We have an absolutely stacked month here, quite possibly the best month of boxing since Bad Left Hook has started this feature.  There are probably about five fights this month that don't even make it on the poll that would have been likely winners in some other months.

Previous winners:

January - Timothy Bradley TD-10 Devon Alexander (30%)

February -  Brandon Rios TKO-10 Miguel Acosta (59%)

March - (Tie) Roman Gonzalez UD-12 Chango Vargas / Andy Lee TKO-10 Craig McEwan (25%)

And the nominees for this month are...

Hernan "Tyson" Marquez TKO-11 Luis "El Nica" Concepcion - After a crazy first round in which both men were knocked down, this one turned into a war, with lots of ebb and flow in the early rounds.  Whenever one fighter started to take control, the other would land a few powerful shots to get back in the fight.  In the second half of the bout, Marquez started to wear down El Nica, eventually getting a controversial stoppage where the referee stepped in during the middle of a punch by Concepcion.

Marcos Maidana UD-12 Erik Morales - Since losing the third fight of his trilogy against Manny Pacquiao, common logic dictated that Morales was toast.  For one night, the veteran warrior turned up the heat and pulled out one more great performance, albeit in a losing effory.  Maidana was himself - unrelenting and powerful - but Morales used his craftiness to war back and make a nearly even fight, despite having a swollen eye for nearly the entire fight.

Victor Ortiz UD-12 Andre Berto - In his first fight at welterweight, Victor Ortiz proved that's probably where he should have been fighting all along.  From the start, he came out aggressive, knocking down Berto in the first round and dominating the first two and a half.  Berto showed some life by returning the favor in the third, and while he never fully recovered from getting hurt in the first, he continued to fight aggressively and exchange hard punches with Ortiz in the middle of the ring.  While there were a few momentum shifts, Ortiz was mostly able to stay in control to become the new kid on the block at welterweight.

Orlando Salido TKO-8 Juan Manuel Lopez - Part of what makes Lopez so exciting to watch is his vulnerability, and unfortunately for him, that was on full display here, with the Puerto Rican earning his first career loss.  Salido was able to draw Lopez into a brawl and consistently hurt him, eventually forcing a somewhat controversial stoppage that probably robbed Salido of a true knockout.

Francisco Leal SD-10 Robert Marroquin - This was supposed to be a major step up for prospect Marroquin, and it turned out to be an even sterner test than expected.  While Marroquin was the better boxer, Leal wouldn't back down and fought hard and dirty, exchanging hard shots with his fists and causing some cuts and swelling with his head.  Looking very beaten up, Marroquin didn't back down, and continued to brawl instead of box, which led to a very entertaining bout.

Stephen Smith MD-12 John Simpson - In 24 collective rounds, these two men have fought hard and nearly even, with Smith barely earning the victory both times.  There was a lot of back and forth action, and both fighters stayed busy throughout.  After appearing to run out of gas mid-fight, Smith was able to come back strong in the later rounds to nick the fight.

Adrian Hernandez TKO-11 Gilberto Keb Baas - I haven't caught this one yet, but it was another very strong fight, and I'll go with Scott's words here:

Baas held up with Hernandez in the early rounds, but eventually found himself on the receiving end of many hard right hands. Though Baas wouldn't go down or even so much as back off for more than a moment, the fight was stopped after 10 rounds, with an exhausted Baas conceding defeat to his stronger foe.

Honorable mentions: Darren Barker UD-12 Domenico Spada, Chris John UD-12 Daud Yordan, Luis Cruz UD-10 Martin Honorio, Lee Purdy TKO-5 Craig Watson, Vic Darchinyan TD-5 Yonnhy Perez, Omar Narvaez UD-12 Cesar Seda, Yota Sato UD-10 Kohei Kono, Nobuhiro Ishida TKO-1 James Kirkland, Jhonny Gonzalez TKO-4 Hozumi Hasegawa, Toshiaki Nishioka TKO-9 Mauricio Javier Munoz, Hank Lundy UD-10 Patrick Lopez.

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

July: Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs (43%)

August: Giovanni Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon (44%)

September: Ricky Burns UD12 Roman Martinez (42%)

October: Toshiaki Nishioka UD12 Rendall Munroe (39%)

November: Juan Manuel Marquez TKO9 Michael Katsidis (53%)

Well folks, might as well just call this one the fight of the year poll.  The sport gift wrapped some great fights in a gigantic bow and truly gave us a December to remember.  There were at least three true fight of the year candidates in the month, and in just about every publication I've seen, one of those three fights actually was named the fight of the year.  Even if every single fight can't be a FOTY candidate, there are still plenty of others that deserve some recognition as well, listed in the honorable mentions.

