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.