As we get closer to the end of 2009, I figure it's time to start taking a look at the various awards we'll be figuring out for Bad Left Hook this year, the first time we're going to do a full-scale awards "thing," and I want some input from everyone. We'll start with Fight of the Year, which is nowhere near close to done. There are a lot of strong contenders and there are a lot of great matchups yet to come in the final two months of the year, too.

I'm going to put up a short list right now, and you can nominate fights you think you should be considered -- even if you don't personally think they are better than any fight on this list -- in the comments for the post. I'm also going to figure out a voting process that isn't just site polls, because we all know those get skewed, and that just is what it is. It might require some extra effort to vote for the awards, but that's life.

Early Nominations: 2009 Bad Left Hook Fight of the Year

• February 28: Juan Manuel Marquez v. Juan Diaz
• March 21: Ricardo Cordoba v. Bernard Dunne
• April 4: Vicente Escobedo v. Carlos Hernandez
  
• April 18: Ulises Solis v. Brian Viloria
• April 25: Carl Froch v. Jermain Taylor
• June 27: Victor Ortiz v. Marcos Maidana
• September 4: Jose Lopez v. Marvin Sonsona
• October 10: Juan Manuel Lopez v. Rogers Mtagwa
• October 23: Jamie Moore v. Ryan Rhodes
• October 31: Joseph Agbeko v. Yonnhy Perez

For those of you who haven't seen Solis-Viloria or Lopez-Sonsona, do try to find some time and give those a look. Froch-Taylor won our April Fight of the Month poll, but I strongly believe Solis-Viloria was the superior fight, it just wasn't seen by as many people. Cordoba-Dunne is pretty terrific as well, if you missed that one.

Israel Vazquez won his comeback on Saturday, but fight fans are now wondering if he really has anything left. (Photo via www.goldenboypromotions.com)

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I remember March 3, 2007 like it was yesterday. 11 days before I turned 25, with Bad Left Hook in its infancy then, I was more excited to see Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez fight than I could really ever remember being to watch a fight. The fight had been hyped fairly well among hardcore boxing fans, but I was on another level of anticipation. Vazquez had already become my favorite fighter, largely on the strength of his stirring comeback win over Jhonny Gonzalez. He was good and exciting before then, but that one just struck me as downright heroic.

Marquez was a fellow warrior, a great bantamweight champion who had been drilling the opposition. On paper, it seemed to me that there was no better potential matchup in boxing than Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez.

I turned out to be right. I envisioned a great trilogy as soon as the first fight ended. We got one, three of the damnedest, most brutal fights you will ever see, and ace-level boxing, too. This wasn't Gatti-Ward.

Their third fight came in March 2008. It was the best of the trilogy, an unbelievable war of attrition that saw Vazquez win the fight in the waning seconds, knocking Marquez down and sealing victory. They deserved every ounce of praise they got and then some, and they still do.

But here we are in October 2009. Marquez didn't fight again until May of this year. Vazquez underwent three surgeries to fix a detached retina, and made his return this past weekend. He struggled badly with a fighter from lower weight classes who had lost six in a row coming in, until finally stopping Angel Antonio Priolo in the ninth round.

Ring rust is one thing, as is age. At 31 and with years of wars under his belt, Vazquez is much older than that, quite similar to fellow Mexican warrior Erik Morales, whose career hit the brick wall before his 30th birthday. It is no knock on either man to say that Morales was probably cooked at 29, and that Vazquez, 31, looks to be the same. Some fighters are Floyd Mayweather and never get hit. Some are Bernard Hopkins and can fight at the top level at 45 (well, OK, there's pretty much just the one Hopkins). Some are even Roy Jones, and hang on past their prime, but do so without seeming to be in any real danger.

Others are warriors like Vazquez, Morales and countless others, whose bodies just plain can't do it anymore.

I don't want to doubt Israel Vazquez, but nobody's had a genuinely good report of this comeback fight, so it's not just me, or just one other person. This is also hardly the first article of this tone you've probably come across in the last few days. They're everywhere. They're everywhere because Vazquez has connected with boxing fans in a way most fighters never do. As corny as it sounds, we care deeply about Israel Vazquez, because he has cared so deeply about putting his body through hell in an effort to entertain us. That doesn't make him a better person than anyone, but it does endear him to us. He's one of "our" fighters.

