The Xmas/New Year BLH Forum Awards 2010

Ok, ok, it's a little late. This year it'll have to be the Xmas/New Year awards, since I can't actually get into the DeLorean and go back a few days (plus Goaty and Raquel Welch made one hell of a mess in there. I did say Not On The Seats, Goaty....)

So here they are anyway, a bit of fun at a time of the year when we here are freezing cold and the Aussies are hot, but we get to glean at least some warm from the fact we are currently destroying them at cricket.

Anyhow, with no further ado, I present to you:

2009 awards here:

The BLH Forum "Audley Harrison" Funniest Poster Award;

(Formerly the ‘Jorge Barrios’, 2009 Winner: battleaxeofdoom)

As with last year, this was a really tough subject to decide on. In fact, what with Barrios being a whole lot less funny this year, and Scott’s express sentiment that at Barrios represented a very black humour at best given his exploits over the past year, giving the award a new name was almost more difficult than picking a winner! Audley got the nod for some of the hilarity which lead up to the fight with David Haye, even if he did turn out to be a bigger joke when the bell actually rang than he could have hoped to make beforehand.

Part of the reason this was hard to pick was simply the massive amount of people to choose from. Scott and Brick are both really funny in a dry way, jrok has this thing I can’t either quantify or properly comprehend that just makes me giggle like a helium-filled hyena at times. Other honourable mentions go to sonofapsycho, who is so cutting sometimes that it reminds me of what might happen if Eric Cartman ever grew up (in the best possible way!), and El Destruyo, who has been a fantastic addition to the site and has given us all (I would imagine) many laughs over the past months.

However, after a period of much-reduced posting, our winner has come back and brought back some of the wit and fun that makes this site a laugh-a-minute place to be, at times.

2010 Winner: The Kittias Kid

The BLH Forum "Steve Cunningham" Nice Guy Award;

(Formerly the ‘Peacekeeper’, 2009 Winner: BrianBrock)

Steve Cunningham: nice guy. This has been pointed out lots in recent times. This is why he keeps his name on this award.

BrianBrock: nice guy. This has not received half as much fanfare. Part of this is due to the fact that Brian is not a professional fighter, and also that he quite simply has not been here to defend his belt.

 So he has been stripped of his title (we’ll find a reason, like the WBC, or maybe just name him champion-in-recess and still charge him fees, like the WBA), and we crown a new champion of the Nice-Guy weight class. Honorable mentions must go to Brickhaus, who is definitely in my ‘Must Have A Beer With Top 5’, and Matt Miller, who sadly misses out due to inactivity.

This year’s winner is a newcomer who rarely provokes controversy, and despite being a Scouser is actually a nice bloke. It’s a pleasure to engage in any thread of which he is a part, and two-way conversation with him rarely, if ever, leaves one feeling like ejecting one’s computer from one’s window.

2010 Winner: Phill

The BLH Forum "James DeGale" Newcomer Award;

(Formerly the ‘Beibut Shumenov’, 2009 Winner: Drunken Cutman)

Purely for comedy value, I was mulling over re-naming this award the ‘Garth Wood’, but then, it has never been made clear just how much JC40 and Goatsnake like Anthony Mundine, so to prevent the possibility of WWIII, which it has been prophesied will be fought with cans of Fosters and laser-guided surfboards, it seemed like a less risky option to just go for DeGale.

Unlike DeGale, however, none of the posters shortlisted for this award are arrogant, smug or particularly harmful to one’s eardrums. They do however possess a fair degree of talent, and have all made fantastic contributions in their respective first years as participants on Bad Left Hook.

Pakinpower’s late charge fell just short, Apprentice has engaged in some great conversation, El Destruyo just misses out due to the high calibre of the competition, and while Phill has already won an award, he’d have needed some serious home-cooking to steal a judge’s decision away from this year’s winner, who can do humour, intellect, historical knowledge, humanity and wisdom, all with ease and all in spades.