Humberto Soto UD-12 Urbano Antillon - Moved up to headline status of a small pay per view at the last minute, these two Mexican warriors produced Bad Left Hook's fight of the year.  Both men stuck to what they do best - Soto as the boxer-puncher, Antillon as the slugger - and did not let up for twelve full rounds.  More often than not, Soto was able to come out of the round as the winner by a small margin, but as the fight wore on, Antillon continued to get stronger even as he grew more bloodied.  As with the other two fight of the month candidates, there were some serious dramatics here as Antillon seemed that he may come from behind to pull off the knockout win.  Several of his shots in the 11th and 12th seemed to hurt Soto, but Soto fought fire with fire, ensuring that the action didn't stop at any point in the fight.

Abner Mares SD-12 Vic Darchinyan - In a fight that drew a lot of parallels to Pacquiao-Marquez I, this brought us a matchup between two boxer-punchers, one of whose trademark is to be aggressive and fire punches from all angles, while the trademark of the other has become smart counterpunching with the ability and willingness to brawl when need be.  Like the other fight, Mares had to overcome a large deficit early, and the forces in the ring were largely conspiring against him.  After a huge gash was opened on Mares's forehead due to an accidental butt in the first, Mares was knocked down for the first time in his career in the second and was probably wrongly deducted a point in the fourth.  With the referee seemingly intervening at will to give Darchinyan's style as much of an advantage as possible, and with Darchinyan having a large early lead, Mares chose to war it out, with both fighters landing lots of hard, clean punches on each other in nearly every round.  The suspense was palpable - could Mares, obviously the better boxer, overcome his early deficit?  Could he avoid getting the fight stopped due to the cut?  Could he get Darchinyan to slow down and lay off the pressure?  After about eight rounds of back and forth action and about six consecutive rounds that either man arguably won, his body attack finally did start to slow down the much older Darchinyan, and Mares was able to overcome the Armenian's pressure, winning a very narrow decision in a fight it seemed he had won, but with a major risk that the cards could come out the other way.

Amir Khan UD-12 Marcos Maidana - Going into this bout, everyone who seriously follows the sport knew this was a battle of Khan's chin against Maidana's power and relentlessness.  Both men brought everything they had to the table, and it created a great style matchup with a lot of momentum swings. Early in the fight, Khan looked out of Maidana's league, peppering him with bunches of lightning fast shots and knocking him down in the first round with a body shot that seriously debilitated the Argentine.  By the fourth, however, Maidana figured out how to better cut off the ring and deal with Khan's speed.  This led to stretches where Khan would clown Maidana with quick punches, followed by Maidana plugging away on the inside, nailing Khan with uppercuts almost at will.  Khan's chin basically held up until the 10th round, when a right hand very badly hurt Khan and sent him into survival mode for two minutes.  Khan managed to survive and even fight back into the last two rounds, and he took the close but clear decision.

Honorable mentions: Marco Huck SD-12 Denis Lebedev; Ramon Garcia UD-12 Omar Soto; Bernard Hopkins D-12 Jean Pascal; John Simpson UD-12 Martin Lindsay; Joseph Agbeko UD-12 Yonnhy Perez; Ed Paredes SD-12 Antonio Pitalua; Lateef Kayode KO-6 Ed Perry.

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

July: Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs (43%)

August: Giovanni Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon (44%)

September: Ricky Burns UD12 Roman Martinez (42%)

October: Toshiaki Nishioka UD12 Rendall Munroe (39%)

After a couple of relatively light months, this was a month that finally lived up to expectations.  In addition to several entertaining major fights, there were a few solid sleepers, including a number of fights that don't even end up making the poll this month.

Juan Manuel Lopez RTD8 Rafael Marquez - For eight rounds, this was a fierce war, with both men trying to do as much damage to the other as possible.  In the early rounds, it seemed that the much smaller Marquez was mostly able to keep up with Lopez punch for punch, and both men landed flush shot after flush shot.  As the fight wore on, it became apparent that Lopez was just too much fresher, and he began to pull away more and more each round until Marquez retired with a shoulder injury.