Rafael Marquez looked rested and sharp in May. I don't want to see Vazquez-Marquez IV. I don't think it ends well for Vazquez at all, don't think he really has much of a shot to win that fight, and though it pains me to say this, too, I don't think he'll ever be a top fighter again. He certainly didn't look like a top 10 featherweight on Saturday.

All fighters eventually get old. Some of the greatest, and most memorable, do so when they're still young. I'll be telling stories about Israel Vazquez when I'm 80 years old, but I think I just might be ready to stop learning new ones.

If Kimbo Slice can be put down by Seth Petruzelli, what chance does he have against one of the Klitschko brothers? (Photo via mmafrenzy.com)

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I have nothing against Kimbo Slice. Honestly, I'm a Kimbo fan. I root for the guy to do well in MMA because he's a funny dude, a charismatic, TV-ready star, and he's really genuine.

But after he got stopped in two rounds by Roy Nelson on The Ultimate Fighter last night, his chances of having a legitimate future as any sort of viable fighter are slim. Not that Nelson isn't a good fighter; he is. The "chance" Kimbo had to beat him was only a UFC marketing creation. Kimbo never really had a shot. Let's not forget that this is the guy that was decked by a jab from Seth Petruzelli, a largely unheralded 205-pound fighter.

But Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable believes Kimbo is just what boxing's heavyweight division needs. Needless to say, I absolutely, 100% disagree and think this is really kind of dumb, but here's what he had to say:

Now let’s talk about the heavyweight division in boxing. It’s a disaster. ... Basically, the heavyweight division stinks because there are two brothers who in essence share the heavyweight championship, and they have vowed never to fight each other. The problem is that there is no one – and I mean no one – within sight of the Klitschkos from a talent perspective. Every couple months, one of them goes out – usually in a packed arena in Germany – and disposed of some falsely built-up contender with a very methodical approach that rarely fails – and worse yet – only moderately entertains.

...

Now I am not saying throw Slice in there against a Klitschko tomorrow, I’m talking about some fights to get his feet wet and build some interest. The tune-in would be great from the outset to see if one of the best-known brawlers is better suited for the ring than the octagon. Plus his personality could absolutely carry an installment of HBO’s award-winning 24/7 reality series leading up to a fight.

But no matter who he fought, Slice would do something to heavyweight boxing that no one has been able to do in too long – get people to remotely care.

It's a wonderful thought, isn't it? This thought that Kimbo Slice could do anything in heavyweight boxing. Let's be very honest: Slice is too old and too green to become a top professional athlete in any sport. His "sledgehammer hands" have proven out against guys in parking lots and backyards, and against an ancient, indifferent Tank Abbott, but I didn't see him knocking James Thompson around the ring, plus he looked ridiculous against Petruzelli and struggled to do anything with Roy Nelson.

The fact that people don't care about the heavyweights in boxing is only a mild issue. It's not the biggest deal in the world. It really isn't. I know it used to be the glory division and people still pine for those days, but the tough luck and truth is that those days are over, and nobody is going to single-handedly "save" the division, either.

Slice "getting his feet wet and building interest" in boxing would probably go about how well his sanctioned MMA career has gone. Eventually, some journeyman would knock him out. It would happen. It's not that it might happen, it's that it would happen. If Kimbo Slice had gone into boxing twenty years ago, he might have really been quite good. He's got the dedication and the natural athletic ability to have done very well, but he's going to be 36 in February.

And a "24/7" for a Kimbo Slice tune-up fight? Not a chance.

How many boxing matches have the Klitschkos had in their lives? They were both acclaimed amateur fighters, with Wladimir winning the gold in the 1996 Olympics at super heavyweight, and they've had tons of pro fights, too. They're both currently as close to untouchable as it really gets. Slice having a few tune-up fights at 36 years old isn't going to prepare him for a dedicated, eat-sleep-and-breathe boxer like either of the Klitschkos, not to mention the fact that both of them jab a little bit harder than Seth Petruzelli.

Bloody Elbow's Michael Rome had this to say about the Nelson-Slice fight:

From the beginning, Kimbo looked bad.  He was extremely slow, moved gingerly, and left his chin wide open.  He put his whole body into every jab, and frankly fought scared. ... There have been rumors for days about putting Kimbo against a standup fighter in December to give him a chance to get a knockout.  Maybe it will work.  But Kimbo will never be a competitive UFC fighter; he's too old to catch up in the wrestling and jiu-jitsu departments. I hate writing this, because Kimbo is so easy to like.  I want him to be good.  If he was a great fighter, he could be such a massive crossover star.  But we're yet to find that star that is both a great fighter and a media icon.