2010 Winner: BoxAnne

The BLH Forum "Bernard Hopkins" Encyclopaedic Knowledge Award;

(2009 Winner: Brickhaus)

I see no reason at all to change the name of this award for this year’s list: if there be any doubters, make haste to the house of Jean Pascal, where ye shall be enlightened. One day, Hopkins will grow old, and then maybe this award will change its name. Maybe.

One of the major reasons for this site’s overwhelming popularity among its users is the arbitrary dispensation of knowledge. Posters of all ages and backgrounds come together, and it is fun to look back on all the threads and see references to things that happened before my father was a twinkle in his father’s eye, to see diverse and obscure details discussed in a way that simply can not and does not happen on other sites. Brickhaus’ posts regarding fights I had no idea were happening, bringing up names of fighters I would have no idea regarding the existence of, baffles me every time. How can one man know this much about so many guys from this many areas and divisions and still find time to sleep?

Other honorable mentions go deservedly to JC40, who showed that if we had turned the quiz threads competitive then he would have been a ‘bludger’ to beat (his word, not mine, and I’m still not entirely sure what he meant by it!), Goatsnake, who provided a large share of the questions, and made me want to tear out my hair (if I had any) with some of the really obscure ones, and lcollins1, who is the only poster I’ve ever seen argue jrok down on anything, ever.

However I’m sure it’s safe to assume that not many people will want to take on this year’s winner in a trivia contest (and if they do I’ll host it, I’ve actually got a format in mind!), and there won’t be any debate as to the fact that he is a worthy winner of this award.

2010 Winner: Kid Blast

The BLH Forum "Roy Jones Jr" Flashy Poster Award; (2009 Winner: jrok)

This year has been fun. There have been some crazy debates, academic debates, circular debates, crazy debates.... (See what I did there?)

The influx of new posters has led to an increased amount of widespread perspectives on the sport as a whole, fighters in particular, and Bob Arum specifically. Debating is part and parcel of this culture, and some guys have it, and some just.... don’t. I shortlisted the guys who do this well, who make reading debates fun, who can cut an argument dead in approximately 7.3752727 words. The Kittias Kid, sonofapsycho, battleaxeofdoom and lcollins1 are fantastic at it. Seriously unreal.  

But... sometimes guys just retain. Sturm did it for years, Chris John did it, some people just take a belt hostage and hide it away for ages. Then on the other hand, you have guys willing to take on the world, anywhere in the world, like, say, Mike Tyson. Unlike Mike, however, last year’s winner of this award did not get sparked out by a supposedly unworthy challenger. I described last year what I was looking for with regard to this award, and despite the fact that last year’s winner went on an unauthorized hiatus for the first part of this year, he still wins this award hands-down.

2010 Winner: jrok

The BLH Forum "Barrera/Morales" Best Two-way Debate/FOTY Award;

(Formerly the ‘Eubank/Benn’, 2009 winner jrok vs Brickhaus)

Maybe not the best thing to celebrate on a civilized website, but hell, its a boxing site and we all like seeing a good fight. I’m changing the focus of this award slightly this year, and rather than going for a rivalry, I’m going to give this award to the Fight-of-the-Year style exchange. It made me laugh, it made me shout at the screen. But it was all kinds of awesome, and the images it conjured up were nothing short of epic. The winner is at the link below.

I’d throw in a few honorable mentions, as is the custom, but these are all debates that are memorable to me, and therefore I won’t expect that you’ll all remember them the same way. I do have most of the great exchanges that I’ve read on here book-marked, so could provide a few links if requested.

2010 Winner: jrok vs lcollins1- the debate surrounding “jrok’s rules of chivalry”.

The BLH Forum "Fres Oquendo" Fighter Favouritism Award;

(Formerly the ‘Sven Ottke’, 2009 winner: jdoro63, a.k.a The Golota Guy)

Yes, that is an ironic award title, and yes, that is actually Fres Oquendo’s name in bold. However, there will be little ironic about this subject, because to all concerned it’s a very serious matter. I suppose I should just get the HM’sout of the way, and get on to throwing this award the way of the titanic fandom personified by this year’s winner, but I want to have a little fun first....