Manny Pacquiao UD12 Antonio Margarito - This was a complete one-sided beatdown, but it was both an entertaining beatdown, as well as a beatdown of someone a lot of folks wanted to see get beat down.  Using incredible angles and immense offensive output, Pacquiao managed to almost completely neutralize Margarito's offense and dominate the former "most avoided fighter".  There were a few times where there was some suspense because Pacquiao got caught up against the ropes, but much of that suspense was gone by the later rounds, once it was apparent that Pacquiao could take Margarito's best punches just fine.

Hozumi Hasegawa UD12 Juan Carlos Burgos - Hozumi jumped up two weight classes to take on Burgos for a vacant featherweight title.  While Hasegawa still was able to win, he looked just that much slower and that much less able to take a punch than he had in the past, making this a very exciting fight.  Hasegawa is a very pretty boxer, but occasionally Burgos would start landing, and Hozumi's tendency to brawl would come to the forefront.  Very competitive and entertaining rounds 7 and 11 were among the best fo the year. 

Andre Ward UD12 Sakio Bika - While I'm sure there are some who thought this was the worst fight of the month, for others it was a thing of beauty.  This was dirty inside fighting to the max, but it wasn't a John Ruiz style hugfest.  Rather, there was a full on chess match happening inside, with each fighter constantly jockeying for position and throwing (and frequently landing) hard shots even when the other arm was tied up.  People were expecting the dirtiest fight of the year, and they got just that, although the referee let both men go, meaning there was mostly a back and forth retaliation of fouls. One threw a headbutt, the other threw a headbutt.  One threw an elbow, the other threw an elbow.  All the while, both guys were throwing a lot of hard leather as well, in a bout that was much closer than the final scores indicated.

Juan Manuel Marquez TKO9 Michael Katsidis - Marquez mostly dominated this fight, but there were copious exchanges of punches between the two men.  The moment of greatest suspense came in the third round, when Katsidis knocked down Marquez.  But by the end of the round, it was back to business as usual, with both men focused on offense, but Marquez's offense being just that much shaper than that of Katsidis.  From that point forward, Marquez's slightly better defense and much greater accuracy helped carry the day, until finally he put Katsidis away in the 9th round.

Honorable mentions: Raul Martinez SD12 Rodrigo Guerrero; Sergio Martinez KO2 Paul Williams; Giovanni Segura RTD7 Chango Vargas; Alberto Garza SD12 Justin Savi; Derry Matthews SD3 Choi Tseveenpurev; Choi Tseveenpurev UD3 Ben Murphy; Robert Stieglitz UD12 Enrique Ornelas; Enad Licina UD12 Felix Cora Jr.; Shawn Estrada UD6 Tony Hirsch; Glen Johnson TKO8 Allan Green; Gavin Rees TKO11 John Watson; Willie Casey TKO4 Paul Hyland

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

July: Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs (43%)

August: Giovanni Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon (44%)

September: Ricky Burns UD12 Roman Martinez (42%)

The worst month of the year in boxing is finally over, but while pickings were slim on American telecasts, pickings are even slimmer for this poll. 

Hugo Cazares TKO9 Alberto Rossel - On paper, this looked like a nothing defense, but Cazares is quickly becoming a must-watch fighter who lets his fights get exciting even when they don't need to be. Rossel, a Peruvian journeyman, started a bit slow but then became aggressive, pressing forward.  Cazares kept countering Rossel and occasionally mixing it up with Rossel, and for a number of rounds, no matter how hard Rossel got tagged, he'd immediately come back with more punches in a gritty performance.  Youtube starts here.  

Lucian Bute KO9 Jesse Brinkley - This was the closest thing to an American-televised fight this month that actually looked like a fight.  Brinkley was tough and even managed to win a round or two against Bute, who had an off night, but tough isn't enough against a fighter as talented as Bute.  Bute knocked down Brinkley in the fifth, who beat the "over" because he spit out his mouthpiece and had his tape re-wrapped before resuming action, but it didn't take too long before Brinkley tasted the canvas again and the fight was stopped. Youtube starts here. 

Toshiaki Nishioka UD12 Rendall Munroe - This one wasn't particularly close either, but the boxing binman charged hard early and gave it his all late.  Unfortunately, the speed and power of Nishioka was just too much, and the Japanese fighter was able to emerge victorious by a wide margin. Youtube starts here. 