If Kimbo is looking slow against Roy Nelson, how's he going to look against even a decent heavyweight boxer? Furthermore, outside of Petruzelli dropping him, we really know nothing about his chin.

I hope Kimbo finds a way to stay in MMA and do well and make some money. But any idea that he's got a better chance in boxing is ridiculous. If anything, he'd probably be worse off.

Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao will square off on November 14. It's just one of many compelling fights closing out the 2009 boxing year. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

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With one million people having bought last Saturday night's Mayweather-Marquez fight, the hope now is that a few more eyes might be on the boxing world right now. Frankly speaking, other recent superfights (Hatton-Pacquiao, de la Hoya-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Hatton, de la Hoya-Mayweather) haven't helped feed the idea that too many fans stick around past the casual event. The machine that is the UFC has done a phenomenal job not just bringing fans in, but keeping them interested.

Boxing, while far from the struggling sport it's made out to be often (it's a niche sport), hasn't been able to do that on a large scale. But there's an incredible slate of fights to close out 2009, and don't be fooled into thinking you should only pay attention to the big event fights. There's a lot more out there than just your Mayweathers and Pacquiaos.

September 26: Vitali Klitschko v. Chris Arreola, Heavyweights, HBO

Tomorrow night, Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO) and Arreola (27-0, 24 KO) will battle it out for some form of heavyweight supremacy. Yes, yes, it's hard to keep track of the titles. Vitali's brother, Wladimir, is currently the world heavyweight champion, but with Wlad on the shelf, Vitali is the best out there (and some will argue it's that way even when Wlad is healthy). Arreola is a gutsy, wild-swinging brawler that hopes he has the punch and chin to stand up to the powerful, technically-sound, but 38-year old and creaky Klitschko. It might not last long, and it might not be pretty, but chances are, someone's getting knocked out.

October 17: Arthur Abraham v. Jermain Taylor and Carl Froch v. Andre Dirrell, Super Middleweights, Showtime

The Super Six World Boxing Classic is shaping up to be a breakthrough way of promoting fights, and it's an idea anyone can get behind. Showtime, other major TV networks across the world, and several promoters all pitched in to get six of the best 168-pounders in the world together for a tournament, starting with a round-robin phase, then taking the top four and putting them into a single elimination format. These two fights will be the tournament's first.

Abraham (30-0, 24 KO) will meet what promises to be his toughest test yet from former undisputed middleweight champion Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KO). Taylor's had a rough go of it in recent times, but every one of his three losses have come in good fights, one of them (his first loss to Kelly Pavlik in 2007) a classic. He's as hungry as ever, partially because he knows he needs a good showing. Froch (25-0, 20 KO) keeps defying the skeptics who say he's too slow, having beaten two faster men (Taylor and Jean Pascal) in his last two outings, both in fantastic fights. Young American Dirrell (18-0, 13 KO) is untested but highly skilled.

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via www.hbo.com

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"To be the best, you've got to beat the best in that era. It's not really about weight classes. … Shane Mosley is a good fighter, but I don't have to duck and dodge nobody." -- Floyd Mayweather Jr. (USA Today)

"I think Floyd's a little intimidated and afraid of me and he doesn't really want to fight me. He wants to jump around and fight these little guys.." -- Shane Mosley (FightHype)

Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Shane Mosley. Two of an era's best pound-for-pound fighters. For years, Mosley was the bigger star. Today, it's Mayweather, and the competition is no longer close.

The last time the fight was discussed was 2006. Mosley was in the middle of his two-fight rivalry with Fernando Vargas at the time, fighting at 154 pounds to make the most money. Mayweather had moved up to 147, beating Sharmba Mitchell and Zab Judah. The win over Judah was to be for Judah's Ring Magazine welterweight championship. Carlos Baldomir, though, upset Judah three months prior, taking some of the shine off of Mayweather's win before the two could even get in the ring.

While preparing for his July 2006 rematch with Vargas, Mosley heard all the talk about Mayweather needing an opponent for November of that year. He snuffed it out, saying, "They can stop thinking about that because it won't happen." Mosley had a reason: He wanted to get back down to 147 pounds the right way, instead of rushing it at all. After all, Shane was already getting on in years. Going up, coming down; it all gets harder over the years.

