Arum currently has a very strong affiliation with Box Azteca, so there's a pretty long track record to look at.  We should get quite a few shows featuring established names in showcase fights and mandatories, as well as a number of shows prominently featuring prospects in step-up bouts.  Just be thankful that Tye Fields is no longer a top rank fighter.

At 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Showtime will be playing a double header featuring two prime prospects, Fernando Guerrero and Shawn Porter.

FERNANDO GUERRERO		JESSIE NICKLOW
	Main Event