Jesus Gelez MD12 Omar Soto - The first of two pretty decent fights at last weekend's WBO convention. Soto took the fight on less than a week's notice, but put up a spirited challenge, trying to technically outbox Gelez. Gelez fought more aggressively and seemed to land the harder punches, but about once a round, the two would really start to mix things up and exchange punches in the middle of the ring.  The last few rounds here.  

Raul Garcia SD12 Luis De La Rosa - Garcia barely outlasted De La Rosa in a battle of attrition that headlined the final Top Rank Live of the month.  The two stayed inside and both did considerable attacking, although Garcia seemed to have just a little bit more left than his Colombian opponent and pulled off the interim title win on away turf.

Honorable mentions: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam UD12 Suriyan Por Chokchai (which I've read was a great fight, but haven't seen a copy of anywhere), Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam UD12 Advantil Khurtsidze (same), Nilson Tapia UD10 Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Juan Antonio Rodriguez KO3 Juan Castaneda, Daniel Geale TKO12 Roman Karmazin.

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

July: Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs (43%)

August: Giovanni Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon (44%)

This month, there were about ten cards that aired in the U.S. featuring about 40 fights, and yet it's the Europeans that dominate this month's poll.  All of two fights that aired on American TV make it into this month's poll, but those who were glued to their computer screen during the afternoon (or live in the UK) were rewarded.  The big winner of the month was Frank Warren, who promoted four of these bouts, three on the same card.  Fortunately for the fans, he's put all of those fights up on his Youtube channel, so you can still catch the fights even if you didn't trawl for a stream when the events were taking place live.

Ricky Burns UD12 Roman Martinez -Probably the top candidate for upset of the year, titlist Martinez came into Burns' home turf, and at times the Scot made the power punching Puerto Rican look downright rudimentary.  Burns was able to outbox Martinez for most of the night, but he wasn't shying away from contact either, and both fighters took plenty of lumps.  It was even more exciting in the heat of the moment, knowing that the major underdog was likely to pull off a major upset, but also knowing that Martinez had the one punch power to turn things around at any moment.

Brandon Rios DQ7 Anthony Peterson - HBO made it clear that the night was supposed to be Peterson's coming out party, but Rios had none of it.  After getting outboxed in the first round, Rios turned up the heat, coming forward and apparently getting stronger as the fight wore on.  There were some truly exciting moments when the two men exchanged, although Rios was able to get the better of most of them.  Unfortunately, the fight was also marred by excessive low blows, with Peterson getting disqualified after landing his seventh or so blatant nut shot.

Lukas Konecny TKO6 Matthew Hall - There's always something fun about watching two guys who might look like twins (if you squint a little) beating the hell out of each other.  While the result of the fight was never particularly in doubt, both men fought very hard, staying inside each other and focusing on high volume punching to the body.  Unfortunately for Hall, Konecny's punching was that much harder, and his defense that much tighter, allowing him to come out with the knockout victory.

Nathan Cleverly TKO9 Karo Murat - Cleverly was coming into this fight with major height and reach advantages, and thankfully for the fans, he chose not to use them.  Rather than trying to box smart from the outside, Cleverly was able to slowly wear down Murat by fighting with smart pressure, mixing it up with combinations and picking his spots to sit on his punches.  Murat had no modesty with his punches either, mixing it up more than he normally would with his turtle shell defensive style.  While several rounds were close, as the fight wore on it was apparent who was the better man, and Clev had been dominating for a couple rounds before trainer Ulli Wegner threw in the towel.

Derek Chisora TKO9 Sam Sexton - The third candidate from the Magnificent Seven card was also the commentators' favorite of the night.  While neither man is the most skilled in the world, it's nice to see two in shape heavyweights actually boxing each other while throwing punches with bad intent.  After a few close rounds, both men started to fade a bit, although Chisora was able to find his second wind and keep laying on the punishment.  In the end, he was able to score the stoppage after overwhelming Sexton.

Krzyzstof Wlodarczyk UD12 Jason Robinson - This was supposed to be a walkover for Diablo, but Robinson, having won only three times against marginal competition in the last eight years, came out to fight and made his presence known early.  There were times when the fight got tactical, but each time it looked like it would turn into a jabfest, one of the men came forward and the two would exchange in the middle of the ring.  In a year full of sleepers, here's another one.