He also had some advice for Mayweather on what he should do for his November '06 fight: "Go fight Margarito -- then we can fight the winner."

Mayweather didn't, instead choosing to fight Baldomir for more money and the legit world championship at welterweight. Mosley kept his word, not fighting again until 2007, and moving back to welterweight. He fought and defeated Luis Collazo in February of 2007, then took a shot at then-unbeaten Miguel Cotto, losing a great fight in November.

2007 was the breakout year for Mayweather, as he matched up with Oscar de la Hoya at junior middleweight, defending his claim as pound-for-pound king by beating a clearly bigger, stronger man at a weight that was obviously too high for him. He and Oscar set an all-time pay-per-view record with that fight, and the introduction of HBO's "24/7" program made Mayweather a star outside of boxing for the first time in his career. He parlayed that into a big-money December showdown against Ricky Hatton, another win on the biggest of stages.

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Michael Katsidis (right) outworked Vicente Escobedo to earn a shot at Juan Manuel Marquez. The fight is a potential war. (Photo via images.ringtv.com(

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Michael Katsidis was cleared of what many thought was a broken jaw in his win over Vicente Escobedo on Saturday night, according to his trainer and manager Brendon Smith. Smith told The Daily Telegraph that they had him checked out, and that there was no fracture.

Smith also said that they're looking forward to negotiating a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, which Katsidis earned by winning the WBO interim lightweight title in the Escobedo fight. Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO) was just manhandled by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and there would seem to be a good chance he'll simply go back to lightweight and defend not just his alphabet titles, but his RING Magazine world championship as well.

I think the fight is very, very interesting. The two have two common opponents in Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor.

Marquez knocked out Diaz in the leading candidate for 2009 Fight of the Year. Diaz beat Katsidis via decision last year, but the styles could make the fights. Marquez, a strong and pinpoint counter-puncher, was able to wear down Diaz, who dominated the action in the early going. He no more dented Katsidis than he did Marquez, but Katsidis doesn't have Marquez's overall skills and wasn't able to fire back as well as Marquez did against Diaz. In the end, Diaz outhustled and outworked Katsidis, and was simply outclassed by Marquez, taking vicious shots.

It's also worth taking into account that Katsidis simply had a horrible gameplan against Diaz, not fighting like himself at all. He didn't work the relentless, aggressive style that put him on the world stage in the first place, and nearly saw him stop Casamayor. Marquez became the first man to ever knock out Casamayor in 2008. Against Diaz, Katsidis tried to box, and it failed.

But Marquez-Katsidis? That presents something interesting. Many agree that had Diaz been a bigger puncher, Marquez would have been on dream street at some point in their fight. Katsidis is a harder puncher than Diaz, and he went back to his own style in the Escobedo fight. It served him very well. He got inside on the longer, taller Escobedo almost at will, and stood up to some good shots, as he always does. It was his pressure that led him to the win.

Would Marquez, who is 36 years old now, be able to handle that sort of pressure? Katsidis, slower than Diaz, would likely be wide open for counter shots, but he is such a constant attacker that the opportunities won't present themselves as clearly as they could. Plus, well, Juan Manuel's getting up there in years, and the Mayweather fight was a pretty righteous beating. He's never been stopped, but lots of guys had never been stopped when they just ran out of gas late in their careers. Casamayor against Marquez, obviously, springs to mind right now. I can't really see Katsidis winning a 12-round decision, but I could see him shaking Marquez and then having the power to go in for the kill, which Diaz just did not have.

I actually really hope this fight comes off. Katsidis earned his shot with a win over a good fighter, and he's almost always in good fights, same with Marquez. A win over the younger, stronger Katsidis would clearly affirm that Marquez is still among the best in the sport (and I believe he still is), and a win for Katsidis would establish him as a genuine player.

ESPN's Teddy Atlas says it's gotta be Manny Pacquiao next for Floyd:

But how about you? Here's what we know.

Manny Pacquiao: He has to get by a stiff challenge from Miguel Cotto on November 14, and THEN they'd have to agree on a revenue split (Mayweather taking 50-50 seems unlikely to many, including myself, and Manny taking anything less than that is probably just as unlikely). We also know this: If Pacquiao beats Cotto, particularly if it's a no-doubt sort of win, this is the fight in boxing. Period. There's also the ongoing bad feelings between Floyd and Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, but if the money could be sorted out, I don't think there's a real question that Floyd and Bob could do business again.