Here’s a list. See if you can name the guy they have a man-crush on bad enough to make this award shortlist:

·         Craigman

·         Goatsnake

·         Option27

·         pakinpower

·         JC40

·         battleaxeofdoom

·         rgb

·         Haans Bishop

·         BrianBrock

I was tempted to throw in Scott’s love of Jones (Y'ALL MUSTA FORGOT him picking Jones over Hopkins) and Kid Blast’s obvious love of Kelly Pavlik, which he hides via reverse psychology and misdirection (I keed, I keed), but I think this guessing game works fine for this award. Please copy the list and insert your answers in the replies.

Now to our winner. Well, what can we say, that isn’t already expressed by his sig? I’ll stop there, since this is genuinely meant to be a light-hearted bit of banter, and I feel that any further elaboration might not be taken as such. So, well done to our winner on his award!  

2010 Winner: Ryan Tical

The BLH Forum "Lucian Bute" We Want To See More From You Next Year Award;

(Formerly the ‘David Haye’, 2009 Winner: tichbou)

Well, didn’t this award work out well? Last year’s winner became a bit more active for a little while, then became a once a month poster. Damn you, Yuri Foreman’s knee, for bringing this period of inactivity upon us! In all fairness, the only reason someone wins this award is because we want to hear what they have to say, but they don’t say it enough!

There are many people whose voices (maybe a stretched metaphor in this case) we want to hear more often, and those who have departed to the barren lands are missed. But the potential is there for improved performance, and this is to be encouraged. Drunken Cutman is one such poster, winning as he did the Newcomer of the Year award in 2009, but becoming more sporadic and distant in 2010. His body of work was much appreciated in 2009, and we can only hope he ups his level of input in the New Year.

Others that are not nearly as active on the site as we would (I’m sure) all prefer: Zocalo, Matt Miller (who broke a vow he made in this thread last year to be more active both in posting and by way of published features...), and the unfortunately vanished misterjonez, whose opinions were perceptive and fun.

But this year’s winner, despite coming from a veritable hot-house of formerly great posters, is my choice for this year’s ‘Bute’ award. The quality is there, the quantity is never enough. You need to up your game, sir!!

2010 Winner: taco pal

The BLH Forum "Marvelous Marvin Hagler" Best ‘Sig’ Award;

(2009 Winner: BrianBrock’s Bernard Hopkins quote)

There isn’t really much to say on this, apart from: last year’s winner was a really hard act to follow, and I have been noting down some decent candidates for this year’s award throughout the year. So I’ll list these here, and just stick a winner at the bottom. This might be something we vote on in future years, since it’s such a subjective thing.

Thebitb: "After this, I'm gonna kick Bob Arum's ass." (George Lopez)

JC40: "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." (Hunter S Thompson)

angelofdeath: "Marriage is the leading cause of divorce"

Goatsnake: "Anytime you go thirty rounds with a guy, try to kill each other, and have the utmost respect for each other, no one understands that, but guys who have been to war understand it." (Micky Ward on Arturo Gatti)

2010 Winner: Blood Meridian: "Mug an old lady, and if you have the right connections the WBO will rank you seventh." (Steve Farhood)

The BLH Forum 'Sergio Martinez' Poster of the Year Award;

(Formerly the 'Manny Pacquaio', 2009 Winner: Scott Christ)

And for the grand finale: a little change. I've selected a fine few posters, and we'll have to elect out own 'Maravilla' based on the outcome of the vote. No site staff are included (it was the only way I could stop that pesky Scott from strolling away with it again), but I've included the guys I think are most worthy from the rest.

Sorry if I missed anyone or anything (it's almost impossible that I didn't, to be honest), and Happy Xmas and New Year to all.