Ramon Garcia MD12 Manuel Vargas - For 12 rounds, Chango just didn't have an off switch.  He came forward the entire fight, unloading lots of punches, successful to varying degrees.  Garcia actually fought his best backing up, keeping Chango at a distance, but every 30 seconds or so the fighter in him would make an appearance, and he'd come forward and the two would exchange punches, each hitting the other more often than not.  In a close fight, a bloodied and battered Vargas came forward and went for the knockout in the 12th, with Garcia deciding to battle it out rather than play it safe for the second half of the round, but he was able to stay on his feet and come out with a razor thin decision.

Honorable mentions: John Murray TKO9 Andriy Kudryatsev; Humberto Soto UD12 Fidel Monterrosa; Saul Alvarez KO6 Carlos Baldomir; Jhonny Gonzalez TKO6 Jackson Asiku; Yuriorkis Gamboa UD12 Orlando Salido; Reyes Sanchez SD12 Daniel Estrada; Stephen Smith SD12 John Simpson; and Jan Zaveck MD12 Rafal Jackiewicz.

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

July: Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs (43%)

This month was somewhat of a rarity in terms of the fights this year so far.  The big fights this month were mostly the best fights this month.  No, there weren't any knock-down, drag-out brawls, but chances are, if you tuned in to boxing on a major network this month, you probably didn't leave disappointed.

Devon Alexander UD12 Andriy Kotelnik - While many were disappointed with the result, there wasn't much to be disappointed about by the fight itself.  Alexander kept up an extremely high workrate, but Kotelnik was adept at getting out of the way of most of the shots and landing hard counters.  This led to a good amount of back and forth action, although Alexander's workrateprevailed in the minds of the judges.

Tavoris Cloud UD12 Glen Johnson - This was a battle of two rugged, forward-moving fighters that mostly lived up to expectations.  Johnson did start to show his age some, wearing out at times and throwing arm punches about as often as he was turning his body into the shots, but he kept nearly every round competitive and was able to win four rounds on all three cards.  Cloud won the fight by fighting in spurts, but throwing effective combinations when he did go. Between the two fighters, nearly 1,500 punches were thrown, a huge number for light heavyweights and nearly twice as many as the next week's championship bout between Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal.

Jean Pascal TD11 Chad Dawson - Pascal scored an upset to remember in the most significant bout of the month.  Both men fought decently enough, with Dawson slightly more active and Pascal coming out with hard combinations.  However, Dawson was reluctant to do anything other than defend whenever he came under fire, and failed to follow up on shots regularly, so Pascal built up a decent lead.  Things were just starting to really heat up in the 11th when a clash of heads led to a massive gash, stopping the fight and causing it to go to the cards.

Miguel Vazquez UD12 Ji Hoon Kim - This is about as competitive as a fight can get where you can still call it a domination with a straight face.  Vazquez proved to just be the superior technician and defensive fighter, but it wasn't for Kim's lack of trying.  Both fighters gave it their all for 12 rounds, but in the end Kim's power wasn't enough to be a game changer against the sturdy chinned Vazquez.

Josesito Lopez UD8 Marvin Cordova Jr. -This one was a decent scrap with a lot of back and forth action.  Neither man had nearly enough regard for defense, and thus both fighters were able to land a lot of hard, clean shots.  Frequently, Lopez seemed to be in control, although Cordova was able to come back with his hard, cruder shots to take several of the rounds and make it close.

Tomasz Adamek UD12 Michael Grant - This really wasn't supposed to be much more than preparation to face tall heavyweights for Adamek, but it turned into something much more.  As has been his modus operandi at heavyweight, Adamek tried to stick and move, or at least get into a position to avoid the biggest of Grant's shots.  Still, Grant was able to land his fair share of hard shots, wearing down Adamek and rocking him at one point in the sixth.  In the 12th round, Grant went for broke, and an exhausted Adamek was barely able to survive his onslaught.

Giovani Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon - Usually, Calderon's game is shiftiness, to hit and not get hit, but this time he let himself get dragged into somewhat of a brawl, making for an entertaining fight.  In the early rounds, Calderon was landing the better shots, although Segura was getting to Calderon with his constant pressure.  As the fight wore on, Calderon was able to avoid fewer punches, leading to a lot of exchanges between the tiny, light-hitting Calderon and the power punching Segura.  Finally, Segura cornered Calderon in the 8th and landed a big body shot, sending Calderon to the mat.  While he probably could have gotten up, he knew it was futile at that point, and stayed down for the full 10 count.