Shane Mosley: Mosley wants it. Bad. Thing is, Mayweather-Mosley almost happened a few years ago, and it was Shane that was blamed for it not going through. This fight has been a "dream match" sort of thing for a long, long time, and while now it might not be what it once might have been, I think it's still an outstanding fight. This is another fight with a potential split problem. Mosley is very proud and doesn't want to hear the numbers about him not being much of a draw, which I again say is a shame given how great a career he's had and how good of a fighter he still is. But would Shane take something like 65-35 Mayweather? Something close to that (60-40 at the very lowest) is what Floyd would want.

Miguel Cotto: If Cotto beats Pacquiao, then this might be the fight. An impressive Cotto win over Pacquiao almost surely trumps what Mayweather did against Marquez, even given how dominant Floyd was. Cotto's Puerto Rican fanbase also promises more overall money than Mosley does, probably, plus Miguel's profile would get a huge boost with a win over Manny.

And to be perfectly honest with no disrespect to anyone else, these are the only three acceptable opponents. If I were to make a guess, I think it'll be Shane, maybe in February or March, or later than that if Floyd waits to see how Cotto-Pacquiao plays out. If Shane can land a Floyd fight and payday, waiting around to fight might not bother him too much, the way it is now that his December 26 HBO card is not happening.

Given that a pick for Pacquiao or Cotto would depend on them winning in November, I assume, I'll just make the poll read "Cotto-Pacquiao Winner" instead of an option for one of the two of them.

Will these men be all smiles when the PPV numbers come back?

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Back in May, we did this for Hatton-Pacquiao. My own guess was 850K, right around the actual reported number of about 825-850K, which Bob Arum did his best to hide because it didn't cover all that insane gibberish about the fight breaking all the records in a depressed economy. Arum was seriously a bit mad with that talk.

A lot of people seem to totally misunderstand PPV numbers. 400,000 for Pacquiao-Marquez II is something I see made fun of a lot, with those dumbos not realizing that that was an all-time record for headlining fighters that size or smaller. UFC does great PPV numbers nowadays, and it's because they are -- without question -- a more popular brand of combat sports in America. You cannot dispute this, but it doesn't make lesser numbers "failures," either.

So how about Mayweather-Marquez? First off, a refresher for some recent PPV estimates, going back to 2007:

Casamayor-Marquez was a Golden Boy-produced, HBO-distributed PPV, meaning it didn't get the sort of hype that most of these fights did (Diaz-Pacquiao is in the same boat as a Top Rank PPV).

The key factors tomorrow night:

• UFC 103 is going head-to-head. This can't be understated. The last time boxing and MMA went head-to-head was November 2006, when Pacquiao-Morales III went up against a UFC card. Pacquiao-Morales "lost" that "battle," and UFC really wasn't as hot then as it is now. It's worth noting that a lot of people didn't feel Pacquiao-Morales was a PPV-worthy fight at that point. Morales wasn't exactly at his peak.
• Floyd Mayweather Jr., whether his star is as big as he thinks or not (it's probably not), is the biggest star fighting tomorrow, hands down. Mayweather is a bigger domestic star than everyone on that UFC show combined. That's not a shot at anyone, it's just that the UFC show is loaded with good fights and headlined by Rich Franklin-Vitor Belfort. It's a show diehard MMA fans are likely to really enjoy. In a way, it kind of reminds me of Golden Boy's Lightweight Lightning PPV from April. No big stars, but lots of fights that promise to be interesting and exciting, and when it's all said and done, most people are likely to go, "Yeah, that was money well spent." But in terms of the big fight, Mayweather-Marquez is THE big fight tomorrow. Whether that can muscle past the UFC marketing machine and a good card is another story.
• There are other ways to see this show, including movie theaters.

As for me, I think a lot of folks in boxing will be pleasantly surprised, and that a lot of folks who are -- for whatever reason -- rooting for this fight to fail gloriously are going to be one of two things: (1) Disappointed, or (2) As thick as they are now, meaning that a respectable number will be talked up like some massive failure by people who don't understand what they're talking about.

I'm guessing about 550K for this show and 500K for UFC. Believe it or not, I actually think there are that many people out there and maybe more that are totally willing to buy one of the two shows tomorrow night.