Marcos Maidana UD12 DeMarcus Corley - Corley was supposed to be an easy defense of Maidana's interim title.  Maidana might be the biggest pound for pound puncher out there right now, and Corley was brutally knocked out not long ago, so it was a minor upset that this even went the distance.  After a slow initial stanza, Maidana started applying slow pressure on Corley, and even in his degraded state, Corley was able to avoid many of Maidana's shots, land hard and clean counterpunches, and land some lead punches of his own.  In the end, Maidana was able to walk away victorious, in part because he landed the bigger shots, knocking down Corley late and wobbling him several other times, and in part because he was the favorite fighting at home.

Honorable mentions: Marco Antonio Rubio TKO6 Jose Luis Zertuche, Cristobal Arreola UD12 Manuel Quezada, Eloy Perez KO5 Derrick Campos, Christopher Martin SD10 Chris Avalos, Joel Julio UD10 Jamaal Davis.

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

Lanardo Tyner TKO9 Antwone Smith - Tyner earned the best win of his career against Smith, who was clearly able to outbox Tyner from the outside, but his tendency to brawl inside led to a great fight where he was upset.  With very little clinching, the two leaned up against each other on the inside, attacking at will for eight rounds.  By the seventh, Smith was looking worse for wear and his left eye was swelling shut.  In the ninth, Tyner caught Smith with a hook to the body that knocked down Smith, and while he got up, he elected not to continue.

Juan Manuel Lopez TKO2 Bernabe Concepcion -It only lasted two rounds, but the first round was one of the more entertaining rounds of boxing this year.  Lopez nearly knocked out Concepcion in the first round, but Concepcion was able to get up, still clearly hurt.  With Lopez trying to get the quick knockout, he got overaggressive, and at the end of the round, Concepcion caught Lopez with a big left hook that surprised Lopez and sent him to the canvas.  Concepcion, however, never really recovered, and was knocked down twice more in the round, leading to the stoppage.

Matthew Hatton UD12 Yuriy Nuzhnenko - Hatton and former paper titlist Nuzhnenko fought in what appeared to be a back-and-forth battle in England for Hatton's European title.  Nuzhnenko shocked Hatton by knocking him down in the first round, but midway through the fight, Hatton started to take control as Nuzhnenko forgot how to use his right hand.  The scores ended up being much wider than anticipated, but the right man probably won.

Monte Barrett D12 David Tua - This was supposed to be a walkover for Tua, one of the biggest punchers of our generation.  Barrett had been stopped early in fights the last few times he stepped up, and early in the bout, it looked like that would be the result.  However, halfway through the fight, Tua tired out, and Barrett started to storm back.  Barrett was able to salvage a draw, and effectively end Tua's career as a top fighter, by shockingly knocking down the iron-chinned Tua for the first official time in his career in the 12th round.

Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs - For four rounds, this was one of the best tactical battles of the year.  Both fighters came in trying to do what they do best.  Jacobs intermittently boxed from the outside, and tried to load up with combinations and overwhelm Pirog with volume punching.  Pirog used upper body movement to avoid the brunt of Jacobs' flurries, and would come in with hard shots to the head and body while Jacobs wasn't throwing punches.  The "Golden Child" sometimes looked like he just couldn't figure out Pirog's ad lib style, and seemed frustrated by Pirog's defense.  The fight came to a sudden end in the fifth, when Pirog caught Jacobs with a big right hand that instantaneously knocked out Jacobs in a likely knockout of the year candidate.

Juan Manuel Marquez UD12 Juan Diaz - It wasn't the first fight, but there were still some moments of solid trading.  Rather than trying to pressure Marquez like he did in their first fight, Diaz tried to box from the outside, which led to an even more lopsided victory for Marquez.  Still, when Marquez opened up, there were some moments of vintage Marquez, and the two frequently went all out for the ten final seconds of the rounds.

Juan Alberto Rosas TKO6 Simphiwe Nongqayi - In a battle of two of the worst hairstyles in boxing (Nongqayi with his checkerboard dye job, and "Topo" Rosas with bangs, a rat tail, and an otherwise shaved head), the two fighters never took a step back except when they were pushed back or the referee separated them.  Both men worked at a furious rate, pounding each other to the body and head while mostly leaning up against each other.  By round four, neither guy was even trying to defend himself and both fighters probably landed well over 50 punches in the round. In the sixth round, a Topo body shot forced Nongqayi to take a knee, and while Nongqayi got up, his corner implored the referee to stop the fight. 

Honorable mentions: Dimitri Sartison UD12 Khoren Gevor, Ashley Theophane MD10 Delvin Rodriguez, Ramon Garcia Hirales SD12 Johnriel Casimero, Stuart Hall TKO10 Martin Power, Mike Dallas Jr. UD8 Lanard Lane, Timothy Bradley UD12 Luis Carlos Abregu, John Molina TKO11 Hank Lundy, Vladine Biosse UD8 Joe McReedy.

Previous winners:

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

The year started slow, got great for a few months, and seems to have gotten slow again.  The month started decent enough, with three of the fights on this list happening on the first weekend of the month.  There are two themes that have started to play out this year.  First, as has already been pointed out, the Super Six is finally starting to live up to its name.  The first round produced three mediocre fights, but if Ward-Green wins this month's poll, then all three second round bouts will have been a fight of the month.  Second, there has been an unusual number of great swing bouts.   If you asked me to list my top 10 fights of the year so far, three of them would be swing bouts that wouldn't have even aired on TV if earlier fights hadn't ended quickly (Okada-Arroyo, Luna-Luna and Estrada-Rivero).

Selcuk Aydin SD12 Jo Jo Dan - Turkish native Aydin was fighting in front of a home crowd for an interim title, and applied constant pressure on his Romanian opponent.  However, Dan did a good job defensively, and was able to counter Aydin quite a bit, nailing him with most of the telling shots.  Aydin ended up getting a hometown decision, which put somewhat of a damper on what was a pretty decent fight.

Sebastian Sylvester D12 Roman Karmazin - This was another one of those rough battles we've had a few of lately where one fighter was far more aggressive but less accurate, while the other fighter showed better defense and more precise punching.  Nearly every round came down to preferred style, as there were solid arguments for either fighter winning all but a few of the rounds. The final scores of the fight show just how difficult of a fight it was to score - 118-110 for Sylvester, 117-111 for Karmazin and 114-114.  If you haven't seen the fight, it's available for free viewing at Sauerland's website boxen.com.

Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman - It may not have been as competitive as some had hoped, but the old Miguel Cotto came out to fight.  New trainer Emmanuel Steward helped Cotto drop a few bad habits that he had developed while essentially training himself over the last couple years, and was able to stalk Foreman, winning virtually every round.  However, from the seventh on, Foreman showed a major display of guts, as he continued to fight on through a dislocated knee that kept giving out under him.

Takashi Okada UD4 McWilliams Arroyo - This one was a great back and forth war with a skill level of both fighters that you rarely see for a couple of novices.  Okada controlled the fight with his aggression early, including scoring a knockdown on the Puerto Rican Olympian.  Arroyo was able to bounce back some in the latter rounds, but Okada kept fighting hard.  If you haven't had the chance to see this four-rounder yet, the Youtube links are available in the comments to the linked post.

Andre Ward UD12 Allan Green - So it wasn't the prettiest fight in the world, but Ward so thoroughly shut down Green that it was almost surprising.  If you like lots of back and forth action, then this fight is probably nowhere near the top of your list; but if you love the chess match aspect of boxing, then you probably enjoyed Ward's tactical mastery and technical dominance in the fight.

Tyson Fury TKO9 John McDermott - This one didn't have the world's highest level of boxing, but it did have some major swings in momentum.  Early on, Fury was able to outbox Big John.  By the sixth round, Fury was completely out of gas, and McDermott came back to win the round pretty handily, looking like he might be able to hang on.  However, McDermott himself gassed out soon after that, and with neither fighter having much energy left, Fury was able to outlast McDermott in a war of attrition.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. UD12 John Duddy - This fight involved two guys who like blocking punches with their faces, but whose last major televised fights were stinkers, so it could have gone either way.  It wasn't an all-action brawl, but Chavez was able to outquick Duddy in a relatively entertaining fight.  In the early rounds, Duddy applied a lot of pressure, forcing Chavez to trade, but as the fight wore on, Chavez became more effective at controlling from the outside, leaving Chavez to win a decision.

Honorable mentions: Tomas Villa UD8 Salvador Sanchez II, Pablo Cesar Cano SD10 Oscar Leon, Sherzod Husanov MD10 Jhon Berrio, Omar Nino UD12 Rodel Mayol, Brian Vera KO3 Sebastian Demers, Alex Leapai TKO4 Travis Walker.